Kevin Sorbo Kept Three Strokes A Secret While Filming 'Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'

If you don't naturally respect Kevin Sorbo, you'd really better respect him after you read this.

During the time when "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" and "Xena: Warrior Princess" ruled syndication (the late 90's), Sorbo was the muscular, flowing-locked model of Greek heroism of mythic proportions. That's how more than a few fanboys - and let's face it, more than a few fangirls - will always remember the now-52-year-old Minnesotan: a man's man that every man wanted to be and plenty women wanted to be with.

As the actor revealed in Neurology Now recently, even three strokes Sorbo suffered starting midway through his "Hercules" run could not shatter his unbreakable aura as the Greek demigod.

Sorbo suffered his first issues in 1997 when he began feeling unusual aches, tingling and cold in his left arm and hand that doctors initially dismissed as nothing worth the actor's worry. Then his vision became blurry and he started experiencing dizziness and a buzzing in his head following a chiropractor's visit shortly after his initial doctor visit. The after the chiropractor's appointment, Sorbo awoke with speech so badly slurred he could hardly talk.

The then-38-year-old Sorbo had suffered an aneurysm near his shoulder, doctors' tests revealed.

"Apparently, the aneurysm had been producing blood clots for some time," Sorbo explained. "I had blockages all down my arm that were making my fingers cold, tingly, and numb."

A surgically inserted tube placed platinum coils around the aneurysm to repair alleviate and repair Sorbo's issues. He suffered three strokes total from the time the symptoms began until his surgery to rectify the issues. It took rewrites and guest stars to mask Sorbo's absence while he recovered.

"I felt like I had been transformed overnight from a youthful, carefree jock into someone who needed to grasp the backs of chairs and counters for an arduous five-yard trip to the bathroom," Sorbo recalled.