Kevin Smith - The Man Behind Ares

Kevin Smith, the New Zealand actor who portrayed the Greek God Ares on "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys," "Xena: Warrior Princess," and "Young Hercules," died on February 16th in a hospital in Beijing, China. The actor died due to injuries he sustained from a fall on a Chinese movie set that he was visiting just 10 days earlier. The fall came a day after he had just wrapped up filming the movie "Warriors of Virtue II," a joint US-Chinese project, in Beijing. He was reportedly surrounded by his family.

Smith's death came at a time that should have been one of the best moments of his life career-wise. His dreams of "breaking into" the US movie scene were about to be realized. He was set to appear in Bruce Willis' upcoming movie "Man of War," which is set to start filming in Hawaii sometime next month but sadly his chance was taken from him.

Smith, who was born in New Zealand in March of 1963, was best known to Sci-Fi fans as Ares and Hercules' younger brother Iphicles on the popular shows "Xena: Warrior Princess" and "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys." Among his fellow actors he was thought of as being a "wonderful" man and renowned for his comedic and improvisational abilities.

His roles in "Hercules," "Young Hercules" and "Xena" were by no means the extent of the talented actor's noteworthy acting credits. Smith also appeared in the New Zealand 'Soap Opera' "Shortland Street," the New Zealand telefilm trilogy of "Lawless," the film "Channelling Baby" with "Xena" and "Blue Room" co-star Danielle Cormack and lots more. Smith was also known for his days playing rugby (his dream was to play for New Zealand's All Blacks), for doing his bit as a stand-up comedian and for his musical career.

His death came as a great shock not only to his family and friends but also to his many, many fans worldwide. At an 'official' "Xena" and "Hercules" convention in Pasadena, California the news rocked the convention goers and the actors appearing at it. However, as always, the fans and actors rallied around each other.

On Saturday Michael Hurst, Renee O'Connor, Lucy Lawless (with husband Rob Tapert via phone from New Zealand), Bruce Campbell, Ted Raimi and the other actors appearing at the convention gathered together on stage and gave a reportedly moving tribute to Smith, and they later held an auction to benefit Smith's family.

In various reports around the Internet, fans that saw him at the various "Xena," "Hercules" and Sci-Fi conventions worldwide have stated that he was a "cool guy" and one of the "nicest" men they'd met or seen. Along with his career achievements Smith was, probably, known best as a 'devoted family man.'

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