Steven Seagal (born April 10, 1951) is a popular action movie actor and an 7th dan black belt in aikido.
He was born in Lansing, Michigan. His official film Bio claims that he went to Japan at the age of 17. However, this is inconsistent with an interview he gave in Aikido Magazine , in which he claimed to have given demonstrations in Japanese Deer Park (a former small amusement park in Southern California) in “the early 70s". Ray Van De Walker claims to have met Steven Segal at the Orange County Aikikai, a prominent aikido dojo, around 1974, where he was known as “Steve, who gives demos at Japanese Deer Park.” It seems unlikely that a 17-year old, a minor in the U.S., would be allowed to emigrate to Asia.
Ray’s memory of him may be worth nothing, “He would come to Wednesday night practice. He tended to wear some weird striped robe thing that Japanese Deer Park asked him to wear. In practice, when he threw me, I couldn’t feel his hands, which means that he was very skillful at blending ki.” In Japan, Seagal taught English, and studied zen, aikido, kendo, judo and karate. He is said to have become adept at all of them. At some time later, he opened a martial arts school in Japan, the first westerner to do so. At this time, he married Miyako Fujitani but eventually left for America without her, pretending that he was not married at all. In 1984, he wed former Days of Our Lives actress Adrienne La Russa, but annulled the marriage when news of his marriage to Miyako (and, by extension, his bigamy) came to light.
In an interview in November 1997 for the Shambala Sun , he claimed to have developed his life-long interest in zen originally through a study of acupuncture. He also claimed that several Tibetan lamas suffering from malnutrition and abuse were sent to him, and he helped establish a safe house for them.