Arts & Culture Headline Article

Actor Kevin Sorbo’s Mythological Staying Power

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Actor Kevin Sorbo (photo by Ash-Gupta - Studio-838Playing the world’s sexiest heart-throb of epic proportions in the long-running series, “Hercules: The Legendary Stories”, and the captain of the helm in “Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda” – the renowned Kevin Sorbo has proven that he has the acting chops to match and continues to captivate audiences by branching out in more meaty acting roles and philanthropic pursuits.

Most recently, you might have seen Sorbo play the hunky, scantily-clad Captain co-starring with Carmen Electra in the comedic movie, “Meet the Spartans”. But Sorbo has accomplished an almost Herculean feat by having one of the most enduring and bankable careers in Hollywood; Electronics Media Magazine named Sorbo TV’s third most bankable star behind Oprah and Regis!

Minnesota native, Kevin Sorbo, was just another Tinseltown wanna-be when he arrived in LA at age 27 with aspirations of hitting it big. And boy did he. His success was not overnight but grew steadily. He began consistently booking beer, hair care products and clothing commercials while going to acting class with some of Hollywood’s biggest actors like Brad Pitt, Matthew Perry and Sharon Stone.

Sorbo says of his early days in LA,“I was one of the lucky guys. For about a three-year period in the early ‘90’s, I was one of the top three male actors in terms of booking commercials.”

Hercules Is Huge

In 1992, he lost the lead role of Superman in “Lois and Clark” to Dean Cain but was offered the part of Hercules in a new syndicated show. “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys” show evolved into a sweet gig that most actors can only fantasize about. It ran for seven years until 1999 and aired in 140 countries, surpassing “Baywatch” as the most watched TV show in the world.

Art Imitates Life

Fame and fortune was not the only thing the “Hercules” show provided Sorbo. “Talk about art imitating life,” Sorbo says of meeting his real-life leading lady, Sam Jenkins, on the show. She made a guest appearance as one of Hercules’ love interests in 1996. Sam and Kevin married in 1998 and they had their first ‘Hercules Jr.’ in 2002, followed by two more children.

Beam me up, Sorbo

During the last 3 months of shooting the “Hercules” role, he was a hot commodity and simultaneously landed the lead role of Captain Dylan Hunt in the sci-fi action series “Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda”. Seemingly to bestow the golden touch on anything Sorbo got involved with, “Andromeda” held the #1 hour show spot for its entire five year run.

Kevin Sorbo roles.

Film Appearances

Sorbo also is a prominent film actor while juggling his busy TV career. In 1997, Sorbo made his feature film debut in “Kull, the Conqueror”, a prequel to “Conan, the Barbarian”. Other films include, “Walking Tall, the Payback”, “Walking Tall, Lone Justice, “The Last Chance Café”, “Something Beneath”, “Clipping Adam”, and most recently, “The Avenging Angel” which aired on Hallmark summer of 2007 and was the third highest rated movie in the history of Hallmark. Another ’08 release for Sci-Fi cable network was “Fire From Below”.The House Next Door” and “Prairie Fever” were two other 2008 movies he starred in. The year 2009 and 2010 is a flurry of activity for Kevin. Here are a few films he’s working on: “What If…”, “The Illuminati: Out of Chaos Comes Order”, “Sleeping with the Lion”, and “Puzzle Vision”. Read below in LAs the Place’s face to face with Sorbo about more film and TV appearances in 2009 and 2010.

TV Appearances

Since his two big TV hit series, Sorbo has guest starred on numerous other hit shows like “Just Shoot Me”, “According to Jim”, “Hope and Faith”, “Two and a Half Men”, USA networks “Psych”, and had recurring appearances on “Dharma and Greg”, and on Fox’s “The OC” in 2006-2007. In 2005, he signed an unprecedented development deal with ABC/Touchstone Television that resulted in the creation of “Bobby Cannon”, a half-hour comedy pilot written by Barry Kemp of “Coach” and “Newhart” fame.

An Actor with Heart

Despite juggling family and career demands, Sorbo makes being a spokesman for A World Fit for Kids a priority. A World Fit for Kids is a non-profit organization that provides gang, drug and dropout prevention to teens through mentoring programs.

He was also named national spokesperson as successor to Arnold Schwarzenegger for The After School Alliance, a nonprofit organization working to ensure that all children have access to safe, enriching after school programs by the year 2010.

Swinging for Charity

Lately, he has combined his passion to give to others in need and his passion for golfing. He tours around the country playing in charity golf tournaments raising funds to find  cures to cystic fibrosis, kidney disease, melanoma cancer, among others.

Swinging for Charity

LA’s The Place Editor-in-Chief Jane Emery got a chance to chat with actor Kevin Sorbo discovering his views on what it takes to succeed, politics, and his charity work among sharing some insightful words of wisdom.

On Success

KS: I always push myself, I look at successful people and I ask them how they became successful and I learned that failure is a positive thing, not a negative thing. In a town like Hollywood, a political mafia, you have to put up with so much crap and there are so many reasons to fail in this town and there are so few reasons to even get a chance at success. All the doors that slammed for me just fueled the fire and it is perseverance for me more than anything else. I’m a 13-year “overnight success”. It’s just a matter of sticking with it and never ever giving up. Most people are afraid of failure so they just stay where they are and they don’t make that movie role or have anything good happen to them.

