Bio

Kevin Sorbo, the fourth of five children, was born on the 24th September 1958 in a strict Lutheran family of Norwegian background. He grew up in Mound, then the most rural part of the suburbs of Minneapolis. His native state, Minnesota, is known as "The Land of Ten Thousand Lakes" - very beautiful and one of the most healthy states of USA. Kevin's father, Lynn, taught biology and mathematics at school, his mother, Ardis, quit nursing to raise the children.

It's easy to realize how high Kevin values his early years by reading interviews - when asked about mythology, Australia, Star Trek or music, he goes: "As a kid I...." No one will be so ready to return to the childhood if it was not warm, safe and cosy. As a child, Kevin was very camera shy, and his Mom recalls him hiding when the grandparents wanted to take pictures. When he was 7 or 8 years old he had tasted golf. "My memory of golf growing up was that it was this big, free thing to do. I loved it." At the same age Kevin started working. He became "the paper boy" which meant getting up at 4:30 in the morning and delivering newspapers six days a week.

When Kevin was 11, his vocation seized him. His parents took him to see a musi-cal "Oklahoma!" in one of the neighbouring schools. "One of the main reasons I got involved in acting, when I was a kid I saw a play and it touched me so much. It opened my eyes."

However, outwardly nothing had changed. In the mornings he was dragging packs of newspapers, then he went to school where he aside from the lessons found energy to play American football (as offensive and defensive lineman) and many other sports. "I grew up playing everything you can possibly think of -- basketball, baseball, golf, tennis and bike riding. It has always been important to me in terms of camaraderie between peers, learning how to deal with other people and developing social skills." He was on the student council and was voted most versatile. At leisure he was staring at the night sky, kissing girls and dreaming about being indestructible and saving the world, about being a professional athlete, about building his own house, which he had sketched, and... about be-coming an actor. Kevin did not share his cherished dream with anyone - nor with the bosom friends, neither with girlfriends, nor with parents. "It was a macho sort of upbringing and something like acting was considered sissy stuff." Though he worried about damaging his cool image, Kevin did some plays in high school.

Kevin graduated from the high school in 1977 and attended Minnesota State Uni-versity Moorhead (then known as Moorhead State University). His first choice was architecture but his godfather, who was an architect, talked him out of it. So, he majored in marketing and advertising. Sport was not thrown up - he played foot-ball, baseball, basketball, hockey and started lifting weights.

"I was reluctant to enrol in drama classes, so I'd sneak in and watch. It was only in my last year that I really started to get involved - finally admitting to myself that that was what I really wanted to do." Kevin performed in several plays, gaining yardage on the theatrical stage. And that has brought an inevitable - in 1981 Kevin dropped out of the University. For what he considered a good reason. His parents weren't really excited about him leaving 16 credits shy of a degree. But they didn't push him. "They were just always behind me so it was a long road and they kind of traveled it with me. They're a big part, I think, of the reason why I'm a success today."

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