by DRC2013 on 28 Feb 2016, 16:28
The "official" story is that he was Mike Ovitz's Aikido instructor, who at that point was called the most powerful man in Hollywood because he was the top agent who made the best deals. Ovitz set up an aikido demonstration for all the Warner Bros executives, and since I guess aikido at that time was new and exotic like karate was in the 70's and 80's the executives were so impressed by the demonstration that they signed Seagal for a movie deal.
The "unofficial" rumour, which hasn't been validated, is that Mike Ovitz at the top of his power made a bet with a studio exec that he could make any unknown guy into a major movie star, even his aikido instructor, which is what he did.
But Seagal himself no doubt was trying to get into showbiz even earlier. He appeared on talk shows demonstrating aikido, much like Chuck Norris demoed Karate or Tang Soo Do on Johnny Carson in the 70's, he was a martial arts instructor in a couple of movies including that one Bond movie where he supposedly broke Sean Connery's wrist, and he was even married to a soap actress. There are pictures of Seagal attending Hollywood parties with her way before he became famous. He later married "up" and got together with Kelly LeBrock, a bigger star.
This is of course all after he abandoned his wife and kid in Japan when he returned to the US.