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KEVIN COSTNER
photo: REX/Shutterstock
KEVIN MICHAEL COSTNER is best known “for his impressive portrayal of rugged characters with complex emotions.”
Born as the third son of Bill and Sharon Costner on January 18, 1955 in Lynwood, California, Costner remembers his teenage years as a period when he “lost a lot of confidence”, having to make new friends often moving around different parts of California as his father’s career progressed.
Being actively involved in sports, he became interested in acting and dancing during his last years at California State University in Fullerton. Costner graduated with a BA in marketing and finance and, soon after, married Cindy Silva. Although he had a strong desire to become an actor, he chose instead to work for a marketing firm in California.
It was Richard Burton who would change Kevin Costner’s mind. On the flight back from their honeymoon in Puerto Vallarta, they had a chance encounter with Burton, who agreed to speak to him. Costner told Burton that he would prefer to avoid the drama that followed Burton and asked if he would have to tolerate that if he became an actor. “You have blue eyes, I have blue eyes. I think you’ll be fine,” Burton replied. Him and Costner never met again but Costner credits him with partially contributing to his career.
Costner quit his marketing job and relocated to Los Angeles with his wife. He started to take acting lessons, whilst working jobs that allowed him to develop his acting skills. These included giving tours of celebrities’ Hollywood homes, working as a truck driver and crewing fishing boats.
In 1978, Kevin Costner made his film debut in Sizzle Beach, USA, which was only released in 1981. A few brief roles followed before, in 1983, he landed a bigger part in Stacy’s Knights. Costner then made a brief appearance in the Ron Howard film Night Shift (1982), followed by a role in Lawrence Kasdan’s The Big Chill (1983) alongside highprofile stars, including Tom Berenger, Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum and William Hurt. Unfortunately, his scenes were removed from the final cut.
However, Kasdangave him a second opportunity in 1985, offering Costner a role in Silverado. This became the breakthrough for Costner, who consequently enjoyed wider access to more propitious film roles.
Following roles in smaller films such as Fandango and American Flyers, Costner appeared alongside Kiefer Sutherland in an hour-long special episode of Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories. 1987 proved to be the year that he finally achieved star status in Hollywood. Directed by Brian De Palma, Costner would star alongside Sean Connery and Robert De Niro in The Untouchables. The same year, he took the leading role in the thriller No Way Out and finished the decade with two more acclaimed movies, Bull Durham (1988) and Field of Dreams (1989).
In 1990, Kevin Costner decided to try his hand at directing and producing. He partnered with producer Jim Wilson and founded the production company Tig Productions. Their first film, Dances with Wolves (1990), in which Costner starred, was nominated for 12 Academy Awards and won seven, including two for him personally (Best Picture and Best Director).
The same year saw the release of Revenge, in which he starred alongside Anthony Quinn and Madeleine Stowe.
The next projects consolidated his existence in Hollywood. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991); the Oliver Stonedirected JFK (1991); The Bodyguard (1992); and Clint Eastwood’s A Perfect World (1993) all became box office hits and won critical acclaim. In 1994, Costner took the title role in Wyatt Earp, but soon experienced a difficult period in his career.
Widely considered as commercial disappointments, the science fiction, post-apocalyptic epic Waterworld (1995) and The Postman (1997), received universally negative reviews. The Postman, for which Costner accepted both lead and directing roles, at the expense of taking the lead in Air Force One (1997), even received five Golden Raspberry Awards, including Worst Picture, and more personally, Worst Actor and Worst Director. Costner’s reputation sank to an all-time low, despite the mixed reviews that his subsequent project Message in a Bottle (1999) rceived, although this barely broke even at the box office.
Trying to get back on track, Costner decided to do another Western. Open Range (2003), which he directed and starred in, was no Dances With Wolves but received more positive feedback.
Upside of Anger (2004), Rumor Has It... (2005), The Guardian (2006) and his first psychological thriller, Mr. Brooks (2007) helped Costner to somehow rebound from the box-office failures.
In 2010, he starred in The Company Men alongside Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones and Chris Cooper, and was considered for the Quentin Tarantino film Django Unchained. Eventually, however, scheduling conflicts prevented him from participating in the project. Instead, he played Clark Kent’s adoptive dad in the Superman reboot Man of Steel (2013).
The three-part miniseries Hatfields & McCoys (2012) earned Costner several awards, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Limited Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television.
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014), Molly’s Game (2018) and The Highwaymen (2019) are some of his latest movies. In 2019, he did his first voice-over in The Art of Racing in the Rain. Since 2018, Costner has been appearing in the television series Yellowstone.
Costner married Christine Baumgartner in 2004 and has seven children. He enjoys singing in his country rock band Kevin Costner & Modern West.
In 1995, Costner founded an educational center, Tatanka: The Story of the Bison, in Deadwood, South Dakota, where he also owns the Midnight Star Casino.
