Steven Frederic Seagal is an American and naturalized Russian actor, screenwriter, and martial artist. A 7th-dan black belt in aikido, he began his adult life as a martial arts instructor in Japan and eventually ended up running his father-in-law’s dojo. He later moved to Los Angeles where he had the same profession. In 1988, Seagal made his acting debut in Above the Law. By 1991, he had starred in four films.
In 1992, he played Navy SEAL counter-terrorist expert Casey Ryback in Under Siege. During the latter half of the 1990s, Seagal starred in three more feature films and the direct-to-video film The Patriot. Subsequently, his career shifted to mostly direct-to-video productions. He has since appeared in films and reality shows, including Steven Seagal: Lawman, which depicted Seagal performing duties as a reserve deputy sheriff.
Jean-Claude Van Damme is a Belgian actor, martial artist, filmmaker, and fight choreographer. Credited with helping popularize martial arts in film, Van Damme is widely regarded as one of the most iconic martial arts action stars of all time.Â
Born and raised in Brussels, Belgium, at the age of ten his father enrolled him in a Shotokan karate school. From there, he went on to develop his fighting skills, both in Shotokan karate and kickboxing. He was a member of the Belgium Karate Team when it won the European Karate Championship on 26 December 1979. With the desire of becoming an actor, he moved to the United States in 1982, where he did odd jobs and worked on several films, until he got his break as the lead in the martial arts film Bloodsport (1988).
