Canadian native Victor Webster says that although Harley got the name, Buddha is the one who gets to ride. When not on the set, Victor cruises around, under the California sun on his hog – with his dog Buddha tucked in his jacket.
Currently playing Brennan Mullwray on the sci fi series Mutant X, Victor also starred on Sunset Beach and Days of our Lives, and recently appeared in the blockbuster Bringing Down the House. Although he’s always been an animal advocate, he says several old girlfriends have had a hand in his pet ownership, from his cat – “I pay kitty-support to my ex in Florida,” – to his Yorkie – “He was originally intended for a girlfriend, but I ended up so bonded with the dog, I couldn’t go through with giving him to her.”
“Harley thinks he’s a Rottweiler, he literally rules the house,” says Victor fondly of his pint-sized dog. “Buddha is just like his name – he lays on the ground, sleeps, and cuddles.” These two pups have acclimated to life with their actor-dad. “They come with me everywhere. Last year Buddha would actually come on set with me and he had his own chair,” he laughs.
I spoke with Victor as he was walking his dogs, and it quickly became evident he was talking as much to his dogs as he was to me. “A typical day? Well, in the morning when daddy gets his coffee and muffin, they get a tiny little piece of muffin, a thumbnail size, and then daddy goes to meetings, so they go in the car with daddy.” (Geez, I thought, this guy is as bad as I am.) He snaps out of it, “Then they go to Runyan Canyon to hike and sniff other dogs’ butts.”
The name Buddha speaks to Victor’s spirituality, appreciation for eastern philosophy and introspection, qualities that he found through martial arts. “I’ve been training in martial arts since I was nine years old, and trained in all different styles. I went through a period in my life where I felt that I was going over to the dark side. Then I found a very old-school martial arts instructor. It changed my life. I have always known how to fight, but I had never learned the art of it. That would be the Ying for the Yang.”
Victor says that the discipline he learned through karate translates into everything he does. “When I decide I want something, I just go after it.” He has been a stockbroker and martial arts teacher, amongst other things, although it’s acting that fulfills a restlessness he has always had. “As an actor, almost every day or at least every couple months I can be someone else.”
No matter who he is playing though, be it a futuristic action hero, a hunky surfer or a serious Englishman, underneath it all, you know it’s irrefutably Victor when he lights up like a proud father at the mention of his two boys, Harley and Buddha, who represent to him “just pure happiness.”
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