February 15, 2002

6:28 PM

Actor Kevin Smith (no, not Silent Bob... Ares from Xena) has died after a large fall in China.
posted by sycophant (31 comments total)

Uh, so?
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 6:40 PM on February 15, 2002

Wow, I am surprised by how bad I feel about this. Poor guy.
posted by thirteen at 6:43 PM on February 15, 2002

Sad, yes.

But one has to wonder why the editor let this through:

"Acting sources have said he was injured when he fell from a great height, possibly six storeys.

Li Hao, a spokeswoman for one of the companies involved in Warriors of Virtue II, said Smith, who had completed his film contract the day before the fall, had made a big impression. " (emphasis mine)
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:45 PM on February 15, 2002

"had made a big impression" -- to be duple intender it'd have to be sans "had"
posted by EngineBeak at 7:04 PM on February 15, 2002

But who will be Xena's romantic interest now that the sexy guy is no longer part the show?!

Oh. Too late. Nevermind..
posted by insomnia_lj at 7:15 PM on February 15, 2002

Geez, how sad. I enjoyed his work on Xena, and it sounds like he was a very cool guy.
posted by Tubes at 7:26 PM on February 15, 2002

Y:know... Im in the same boat.. Im kinda amazed at how much this saddens me.. I always got the impression that he was a really nice guy...

nH
posted by niteHawk at 7:26 PM on February 15, 2002

This made me curious about how many people in an average 24 hour period around the world? I googled for a while but couldn't figure it out. Best guess: 6 billion / 27,000* = 222,222 per day.

(Humans are alive ~27,000 days each. A one in 27,000 chance that any given person is dies on any given day? Just guessing.)
posted by sylloge at 7:28 PM on February 15, 2002

I always got the impression that he was a really nice guy...

I met him a couple of times, and indeed he was a really nice guy. He did a lot of charity work, and as well as the beefy persona from Xena, he was a very skilled comedian.
posted by sycophant at 7:36 PM on February 15, 2002

i wonder what the movie he made is about. like seeing all the queen of the damned commercials now is kind of creepy. and like the crow and stuff.
posted by kliuless at 8:10 PM on February 15, 2002

Crash: did you catch the other one?

He had leaped at the chance to go to China because the role allowed him to learn from the stuntman who worked on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Heh.
posted by benh57 at 8:15 PM on February 15, 2002

Sylloge - According to this page, the annual death rate in 1998 had fallen to just 10 deaths per thousand. I don’t know if their data is worth anything, but assuming it is and taking an approximate global population of 6 Billion, that would put the daily death rate at just under 16,440.

By the way, how could there be two Kevin Smiths? I thought SAG had rules about that.
posted by willnot at 8:19 PM on February 15, 2002

regardless of what the daily death toll is, the point is we lost a nice person.

let some of us grieve.

or is someone supposed to pass some sort of personality test before they can be mourned?
posted by jcterminal at 8:44 PM on February 15, 2002

mr sycophant...i'm intrigued by brushes w/celebrity ...how did you meet him?
posted by babychet at 10:08 PM on February 15, 2002

willnot: Probably Kevin Smith the director is registered with SAG as "Kevin P. Smith". But they don't strictly regulate every credit -- the actors do that between themselves or use a SAG arbitration process. That's why there are two Vanessa Williamses. Neither has objected to the confusion, although the lesser-known actress happens to "own" the name, and the former Miss America and singer is officially Vanessa L. Williams -- but again, movie credits may drop the L. It's up to the other actress to file an objection.

As for the late Mr. Smith, it's very strange that the article is so cagey about how he was injured. It was the day after filming completed, so we know it wasn't a set injury, and it was from a six-story height. Did he fall from a rock wall, or off a building or bridge? Yet he was rushed to the hospital by movie production staff. Very strange. There will undoubtedly be an interesting lawsuit.

