History Creator / StevenSeagal

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with Steve Segal, a former]] [[Creator/Pixar]] [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant animator from 1995-1998.]]

There is also an energy drink made in his name: Steven Seagal's Lightning Bolt.

* {{Acrofatic}}: More apparent in his later films, due to a combination of his aging and neglecting to keep himself physically fit. His characters are frequently depicted as being frighteningly fast and adept at fighting, while being visibly overweight and out of shape at the same time. Ultimately subverted with Seagal himself as all of his action scenes are filmed with {{Stunt Double}}s fighting in his place, while he's obviously lethargic and placid in the shots that do actually focus on him.

* GirlyRun: Despite hyping himself up offscreen as an ultra-macho badass, he has a habit of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLKoXlRCpzg running with his hands flailing wildly]], causing mockers to compare it to this trope. This is one of the reasons why there aren't any shots of him running in his more recent movies (except through body doubles).

* GutturalGrowler: In keeping with the "cool" characters he typically plays, Seagal delivers his line in a deep, gravelly manner, though it tends to come across as Guttural ''Mumbler'' in many of his late-career films due to his aging and DullSurprise.

** Also, this trope is the reason is the fact that his Aikido fighting style is, in reality, about personal enlightenment and understanding nonviolence and is known for being largely ineffective for self-defense or combat sports. This fact about Aikido ''heavily'' clashes with the excessive brutality shown in Seagal's films.

* RecklessGunUsage: Compared to other action stars, Seagal is notorious for being very sloppy in the way he handles guns on screen, ''as the main character.'' He loosely carries them in his hands, often swaps grips while keeping his finger on the trigger, shoots blindly, and sweeps the muzzle around without seeming regard for who might be in front of him. Despite all of Seagal's characters having law enforcement or military backgrounds, they appear to have forgotten basic gun safety entirely.

* BoringInvincibleHero: His characters almost always win fights with minimal effort because his contracts ''legally stipulate'' that he must be victorious. The rare exceptions to this are in films produced by companies based in countries where it's prohibitively difficult for him to sue[[note]]even then, he'll avoid having to shoot his character being defeated by having stunt doubles do it for him[[/note]].

Steven Frederic Seagal (born April 10, 1952 in Lansing, Michigan) is an American actor, producer, writer, musician, businessman, 7th-dan black belt in UsefulNotes/{{Aikido}}, [[RealityTV reserve deputy sheriff]], father of seven, practicing [[{{UsefulNotes/Buddhism}} Buddhist]], "cultural ambassador" of the United States to Russia (according to the Kremlin, at least), and guardian (legally and literally) of the only child of the 10th Panchen Lama of Tibet. According to Website/ThatOtherWiki, he was also the first foreigner to operate an Aikido dojo in Japan.

For the last few decades, the ponytailed star has neck-punched his way though dozens of movies since his late-[[TheEighties '80s]] debut in ''Film/AboveTheLaw1988'', which was directed by Creator/AndrewDavis. His films largely consist of him shrugging off bullets, taking on dozens of mooks singlehandedly and eventually killing the BigBad in brutal fashion. ''[[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill Several times over]]''.

For the last few decades, the ponytailed star has neck-punched his way though dozens of movies since his late-[[TheEighties eighties]] debut in ''Film/AboveTheLaw1988'', which was directed by Creator/AndrewDavis. His films largely consist of him shrugging off bullets, taking on dozens of mooks singlehandedly and eventually killing the BigBad in brutal fashion. ''[[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill Several times over]]''.

After the success of his first movie Seagal went on to make box office hits ''Film/HardToKill'', ''Film/MarkedForDeath'' and ''Film/OutForJustice'', securing his place as a top action star during the late 80's and early 90's. Before his limitations became obvious it even seemed that he might make the transition from exploitation films to serious drama, à la Creator/MickeyRourke. In his review of ''Above the Law'', Creator/RogerEbert even claimed that "[Seagal] can play tender and he can play smart, two notes often missing on the [[Creator/CharlesBronson Bronson]] and [[Creator/SylvesterStallone Stallone]] accordions".

The apex of his success came with his most well-known movie ''Film/UnderSiege'', which was also directed by Davis. Unfortunately, this proved to be the beginning of the end of his big box office success. The 1994 film ''Film/OnDeadlyGround'' was a pet project of the actor, with a large budget and even an all-star cast. Co-produced, directed and starring Steven Seagal, the movie was a BoxOfficeBomb and got torn apart by critics.

