Lucy Francis Lawless
The acclaimed actress Lucy Lawless has captured the hearts and imaginations of audiences around the world for her portrayal as the fierce and fearless Xena, Warrior Princess.
Lucy describes her character as "a woman with the devil on her shoulder, who is constantly fighting the darker side of her own nature." Whether considered devil or angel, Xena has become a pop culture icon and hero.
Lucy was born on March 29, 1968 in Auckland, New Zealand. Almost six feet tall, with jet black hair and piercing blue eyes, Lucy is the fifth of seven children in her family. She has five brothers (4 older), and one sister. Her mother, Julie, is a homemaker and her father, Frank, is currently a councilor in Auckland.
Until the age of 8, she was very much a tomboy, following in her brothers footsteps. She was educated primarily in convent schools where she developed her interest in acting and began performing in numerous musicals and plays.
After graduating from high school in 1985 at the age of 17, Lucy attended Auckland University for 1 year. After that, she attended Wesley Intermediate and Marist Sisters College before her passion for adventure took her to Europe.
She traveled through Switzerland and then headed to Australia, sighing up with a gold mining company in Kalgoorie, a small town about 50 miles from Perth. She became one of the few women miners; doing the same work as men did - driving trucks, mapping, and digging.
In 1988 she married Garth Lawless, a bar manager and in the same year, Lucy had her first child; Daisy. During that year, she had her first real acting job on a New Zealand show called Funny Business. A year after that, she was crowned Mrs. New Zealand in 1989.
After several appearances in different New Zealand TV shows, Lucy moved to Vancouver, Canada in mid 1991 and studied for eight months at the William Davis Center for Actors Study. When she returned to New Zealand in 1992, she accepted a job to co-host Air New Zealand Holiday, a travel magazine show broadcast in New Zealand and throughout Asia.
Lucy divorced her husband in 1995, the same year in which she first stared as Xena in the three episode arc of
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. The producers were so impressed with her performance that in the fall she stared in her own show--
Xena: Warrior Princess.
Though she had practiced yoga for some time, she had no special training in martial arts, sword play, or stunt work when she landed the role of Xena. She had always been blessed with a natural aptitude for the physical challenges the role demands and she began to train with martial arts master Dougles Wong, learning basic kung fu moves and fighting techniques with swords and staffs.
Lucy has also had a aptitude for languages, accents, and music. She speaks German, French, and some Italian, and she shifts effortlessly from her natural Kiwi accent into the mid-American dialect used in the show. She is also a highly trained singer, loving both Opera and Jazz.
In 1998, she married Robert Tapert, the Renaissance Pictures Executive Producer and in 1999 she had her first son, Julius.
Other interesting things about her are that her favorite foods are lamb shanks, frozen yogurt, wine, and scotch, and her nickname used to be Unco, meaning uncoordinated.
Kevin Tod Smith
Kevin Smith had won international recognition and fan fame for his portrayal as Ares, the leather clad, bicep-bulging God of War. Kevin had all the qualities that the God of War should posses, which made him the perfect man for the role.
Born on March 16, 1963, Kevin was a native of Auckland, New Zealand. When Kevin was 11, his family moved to Timaru in New Zealand's South Island. He began to play for rock-and-roll bands when he was in high school. He had a passion for rugby and his all time dream was to play for the All Blacks, New Zealand's world-famous rugby team.
After high school graduation at age 17, he moved to Christchurch and began to work various jobs before enrolling in Canterbury University when he was 20 in 1983. That same year he married his high school sweetheart, Sue.
He stumbled into acting literally by accident when he suffered a concussion from playing college rugby in 1987. While forced to sit on the sidelines for three weeks, Sue saw an acting opportunity for him and signed him up for an audition for
Are You Lonesome Tonight, the musical tribute to Elvis Presley. He landed the part as one of the bodyguards and was understudy to the lead.
At 24, Kevin was tapped by Christchurch's Court Theater to become the company's new young leading man. For the next three years he performed on stage in plays such as
A Street Car Named Desire. During that time, he auditioned for New Zealand's hit primetime soap opera
Gloss and won the role of Damian Vermeer, moving to Auckland to star in the series' final season.
From there, he performed in the Mercury Theater productions of
Let's Do It,
Rose Tattoo,
Ladies Night, and
Fallen Angels before staring in the primetime drama
Marlin Bay. His role lasted two seasons and earned him a 1995 New Zealand Film and Television Award for Best Supporting Actor.
He was cast as Ares, God of War in 1995 for the hit TV series
Xena: Warrior Princess and he was later cast as Ares in
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. From then on, Kevin played in more than a dozen episodes of both Hercules and Xena.
Kevin was recently on location in China, filming the martial arts movie
Warrior's Of Virtue II. On February 6, 2002, he had finished filming the movie early in the morning and was planning on going home for a short time to see his family before traveling to the United States to get ready for the next movie he planned to do--a $165.68 million Bruce Willis film called
Man of War set to start filming in the Hawaii in March. But an unfortunate accident destroyed his chances of that happening.
While climbing a studio tower in Beijing in hopes of seeing the sun set, the stairwell he'd been climbing somehow collapsed and caused him to fall three stories onto a hard stone slab, injuring his head. No one had been around at the time but when they found him, he was partly conscious and they rushed him to Beijing hospital for further analysis of his injuries.
He was in the hospital for 10 days, his wife and three boys, Oscar, Tyrone, and Willard, by his side. On February 16 after being on life support and in critical condition, Kevin Smith died in his sleep in Beijing hospital early that morning due to brain damage. A public memorial was held in Auckland at the Aotea Center on February 18 where Lucy Lawless, Michael Hurst and many of Kevin's other friends and fans showed up to share their memories and farewells of this great actor. Kevin's body was brought back to New Zealand where a private funeral was held on February 28 in Auckland.
People all over the world were in shock about his tragic passing, so young and with so much ahead of him. He will be missed by his fans, his friends, and most importantly his wife and three young boys. He brought so much to everyone who knew him and he will never be forgotten.
Rest In Peace, Kevin
