Who is Robert Tapert?

Just in case you are wondering, he's the man who actually married Xena: Warrior Princess, Lucy Lawless. Robert is a film producer who created the Xena: Warrior Princess Series, as well as Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. I don't know some of the life left me when those shows went off the air. Television just wasn't as interesting.

Robert started his adventures in film making while he went to Michigan State University. He was all set to major in economics when his friend Ivan Raimi, a film student, Sam Raimi's brother. Sam had been a filmmaker for years with Ted, Ivan and their friend from childhood, Bruce Campbell. Robert and Sam made a film together called The Happy Valley Kid. It was about a young college student who is rejected much too much and loses his mind. He then dresses up as a cowboy and kills everyone who hurt him. The film was a favorite at Michigan University, and was seen as a comedy. Robert and Sam founded Renaissance Pictures.

The movie made them money, so they decided to make a feature film. It was a horror film called The Evil Dead, if you have seen it, you remember it starred Bruce Campbell. Sam Raimi was the director. Stephen King gave it a stellar review and made it a hit at the Cannes Film Festival. Because of it's success, they made two sequels: Evil Dead II, and Army Of Darkness. This has given all the guys a lasting film career. Other films that Robert directed involved Sam, or Bruce.

Some films that you may be familiar with are The Grudge, The Grudge II, Darkman, and Timecop to name a few. What I loved was his television work in the 1990's with Hercules and Xena. He created Xena, Gabrielle, Eve, Joxer and Borias. Surprisingly, Xena was not the first choice for the television series. An actress named Vanessa Angel, a thin, blond was to play the role of Xena, but it was said that she wasn't doing well working with swords, and filming was going to start in just a few days. According to rumors, some kind of illness came up and Lucy Lawless was chosen for the part. She had already played in Hercules episode, and also a Renaissance Pictures movie "Hercules and the Amazon Women". They really liked her for the role and the rest was history.

I even liked his shows Jack of All Trades and Cleopatra 2525. There are truly unique characters in each of his works that will never be forgotten. He has even appeared on some of the episodes himself. For Those Of You Just Joining Us was one of them. Robert married Lucy Lawless in March of 1998. They have two boys, Julius Robert and Judah Miro. He is step-father to Lucy's daughter Daisy. Robert has a younger brother Jeff who is a caterer in the film industry.