Kevin Smith (actor)

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For the New Jersey film director and writer, see Kevin Smith.
Kevin Smith

Kevin Tod Smith
Born Kevin Tod Smith
March 16, 1963 (1963-03-16)
Auckland, Flag of New Zealand New Zealand
Died February 15, 2002 (aged 38)

Kevin Tod Smith (March 16, 1963–February 15, 2002) was a New Zealand actor best known for playing the Greek god Ares, of war, in the TV series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and in its two spin-offs – Xena: Warrior Princess and Young Hercules.

Smith died in an accident on February 15, 2002, while filming in China.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] His early life

Kevin "Smithy" Smith's mother was Tongan and his father hailed from New Zealand. Smith's family moved to the South Island town of Timaru when he was eleven. He attended Timaru Boys' High School from 1976 to 1979. Drama was an interest throughout high school, and incidentally, in 1979 he was in the drama club alongside future well-known Auckland drag artist Mika (Neil Gudsell).

Smith played in rock and roll bands during high school. He enjoyed painting and loved rugby and hoped to become a member of New Zealand's world-famous rugby team, the All Blacks.

At the age of 17, Smith moved to Christchurch, and worked at various jobs before enrolling in Canterbury University at the age of 20. In 1986 he married his high school sweetheart, Sue, with whom he had three sons: Oscar, Tyrone and Willard.

[edit] Career

Smith got into acting by accident: he suffered a brain concussion while playing college rugby union in 1987 and was forced to sit on the sidelines for almost three weeks. His wife saw a casting call advertisement for the touring musical tribute to Elvis Presley, Are You Lonesome Tonight, and signed up Kevin for an audition. He got the role of bodyguard JoJoe and was the lead understudy.

Later that year, Smith joined Christchurch's Court Theatre and performed on stage for the next three years in a variety of roles including Don Pedro in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing and Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire. In 1989, he got the role of charming "bad boy" Demian Vermeer on the New Zealand primetime soap opera Gloss, and moved to Auckland to work on the series' final season.

In 1993, Smith played Lawrence Hayes in Desperate Remedies. He then appeared as Paul Cosic in the last two seasons of the primetime drama Marlin Bay. For this role, he won the 1995 New Zealand Film and Television Award for Best Supporting Actor.

He screen-tested for the lead role in Paramount's big budget action-film The Phantom, but the role ultimately went to Billy Zane instead. His fellow Hercules: The Legendary Journeys cast member, low-budget-movie actor and Pacific Renaissance Pictures partner Bruce Campbell, was also one of the contenders for the role of the legendary superhero.

Also in 1995, Smith appeared on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys as Hercules' half-brother, Iphicles. Later he joined the cast of Xena: Warrior Princess as Ares, a role he eventually reprised on Hercules and Young Hercules. As the dark and dangerously seductive Greek god of war, Smith gained legions of fans. During this time Kevin performed as Ares on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princess and Young Hercules simultaneously.

While guest-starring on Xena, Hercules and Young Hercules, Smith also appeared in other TV shows and films, notably as detective John Lawless in three TV movies: Lawless (1999), Lawless 2: Dead Evidence (2000), and Lawless 3: Beyond Justice (2001).

Smith also continued to act in the theater and played in a number of New Zealand's alternative rock bands such as Say Yes to Apes and Hyphen-Smythe and was one of the lead singers of the celebrity band The Wide Lapels, a band famous for its campy performances of the worst songs of the 1970s.

[edit] Death

On February 6, 2002, while waiting for a ride back to the hotel after completing his work on the set of Warriors of Virtue 2, Smith decided to walk around the Central China Television film studio grounds and climbed a prop tower on the set of another film. He lost his footing and fell approximately three stories, suffering severe head injuries. Smith was sent to a local hospital, then transferred to Beijing. He lapsed into a coma and was kept on life support for ten days until life support was discontinued. He died on February 15 without regaining consciousness.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Starring roles

Year Title Role Other Remarks
1987 Gloss TV Series
1991 Mon Desir
1991 Away Laughing Various Characters TV Series
1992 Shortland Street Jed TV Series
1993 Desperate Remedies Lawrence Hayes
1994 Kevin Rampenbacker And The Electric Kettle
1994 Marlin Bay Paul Cosic TV Series
1994 Heartland Shorty Carmichael Mini Series
1995 Hercules: The Legendary Journeys Ares/Iphicles (1995-1999) TV Series
1995 Xena: Warrior Princess Ares (1995-2001) TV Series
1996 McLeod's Daughters Rod TV
1998 Young Hercules Ares (1998-1999) TV Series
1998 Flatmates TV
1998 Hercules and Xena - The Animated Movie: The Battle for Mount Olympus Ares (provided character voice) Produced For Direct Video
1998 Young Hercules Ares, Hercules' Half Brother/Pellas TV
1999 Channelling Baby Geoff
1999 Lawless John Lawless TV
2000 Lawless: Dead Evidence John Lawless
2000 Jubilee Max Seddon
2001 The Meeting Wallace Greenway
2001 Lawless: Beyond Justice John Lawless
2002 Warriors of Virtue: The Return to Tao Dogon
2003 Riverworld Valdemar TV (voice dubbed)

[edit] Guest appearances

Year Title Role Installment
1996 Naked: Stories of Men Ted 1.2 "Fisherman's Wake"
1996 City Life Damon South 1.1
1996 City Life Damon South 1.2
1997 Wildside Lenny Maddox 1.2
1998 F/X: The Series Ricky Delacruz 2.13 "Vigilantes"
1998 Wildside Lenny Maddox 1.34
1999 Wildside Lenny 2.9
2000 Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? Himself 3.4

[edit] External links


Persondata
NAME Smith, Kevin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Smith, Kevin Tod
SHORT DESCRIPTION New Zealand television actor known best for his recurring role as Ares in the American television series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess.
DATE OF BIRTH March 16, 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH New Zealand
DATE OF DEATH February 15, 2002
PLACE OF DEATH Beijing, China