A short portrait
Les Vlieger does not appear on marquees. He does not give televised interviews. He occupies the quieter margins of public life: a father, a craftsman, a figure who shows up in the background of another person’s spotlight. What is visible about Les comes almost entirely through the life and words of his son, actor and model Ryan Paevey (born Ryan Jacob Paevey-Vlieger, September 24, 1984). From those glimpses emerges an outline of a man defined by work, practical skill, and family ties — the kind of person whose influence is measured not in headlines but in the habits and opportunities passed down to a child.
Basic information (publicly documented)
| Field | Publicly documented detail |
|---|---|
| Name | Les Vlieger |
| Relationship | Father of actor Ryan Paevey |
| Noted occupation (public mentions) | Construction / construction work (worked with his son during Ryan’s youth) |
| Publicly documented children / immediate family | Ryan Jacob Paevey-Vlieger (b. Sept 24, 1984); Kaitlyn (younger sister of Ryan, publicly identified) |
| Public profile | Private individual; appears in public record only via mentions in biographies and interviews about his son |
Family at a glance
| Person | Relationship to Les | Public detail |
|---|---|---|
| Ryan Jacob Paevey-Vlieger | Son | Born September 24, 1984. Actor and model; publicly credits early construction work with his father as formative. |
| Linda Paevey | Co-parent / mother of Ryan (publicly named) | Identified in public bios as Ryan’s mother; Ryan uses her maiden name professionally. |
| Kaitlyn Paevey | Daughter (younger sister to Ryan, publicly identified) | Mentioned in fan and profile materials as Ryan’s younger sister. |
The work that shows up in stories
When public profiles of Ryan Paevey describe his origins they often point to the same concrete detail: work in construction with his father. That phrase recurs like a refrain. It tells a story without naming dates or companies. It suggests early mornings and callused hands, blueprints and practical problem solving. It suggests teaching by doing — a model in which skills and values are transferred at the elbow, not in classrooms.
This occupational detail is the main piece of Les’s public biography. There is no widely published résumé, no social-media presence attached to his name in mainstream profiles, and no extended interview where Les speaks directly to the press. His public existence, as far as most readers would encounter it, is as an anchor in the backstory of a son who forged a different career path.
A timeline of public references (concise)
| Year / Period | Publicly referenced event or context |
|---|---|
| 1984 | Ryan Jacob Paevey-Vlieger is born (Sept 24, 1984). Public biographies name Les as his father. |
| 1980s–2000s | Childhood and adolescence: Ryan grows up in the Los Angeles area; profiles repeatedly note he worked in construction with his father during these years. |
| Early 2000s–2010s | Ryan transitions from modeling to acting; press pieces reference his construction background and the role his father played in that upbringing. |
| 2013–present | Ryan’s acting career (soap operas, Hallmark films) leads to renewed profile pieces; Les continues to be mentioned in biographical context, but not as an on-camera subject. |
How the public record treats privacy
Les’s situation is an instructive example of how privacy persists for many adults in the age of celebrity. A parent of a public figure can remain intentionally offstage; the public ledger records presence but not particulars. For Les, that ledger contains a name, a role (father), and an occupational shorthand (construction work). It does not contain birthdates, education, employment histories, corporate affiliations, or financial disclosures.
Where many public figures’ family members are exhaustively profiled, Les’s profile is spare. He is named, credited as an influence, and then largely left alone. That minimal footprint speaks to two separate realities: first, that the press often focuses on the famous child rather than the private parent; second, that families sometimes choose — or by circumstance remain — outside the glare.
The family dynamic in public storytelling
When Ryan recounts his early life, the narrative is simple and tactile. The scholarship of experience — how to measure a board, how to mix concrete, how to arrive early and finish the job — becomes the vocabulary of maturity. Those are lessons that translate easily into the demands of a career in entertainment: discipline, punctuality, the willingness to do hard work for long stretches, and the ability to show up when others count on you.
This map from father to son is not uncommon, but its concrete details matter. In the telling, Les is less a celebrity father than a tradesman whose example set a tone. That tonal influence is what appears in interviews: Ryan’s references to working with his dad; passing mentions of surf days and family routines; snapshots where the personal history is the stage for a professional biography.
Facts, numbers, and the space they leave
Numbers can clarify and also expose absence. We have one public birthdate tied directly to Les by relationship: Ryan’s, 24 September 1984. We have decades — the 1980s through the early 2000s — described as the period when Ryan grew up and helped his father. We have counts: at least two children are publicly associated with the same family unit (Ryan and Kaitlyn). Beyond that, there are blanks — no public licensure records, no business pages, no widely reported legal or financial filings that would cast more light on Les’s career by formal documentation.
Those blanks are meaningful. They delimit what the public is invited to know, and they underscore a form of ordinary privacy that survives even when a family member becomes famous.
Where lines are drawn: verified facts versus speculation
In the terrain where fandom, genealogy threads, and community posts meet mainstream reporting, it is common to encounter uncorroborated claims: additional marriages, half-siblings, and family shifts. For Les, such claims appear in informal places but lack the reliable corroboration that would move them into the realm of public record. The firmly documented items are fewer: name, relationship to Ryan, the recurring note that Ryan worked with his father in construction during youth, and the presence of a mother identified as Linda Paevey.
The difference between a documented fact and a repeated rumor is crucial. In this case, the documented facts sketch a modest portrait; the rumors only blur it.
A quiet legacy
If a legacy can be measured by the habits and skills a parent imparts, then Les Vlieger’s legacy is clear in the arc of his son’s story. The construction sites of youth become the discipline of a professional life; the lessons learned at a father’s side become the muscle memory of commitment. He is, in public terms, one of those steady figures: unadorned, practical, and influential without fanfare.
Les’s public presence is lean. But lean does not mean insignificant. Sometimes the most durable imprints are those left by hands that build rather than hands that wave from a stage.