* PromotedFanboy: The reason why he appears in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarships'' is because he's apparently a ''big'' fan of the Iowa-Class Battleship, ''USS Missouri'', AKA "Mighty Mo". In order for Wargaming to have him even do the advertising and voice a captain required Wargaming to make the ''Missouri'' playable, as opposed to just using the generic Iowa-class tier IX. This could also count as an ActorAllusion, since ''Film/UnderSiege'' was set aboard the ''Missouri''.

* CharacterShilling: All of his movies, especially his DirectToVideo ones, feature at least one or two characters talking about how incredibly amazing he is, often directly to his character.

Steven Frederic Seagal (born April 10, 1952 in Lansing, Michigan) is an American actor, producer, writer, musician, activist, 7th-dan black belt in UsefulNotes/{{Aikido}}, [[RealityTV reserve deputy sheriff]], father of seven, [[{{UsefulNotes/Buddhism}} Buddhist]], "cultural ambassador" of the United States to Russia (according to the Kremlin, at least), and guardian (legally and literally) of the only child of the 10th Panchen Lama of Tibet. According to Website/ThatOtherWiki he was also the first foreigner to operate an aikido dojo in Japan.

* GirlyRun: He has a habit of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLKoXlRCpzg running with his hands flailing wildly]], causing mockers to compare it to this trope. This is one of the reasons why there aren't any shots of him running in his more recent movies (except through body doubles).

* StoutStrength: In his DirectToVideo years, he's put on a considerable amount of weight. However, this doesn't make any one of his characters any less of an InvincibleHero, if anything making them even stronger as they seem to dispatch their foes quicker and easier than ever.

* RecklessGunUsage: He's very sloppy in the way he handles guns on screen. He loosely carries them in his hands and often swaps grips while keeping his finger on the trigger. He also shoots blindly and sweeps the muzzle around without seeming regard for who might be in front of him.

* InvincibleHero: Seagal is well-known for insisting that his characters be unstoppable killing machines who are almost never seriously challenged by any opponent he faces, with almost every fight ending up being an utter CurbStompBattle in his favor (seriously, if you ever see him take so much as a punch in any of his later films, it'll be a cold day in Hell). This is why, in ''Film/ExecutiveDecision'', his character makes a HeroicSacrifice to save others rather than, as was originally in the script, have his head explode from air pressure. Seagal reputedly went on a one-man strike until this was changed.

* DullSurprise: Seagal maintains his cool, gritty action hero persona in just about everything he does, whether it's film, commercials, or ''Saturday Night Live'', and refuses to settle for anything less, [[TheComicallySerious which often makes his works unintentionally funny as a result.]]

* {{Flynning}}: A staple of his characters' sword or knife fighting for RuleOfCool, as demonstrated in movies like ''The Asian Connection'' or ''A Good Man'', where blade duels are drawn-out with excessively flashy theatrics, typically a lot of wild swinging and clashing.

* WolverinePublicity: Many of his late-career movies have been criticized as only billing him on the cover to draw in attention, while Seagal himself usually has a very minimal appearance in them. This is most apparent in the movies where Seagal doesn't play the protagonist, especially the post-Keoni Waxman works. This isn't anything new, as it stretches as far back as ''Film/ExecutiveDecision'', where he was given top billing alongside Kurt Russell despite his character dying early on in the film (though some releases excised him from the poster).

* SignatureMove: Almost all his films will have him use wrist and arm locks and twists to immobilize opponents or flip them over or twist their body in some way as is standard in Aikido.

The apex of his success came with his most well known movie ''Film/UnderSiege'', which was also directed by Davis. Unfortunately this proved to be the beginning of the end of his big box office success. The 1994 film ''Film/OnDeadlyGround'' was a pet project of the actor, with a large budget and even an all-star cast. Co-produced, directed and starring Steven Seagal, the movie was a BoxOfficeBomb and got torn apart by critics.

Despite ''Film/UnderSiege2DarkTerritory'' being successful, Seagal's movies rapidly declined in financial success. He seemed to make a comeback with ''Film/ExitWounds'', but his follow-up ''Film/HalfPastDead'' was a critical and commercial flop and since then most of his films have gone DirectToVideo. He made a proposal to have American releases of Tony Jaa's Thai smash-hit ''Film/OngBak'' re-cut with him in the prologue and epilogue as the MightyWhitey who trained him into a Muay Thai master, but the idea was rejected. Later he was seen in the reality TV show ''Steven Seagal: Lawman'' and making his return to the big screen in 2010 as the main villain of Robert Rodriguez's ''Film/{{Machete}}''. He also recorded two albums: a debut "Songs from the Crystal Cave" and straight blues "Mojo Priest". He also created and co-wrote many episodes of the TV series ''True Justice'' (starring guess who).