AP Worldstream
February 15, 2002 Friday
Kevin Smith, New Zealand actor set to appear in Bruce Willis movie, dies of
head injury
BEIJING: Kevin Smith, a veteran New Zealand actor who was in Beijing to film
a martial arts movie, has died of head injuries, a doctor said Saturday.
Smith, 38, died overnight in Beijing Union Hospital, said a doctor in the
hospital's intensive care unit. The doctor refused to give his name or other
details of Smith's death. But the New Zealand Herald reported the actor fell
from a great height, possibly six stories. The paper said he was not on the
movie set when he fell.
Smith worked mostly in his native New Zealand, but was preparing for his
first Hollywood role in the dlrs 70 million action film "Man of War,"
starring Bruce Willis. Filming was to start next month in Hawaii.
Smith was hospitalized after a Feb. 6 fall while in Beijing to shoot the
U.S.-Chinese martial arts film "Warriors of Virtue II."
Smith had reportedly wanted to do the Beijing film to work with the stunt
man from the martial arts hit "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."
In his career, Smith starred in several plays, television shows and movies.
His biggest role to date was Ares in the New Zealand-made "Xena: Warrior
Princess" television action series.
In December, a magazine poll in New Zealand voted him the country's sexiest
man.
He is survived by his wife, Suzanne Smith, and three sons: Oscar, 11;
Tyrone, 9, and Willard, 3.