From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia James Christopher Read born July 31 1953 is an American actor Read was born in Buffalo New York He started acting as a student of the University of Oregon where he graduated in 1976 He studied acting in New York and then did several off Broadway and regional theatres such as The Denver Center Theatre Company where he had a couple of leading roles and spent three seasons Read is perhaps best known for his role as George Hazard in the three North and South TV miniseries 1985 1986 and 1994 based on the John Jakes trilogy of novels of the same name and for his costarring role in the movie Beaches Read is married to actress Wendy Kilbourne whom he met on the set of North and South He had a recurring role on The WB series Charmed as Victor Bennett and was also a regular during the first season of Remington Steele Currently he may be seen as Ken Davis in the ABC family drama Wildfire In 1998 he also earned his Masters Degree in psychology from Pepperdine University