Steven Frederic Seagal is an American actor, producer, screenwriter, martial artist, and musician. A 7th-dan black belt in aikido, he began his adult life as a martial arts instructor in Japan where he became the first American to teach in an aikido dojo. He later moved to Los Angeles where he continued teaching aikido. In 1988, Seagal made his acting debut in Above the Law, which is regarded as the first American film to feature aikido in fight sequences.
Above the Law, also known as Nico: Above the Law, or simply Nico, is a 1988 American crime action thriller film co-written, co-produced and directed by Andrew Davis. It marked the film debut of Steven Seagal, who also produced the film alongside Davis, and stars Seagal alongside Pam Grier, Sharon Stone, Ron Dean and Henry Silva. Seagal plays Nico Toscani, an ex-CIA agent, an Aikido specialist and a Chicago policeman who discovers a conspiracy upon investigating the mysterious shipment of military explosives seized from a narcotics dealer.
Marked for Death is a 1990 American action film directed by Dwight H. Little. The film stars Steven Seagal as John Hatcher, a former DEA troubleshooter who returns to his Illinois hometown to find it taken over by a posse of vicious Jamaican drug dealers led by Screwface. Using a combination of fear and Obeah, a Jamaican syncretic religion of West African and Caribbean origin similar to Haitian vodou and Santería, Screwface attempts to control the drug trade in Lincoln Heights.
Under Siege is a 1992 action thriller film directed by Andrew Davis from a screenplay by J. F. Lawton. It stars Steven Seagal, Tommy Lee Jones, Gary Busey, and Erika Eleniak. Seagal plays Casey Ryback, a former Navy SEAL, who must fend off a group of mercenaries after they commandeer the U.S. Navy battleship Missouri.
On Deadly Ground is a 1994 American environmental action adventure film directed, co-produced by, and starring Steven Seagal, and co-starring Michael Caine, Joan Chen, John C. McGinley and R. Lee Ermey. As of 2024, it is Seagal's only directorial effort and features a minor appearance by Billy Bob Thornton in one of his early roles. Seagal plays Forrest Taft, an expert firefighter who chooses to fight back against the environmental destruction caused by his ruthless former employer (Caine). On Deadly Ground was theatrically released in the United States on February 18, 1994, by Warner Bros. It garnered negative reviews from critics and grossed $78.1 million worldwide on a $50 million production budget.
Under Siege 2: Dark Territory is a 1995 American action thriller film directed by Geoff Murphy, starring Steven Seagal as the ex-Navy SEAL, Casey Ryback. Set on board a train traveling through the Rocky Mountains from Denver to Los Angeles, it is the sequel to the 1992 film Under Siege also starring Seagal. The title refers to the railroading term that the subject train was travelling through dark territory, a section of railroad track that has no train signals and in which communications between train dispatchers and the railroad engineers were impossible.
Fire Down Below is a 1997 American action film starring Steven Seagal and directed by Félix Enríquez Alcalá in his directorial debut. The film also includes cameos by country music performers Randy Travis, Mark Collie, Ed Bruce, Marty Stuart and Travis Tritt, and country-rocker and the Band member Levon Helm, as well as Kris Kristofferson in a supporting role. Steven Seagal plays Jack Taggert, an EPA agent who investigates a Kentucky mine and helps locals stand up for their rights. The film was released in the United States on September 5, 1997.
Prince of Central Park is a 2000 movie. The cast included Kathleen Turner, Danny Aiello, Harvey Keitel, and Cathy Moriarty. It was written and directed by John Leekley, and produced by Julius R. Nasso, Steven Seagal, and John P. Gulino. The film is a remake of the 1977 TV movie The Prince of Central Park, starring Ruth Gordon and T.J. Hargrave; both films were based on the novel The Prince of Central Park by Evan Rhodes.
Stephen Joseph Cannell was an American television producer, writer, novelist, actor, and founder of Cannell Entertainment and The Cannell Studios.
Klasky-Csupo, Inc. is an American animation studio located in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1982 by producer Arlene Klasky and her then-husband, Hungarian animator Gábor Csupó in a spare room of their apartment and grew to 550 artists, creative workers and staff in an animation facility in Hollywood.
Michael Joseph Connelly is an American author of detective novels and other crime fiction, notably those featuring LAPD Detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch and criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller. Connelly is the bestselling author of 38 novels and one work of non-fiction, with over 74 million copies of his books sold worldwide and translated into 40 languages. His first novel, The Black Echo, won the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best First Novel in 1992. In 2002, Clint Eastwood directed and starred in the movie adaptation of Connelly's 1997 novel, Blood Work. In March 2011, the movie adaptation of Connelly's novel The Lincoln Lawyer starred Matthew McConaughey as Mickey Haller. Connelly was the President of the Mystery Writers of America from 2003 to 2004.
Interscope Communications, Inc. was a motion picture production company founded in 1979 by Ted Field. It soon became a division of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment.
Mercenary for Justice is a 2006 action thriller film directed and shot by Don E. FauntLeRoy. It stars Steven Seagal, Luke Goss, Jacqueline Lord and Roger Guenveur Smith. The film was released direct-to-video on April 18, 2006. Principal photography was on location in Cape Town, South Africa.
Mojo Priest is the second album by actor Steven Seagal, released in April 2006 by Seagal's own Steamroller Productions company. While his debut album Songs from the Crystal Cave featured a mixture of musical styles, Mojo Priest is a blues album, and unlike his debut, the album spawned a concert tour.
Julius R. "Jules" Nasso is an Italian-American film producer, pharmacologist, and businessman. He is a 20-year Directors Guild of America member. His production of Narc (2002), starring Jason Patric, Ray Liotta, and Busta Rhymes, which was nominated for the Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Award and won the Special Prize Policier Award at the Cognac Film Festival in France.
20th Television, Inc. is an American television production company which is a division of Disney Television Studios, part of the Disney Entertainment division of The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment distributes the television series produced by 20th Television in home media formats through the 20th Century Home Entertainment banner.
Primo Cassarino is a New York mobster who became an enforcer for Gambino crime family, and extorted money from actor Steven Seagal.
Steven Seagal: Lawman is an American reality television series that aired on A&E for its first two seasons and Reelz for its third. It stars actor, martial artist and musician Steven Seagal, performing his duties as a reserve deputy sheriff in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana and Maricopa County, Arizona. It premiered on December 2, 2009.
Anthony Marinelli is an American musician, composer, synth programmer, record producer and conductor. In his early career, he composed and performed accompaniment on the synthesizer for albums including Michael Jackson's Thriller (1982). Marinelli has also recorded with Lionel Richie, Kenny Loggins, Herb Alpert, Supertramp, The Crystal Method, Billy Childs and James Brown.
Charles Arthur Berg is a film producer and actor who has been in the film industry since the mid to late 1990s. His work as a producer includes Chupacabra: Dark Seas, Skeleton Man and The Butcher. Work as a line producer includes Ring of Darkness, The Sisterhood and Witches of the Caribbean. As an actor, he has had roles in The Butcher, Polanski Unauthorized and Blind Injustice.