On Bettering Our Future

KS: We can’t be sitting still and blaming other people for our losses. It’s like come on, you guys. If you look, for instance, at Bill Cosby – he came off and said this is what we need to do as African Americans and they jumped on him and called him an Uncle Tom. Here is a guy that went through all kinds of racism in his life, and he rose above it, he studied hard and he found a way to get to a successful place in life. Everybody goes through it. It’s all about making things happen for themselves and not pointing fingers.

On Developing Work Ethic

KS: You know, I started a paper route when I was only in the second grade, I was eight years old, and I held it for 7 years. For 7 years, I got up at 3 or 4 in the morning, 6 days a week. I was out there in Minnesota, 25 below zero in winter, and I’d get up to ride my bike through snow covered streets covering my sales route. I worked hard. And in the summers, I worked at my dad’s golf course where he was a manager there.

On Being Resilient

KS: I think the biggest thing happening in our country is people are just giving up, they are just getting lazy and they want the government to take care of them. I’m just scared of what’s going on in this country. For the last 20 years, I’ve just been seeing this weird entitlement thing. It happens every single year, where people just say, “Oh what the heck”. You know? And it’s kind of sad to me in a way. It’s like this country was built on doers, not on people sitting around expecting people to take care of them. JFK said one of the greatest lines ever when he gave his inauguration speech and he said, “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country” and we’re getting away from that, we need to get back to that.

On the Effects of Fame

KS: I never really got to clear my head and deposit the fact that it took me so many years to achieve success so I think I appreciate it a little more. I mean there are young kids that are between 18-25 yrs old and they’ve had success when they were young in their lives and their attitudes are quite different. In the back of my mind, I’m always thinking when the shows over, lets see where you are because it ain’t easy. It’s hard to keep things going and those are the reasons Hollywood decides when and where something is over.

On America’s Public Education

KS: You look at public education and it’s horrendous, we should be embarrassed. And everyone from Obama on down has said that their going to make public education better and they haven’t. Now I’m not a public schoolteacher and I don’t want to get in trouble for this but it’s ridiculous that the only communist business that we have in this country is public education. Now if you’re a teacher for 15 years and you’re a bad teacher, and you don’t do what you need to do to teach children what they need to know and they come out not knowing how to read and write…

On Getting Back What You Put Out

KS: I think teachers should be paid by the jobs that they do and not just because they’ve been teaching 20 years so they get paid the same. It’s ludicrous. If I worked for IBM and I sold 300 billion dollars worth of computers and my other buddy sold 300 million dollars worth of computers and we get paid the same salary, I’d be a little upset like wait a minute, I worked my butt off. If he worked 40 hours a week and I worked 100 hours a week, I want to be paid for that. I don’t begrudge anybody’s success. I just don’t. I have friends who complain about their bosses and I’m like wait a second, your boss took all the chances and was able to raise all the money to accomplish something in this business, and now you’re going to rag on your boss? Go create your own company then. People that do this stuff, it blows my mind that they are able to do these things. I’m a champion for democracy but this country needs to get back to the great country that it was and we’re losing ourselves.

On His Part to Improve LA Public Schools

KS: I decided that I’d always wanted to work with kids that weren’t necessarily unhealthy but lived in very unhealthy environments. So I’ve worked with World Fit For Kids to raise 3 million dollars a year that enables us to work with twelve LA schools and 12,000 kids. There is a 54% dropout rate in LA public schools and we have a 100% of the kids of the 12,000 in our program graduating. We have parents knocking down our doors to work with their child. We received a gold star from Gov. Schwarzenegger for the best after school program this year. We’re kicking off our second annual fund raising golf tournament in October 8th and 9th 2009 in Las Vegas. To get involved, check out: www.worldfitforkids.org.

On His Latest Acting Projects

KS: Right now I’m working on an independent film in Baton Rouge called “Flesh Wounds”. I’ve got a movie called “Fire from Below” in September on the Sci-Fi channel. A feature film called “Paradox” is coming out in theaters in January 2010 and another feature film, “Tales from an Ancient Empire” in January or February. And also “Lighting Strikes” on Sci-Fi channel in December. I’ve been filming a lot of movies, but I’d like to get back on TV and get another series going.

Check out his website to see where Sorbo is in front of the camera and also wielding his golf club for good next. www.kevinsorbo.net

Kevin Sorbo lives in LA with his wife Sam and their three young children.

About the author

Lanee Neil

2 Comments

  • It´s great to have someone like Kevin caring about children like that!
    Plus an example of never giving up, no matter what!
    Thank you so much Kevin!

  • Darn if the man isn’t right: I’m ashamed at how far away we’ve gone from the original ideal this country was founded on. And it’s common sense, if you want something go out and get it, if you need a little helpn ask – but don’t depend it. Life is so precious and beautiful, we take too much for granted. Mr. Sorbo makes a true observation – in the last few decades something’s gone terribly wrong with our children and the way they think. I run a small mentoring group and I can tell you it makes a world of difference to kids. KUDOS TO KEVIN FOR POINTING OUT THESE THINGS and CONGRATS ON ALL THE NEW PROJECTS!! THE LEGION OF SORBO FAN-ADDICTS WILL BE WATCHING :-))