“Instead of getting married again, I’m going to find a woman I don’t like and just give her a house. ” —Seagal

Steven Seagal is a movie star with a real-life martial arts background. As a young man, Seagal saw Morehei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido, demonstrate this fluid throwing art during a lesson. Seagal ended up living in Japan for 15 years, married his instructor's daughter, and became one of the highest-ranking foreigners in Aikido.

Seagal also holds a black belt in Kenjutsu, the art of combat with the Japanese sword, and has trained in Karate, Judo, and Jiu-Jitsu as well. He began teaching Aikido in Japan, breaking tradition as one of the first foreigners to start his own school. He continued teaching in Hollywood upon his return, which paved the way for his illustrious movie career. Seagal's first and leading role was in “Above the Law” (1988), quickly followed by several other popular (yet mass-market) films released through the mid-90s. Since the high point of his film career, “Under Siege” and its sequel (1992, 1995), the actor's popularity went down, with films like "Exit Wounds" (2001) not scoring many points with either critics or audiences, perhaps because Seagal has gotten visibly out of shape. Perhaps his 2003 releases will show us a new dimension (“Out for a Kill,” “The Foreigner”).

Fight scenes in Seagal movies usually feature rapidly rotating sequences laid down to fast tempo music that leads the cut. The fighter's unique style can be summarized simply: He stands still while beating people up. Actually, this very thing has inspired many a sketch on television comedy shows such as FOX's “Mad TV.” Seagal doesn't move much, so in order to present a better image of his skills, montage sequences of his punches are recreated over and over in small periods of time to create the illusion of him being busy. Don't misunderstand: The man is lethal; however, his art is that of defense, and without a little film trickery, the fight scenes wouldn't look as interesting as they do on film.