One of warrior television's most popular leading men is coming to Northern FanCon.
He was an all-around athlete in his youth, but his insatiable hunger was for theatre, and Kevin Sorbo got to not only make that his career, he also brought along the athleticism that chiseled him into the Greek god he got to portray on weekly prime time TV. Sorbo became a household name for being the leading hunk in Hercules, the Legendary Journeys.
The show was a sibling of Xena: Warrior Princess starring Lucy Lawless and Young Hercules starring Ryan Gosling. It set the bar for the spate of classical fantasy programs that used swords to cut a swath of popularity across the 1990s and into the 2000s, bringing it for the first time out of niche cinema into mainstream homes every week.
Along the way, he was also named the titular fantasy hero Kull in the popular movie release Kull The Conqueror.
Also in that interim, he traded the sword for the rifle as the lead actor in the justice-seeker film franchise Walking Tall.
Hercules was a long-running show, lasting seven years on network television. After it closed its run, however, Sorbo was able to change uniforms and again take on a leadership role in a realm of heroes. This time, the genre was sci-fi and he was tapped to portray Captain Dylan Hunt in the smash hit Andromeda. He was on that project for another six years.
He has his softer side, too, though. He was an actor's actor from the get-go, remember. He was cast in films like Last Chance Caf where he plays a modern rancher, a gunslinger cowboy preacher in Avenging Angel, and did a solid turn in the acclaimed biopic Soul Surfer. He also won critical praise for his leading role in the indie film What If...
He was also invited to guest star in a litany of television comedies, from Just Shoot Me, to Two and a Half Men, to Dharma and Greg, to Psych. He also agreed to a recurring role in the final season of The OC.
He is so much the epitome of strength, action, excitement and dependable drama that he was made the official commercial voice of epic luxury auto manufacturer Maserati.
In more recent years he has added the title of author to his lengthy list of accomplishments. He penned an autobiography entitled True Strength: My Journey from Hercules to Mere Mortal and How Nearly Dying Saved My Life, released in 2012. Part of its content was a vivid telling of a near-death experience Sorbo suffered (a series of strokes) but overcame. For this, Sorbo received the Public Leadership in Neurology Award from the American Brain Foundation and American Academy of Neurology for his work in bringing stroke awareness to an international level. Sorbo also received the 2013 Invisible Disabilities Association Inspiration Honors Award.
Sorbo also co-authored a volume in the Chicken Soup For The Soul series. His was entitled Think Positive for Kids: 101 Stories About Good Decisions, Self-Esteem, And Positive Thinking.
It's a title that encapsulates the goals and intentions of Northern FanCon, a popular culture convention that celebrates the quirky, applauds the nerdy, eschews labeling and stereotyping and underestimating the inner hero in all of us.
FanCon comes to the CN Centre/Kin Centre complex next May. For information on content and getting tickets, look up the Facebook page or official website.