Too bad -- he was quite the personality.
posted by dhartung at 10:16 PM on February 15, 2002

Damn. Not only is it sad that a nice guy died, but now who is going to play Caine in the Amber movie?
posted by Hildago at 10:30 PM on February 15, 2002

*
posted by willnot at 10:51 PM on February 15, 2002

So that's the guy who screwed up my Kevin Smith wishlist. He will be missed.
posted by smackfu at 11:49 PM on February 15, 2002

if you ever want to be able to associate him with something other than xena, then see desperate remedies. it was one of his first movie roles, and a really worthwhile flick.

oh and at a guess, i'd say sycophant met him in the mercury plaza food hall just off k road ;)
posted by titboy at 1:10 AM on February 16, 2002

mr sycophant...i'm intrigued by brushes w/celebrity ...how did you meet him?

The first time, when I was an extra on Xena, a bunch of us were having lunch when he came a sat with us a chatted for a while...

The second time was maybe a year or so later, when I had seen him at a theatresports show, and I briefly talked to him afterward, after some prompting he remembered me from Xena.

I have also served Kevin Sorbo lemonade in my backyard and had Craig Parker (Haldir from LOTR) shave my head (footage of which aired on the news). A good friend of mine also used to work at a bar with Lucy Lawless and knows Cliff Curtis quite well, but New Zealand is small, we only need 3 degrees of seperation.
posted by sycophant at 5:14 AM on February 16, 2002

i cant believe it!!!

i have liked Kevin ever since the first time i saw him on Xena! this is just awful.
posted by endorwitch at 6:11 AM on February 16, 2002

A real shame. From everything I've heard of him, he would have made it big in Hollywood. He had charisma, style, and a sense of humor. He might have gotten typecast into a villain's role but I doubt he would have minded. He probably would have had a blast doing it.

He played Aries that way, all swagger and just a touch of self-mockery. You could tell he was having fun with the role.

People haven't mentioned that he was also a good singer. In the "Bitter Suite" (all-singing) episode of Xena, he did his own vocals. He also used to do an Elvis impersonation act.

In fact, I'm going to dig out the CD from that episode and play it.

And he would have made a perfect Caine for an Amber movie.
posted by dragonmage at 11:01 AM on February 16, 2002

Huh? Is there actually an Amber movie going to be made? That would be badass. Now if they'll just do Jerry Cornelius too.
posted by Kafkaesque at 11:56 AM on February 16, 2002

I know how Xena fans must be feeling now. When you're a fan of a programme you think you and the actors are all going to grow old together. You can never quite believe the person you seen on screen isn't with us anymore, especially when they are relatively so young. I never really followed the show, but the few times I saw it knew there was some good things going on there. ...
posted by feelinglistless at 1:05 PM on February 16, 2002

I haven't heard anything about an Amber movie, and, believe me, I've got serious contacts who would know.
posted by dragonmage at 7:19 PM on February 16, 2002

Very sad. :(
posted by rushmc at 12:44 AM on February 17, 2002

from the article "passed away in his sleep"

This just in... famous people always die in their sleep.
posted by Nauip at 11:18 AM on February 17, 2002

Not the INXS guy.
posted by Kafkaesque at 1:40 PM on February 17, 2002

I haven't heard anything about an Amber movie, and, believe me, I've got serious contacts who would know.

I hope you don't pay them.

Hollywood Reporter:

"Ed Neumeier, who adapted Robert Heinlein's classic SF novel Starship Troopers for the big screen, will next turn his hand to Roger Zelazny's fantasy novel Nine Princes in Amber. Producer Mark Canton and Batman Forever writer Akiva Goldsman are teaming with Neumeier to turn Nine Princes into a feature film."
posted by obiwanwasabi at 3:40 PM on February 17, 2002

Apart from the Hollywood hype, this just sounds like the novel has been optioned again, but that doesn't mean it'll make it to the screen.

And I don't have to pay my sources, they're just friends who have some of the rights to the Amber books, which might affect the movie rights. I'll be seeing them in a month or so, and they may have more news then.

But until then, I'm not holding my breath. The same announcement ( with different names ) has appeared before.
posted by dragonmage at 6:33 PM on February 17, 2002

Kevin Smith on the web
This previously unpublished 1997 interview with Kevin Smith by former Computerworld reporter Ria Keenan was intended for an internet magazine which never saw the light of day. Keenan asked Smith about his growing fame and exposure to – and on – the internet.

posted by holloway at 12:49 PM on February 21, 2002