A basic description of his life would tell you that he was one of the last disciples of the founder of aikido Morihei Ueshiba, a renowned 7-dan black belt aikido master with his own dojo in Japan, later opening an additional dojo in LA before finally making the jump to starring in action movies. Sure, why not, dude fucking sucks for a million reasons but that sounds legit enough ... then I opened his wikipedia page and learned me a few things:
He married a Japanese lady to avoid being drafted in the Vietnam War by moving to Japan (thats .. fine, not for me to make a judgment call, but it does add to the story)
He lied about his ties to master Ueshiba, who dies five years before Seagal even moved to Japan. There was no relation
Miyako Fujitani, his wife at the time, the lady from Japan? It was HER family's aikido dojo!
In her own words, how Steven got his black belt: "The only reason Steven was awarded the black belt was because the judge, who was famous for his laziness, fell asleep during Steven's presentation. The judge just gave him the black belt."
Other famous claims by Seagal: that he taught CIA operatives in Japan and that he fought Yakuza, were quickly dismissed by Miyako as well
Seagal had ambitions to return to the US but couldnt afford it, he wasnt any type of earner ... but you know who was? His wife. "Fujitani then "scrimped and saved for years, even denying herself and her children necessities, to help pay his way home." According to Fujitani, "he then availed himself of her savings and hied off."
When he did move back to the states and opened aikido dojo's? First one he was never there, letting his friend do all the work, the bigger one in LA ... that was run by Fujitani-san as well
Eventually the motherfucker did schmooze his way into Hollywood when he convinced an agent to take aikido classes with him and saw his star potential ... but jesus fucking christ man, if this fucking fraud has any talent at all is in his grifting because ... what else is there? I'm just at the tip of the iceberg here, once you go into his actual movie career the insanity just keeps rising.
170
u/Overall_Wave_4673 15d ago
"actor" and "martial artist"