Kevin Smith
(March 19, 1963- February 15, 2002)
As all of you know, Kevin Smith was the guy who played Ares on Xena: WP, Hercules: TJ and Young Hercules. It was this role the one that gave him worldwide recognition and a very strong fan base. It was playing Ares what earned him a big spot in our hearts, especially now that he's gone. Very unlike his character Kevin was a very nice and sweet man, all of his friends and family say so whenever they are asked about him. Fans always recall the great experiences they had when they met him because of how great he was with all of them. For all these reasons he will always have a place in our hearts and in our memories. He was a nice, handsome and talented guy who considered himself just a "family man". He was taken from us, but the mark he left on all of us was so great that he will never really be gone, never. But there's more to him that a lot of us know. So let's take a look at the life of this great man, for whose soul I pray every night.
Kevin Tod Smith was born on March 19, 1963 in Auckland, New Zealand, where he spent most of his childhood until he and his family moved to a town called Timaru in New Zealand's south island when he was 11 years old. Although he did enjoy music and playing in rock & roll bands acting never crossed him mind. His true passion was playing rugby and his dream was playing with the All Blacks, New Zealand's most famous team. At the age of 17 he moved to Christchurch, where he worked in several places to be able to support himself and then later on got into college, at the age of 20. He married his childhood sweetheart, Sue, who was the one who pushed him to pursue a carrier in acting after he suffered an injury playing rugby in 1987.
At the age of 24 he joined the Christchurch's Court Theater and spent the next 3 years from stage to stage. Later on Kevin got the role of Demian Vermeer on "Gloss", New Zealand's most watched TV soap. Soon he was also known for his role on the comedies "Away Laughing".
Smith continued acting in Mercury Theater's productions like "Let's do it", "Rose Tattoo" "Ladies Night Out" and "Fallen Angel" before he started acting as the villain in "Marlin Bay", role which earned him being picked out as New Zealand's best secondary actor on TV and films on 1995.
He was introduced to the fans in the role of Ares on Xena's season one episode "The Reckoning". Besides Ares, Kevin played other roles in Xena and Hercules as Iphicles (Herc), Jerry Patrick Brown (Herc) and Bacchus (Xena). At the time of his death Kevin had just finished filming an action movie in China and was at the brink of a career breakthrough since he was scheduled to start filming a big blockbuster movie with Bruce Willis on March.
Kevin left behind his wife Sue and three children: Oscar, 11, Tyrone, 9, and Willard, 3, not to mention the rest of his family and a bunch of heartbroken fans. Kevin Smith died on February 15, 2002 after falling from a great high on a movie set in China. He was a great man, and he won't be forgotten. He will always have a place in our hearts and every time we watch Xena or Herc and we see him a smile will light up our faces and we'll be grateful because we had him in our lives.
******Download my slideshow presentation in memory of Kevin and his character Ares. The song is "Hero" by Enrique Iglesias. Many thanks go to Bonnie at AmazonBon's Xena Realm for providing most of the Kevin pictures. The file is zipped, so you'll need Winzip or another similar program (I like Easy Zip) to open it. After unzipping it go to the file named .smil to view the presentation. You'll need real player or real one to view it. I hope you like it. This one's for you Kevin.
