Michael Sopkiw's brief but shining moment in the spotlight of acting was a delightfully sincere, spirited, and enthusiastic display in four enjoyable low-budget Italian exploitation films from the mid-80s. Born in 1954 in Connecticut, Sopkiw's early career saw him working as a merchant sailor laying submarine detection cable in the North Sea in England during the 1970s.
He later turned to sailing yachts and ships after spending a year in college in Miami, Florida. However, his life took a different turn when he was arrested by the DEA for shipping marijuana and served a one-year prison sentence of a two-and-a-half-year sentence. Following his parole in the late 1970s, Sopkiw studied acting in New York City and then worked as a catwalk and photographic model in Europe.
Sopkiw made his film debut with a substantial lead role as the rugged survivalist warrior hero Parsifal in the post-nuclear sci-fi action romp "2019: After the Fall of New York" (1983). He next appeared in two films for director Lamberto Bava, playing the tough ex-cop turned convicted murderer Jake "Tiger" Sharp in the exciting "Blastfighter" (1984) and the dashing hunk Peter in the deliciously cheesy "Jaws" rip-off "Devilfish" (1984).
Sopkiw concluded his acting career with a lively turn as the scruffy bargain basement Indiana Jones-style adventurer Kevin Hall in the terrifically trashy "Massacre in Dinosaur Valley" (1985). After retiring from acting, Sopkiw went on to study medicinal plant science and launched Miron Violet Glass, a California-based company that manufactures special glass bottles that protect plants from the sun.
