Kevin Costner is an actor and director known for playing upright heroes in big-budget epics. He was a hit as heroic G-man Eliot Ness in The Untouchables (1987, with Sean Connery) and followed that with two popular baseball movies: Bull Durham (1988, with Susan Sarandon) and Field of Dreams (1989, with Burt Lancaster). Costner gained enough clout to direct and star in his own movie: the western Dances With Wolves (1990) was a smash hit, winning the Best Picture Oscar and the Best Director Oscar for Costner. His 1995 movie Waterworld was a famous big-budget flop, but he bounced back the next year as a golfer in the romantic comedy Tin Cup (1996). His other films have included The Bodyguard (1992, with Whitney Houston), Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991, as Robin Hood), the Elvis-friendly crime adventure 3000 Miles to Graceland (2001) and the 2005 film The Upside of Anger (with Joan Allen).
Costner has been in two different movies about John F. Kennedy: JFK (1991) and Thirteen Days (2000)... Costner and his brother operate a casino, the Midnight Star, in Deadwood, South Dakota... Costner's scenes as the suicidal chum in The Big Chill (1983) were cut from the movie before its release... Costner wed his longtime girlfriend, Christine Baumgartner, on 25 September 2004. Costner was 49, Baumgartner 30. It was Baumgartner's first marriage; Costner was married to the former Cindy Silva from 1978-94.
Happy 50th birthday to actor Kevin Costner! Costner, who has often played heroic leading men in movies like The Untouchables and Wyatt Earp, won Oscars for best direction and best film for his 1990 epic Dances With Wolves.
Career Highlights: Bull Durham, The Untouchables, JFK
First Major Screen Credit: Stacy's Knights (1983)
Biography
One of Hollywood's most prominent strong, silent types, Kevin Costner was for several years the celluloid personification of the baseball industry, given his indelible mark with baseball-themed hits like Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, and For Love of the Game. His epic Western Dances with Wolves marked the first break from this trend and established Costner as a formidable directing talent to boot. Although several flops in the late '90s diminished his bankability, for many, Costner remained one of the industry's most enduring and endearing icons.
A native of California, Costner was born January 18, 1955, in Lynnwood. While a marketing student at California State University in Fullerton, he became involved with community theater. Upon graduation in 1978, Costner took a marketing job that lasted all of 30 days before deciding to take a crack at acting. After an inauspicious 1974 film debut in the ultra-cheapie Sizzle Beach USA, Costner decided to take a more serious approach to acting. Venturing down the usual theater-workshop, multiple-audition route, the actor impressed casting directors who weren't really certain of how to use him. That may be one reason why Costner's big-studio debut in Night Shift (1982) consisted of little more than background decoration, and the same year's Frances featured the hapless young actor as an off-stage voice.
Director Lawrence Kasdan liked Costner enough to cast him in the important role of the suicide victim who motivated the plot of The Big Chill (1983). Unfortunately, his flashback scenes were edited out of the movie, leaving all that was visible of the actor -- who had turned down Matthew Broderick's role in WarGames to take the part -- to be his dress suit, along with a fleeting glimpse of his hairline and hands as the undertaker prepared him for burial during the opening credits. Two years later, a guilt-ridden Kasdan chose Costner for a major part as a hell-raising gunfighter in the "retro" Western Silverado (1985), this time putting him in front of the camera for virtually the entire film. He also gained notice for the Diner-ish buddy road movie Fandango. The actor's big break came two years later as he burst onto the screen in two major films, No Way Out and The Untouchables; his growing popularity was further amplified with a brace of baseball films, released within months of one another. In Bull Durham (1988), the actor was taciturn minor-league ballplayer Crash Davis, and in the following year's Field of Dreams he was Ray Kinsella, a farmer who constructs a baseball diamond in his Iowa cornfield at the repeated urging of a voice that intones "if you build it, he will come."
Riding high on the combined box-office success of these films, Costner was able to make his directing debut. With a small budget of 18 million dollars, he went off to the Black Hills of South Dakota to film the first Western epic that Hollywood had seen in years, a revisionist look at American Indian-white relationships titled Dances With Wolves (1990). The supposedly doomed project, in addition to being one of '90s biggest moneymakers, also took home a slew of Academy Awards, including statues for Best Picture and Best Director (usurping Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas).
Costner's luck continued with the 1991 costume epic Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves; this, too, made money, though it seriously strained Costner's longtime friendship with the film's director, Kevin Reynolds. The same year, Costner had another hit -- and critical success -- on his hands with Oliver Stone's JFK. The next year's The Bodyguard, a film which teamed Costner with Whitney Houston, did so well at the box office that it seemed the actor could do no wrong. However, his next film, A Perfect World (1993), directed by Clint Eastwood and casting the actor against type as a half-psycho, half-benign prison escapee, was a major disappointment, even though Costner himself garnered some acclaim. Bad luck followed Perfect World in the form of another cast-against-type failure, the 1994 Western Wyatt Earp, which proved that Lawrence Kasdan could have his off days.
Adding insult to injury, Costner's 1995 epic sci-fi adventure Waterworld received a whopping amount of negative publicity prior to opening due to its ballooning budget and bloated schedule; ultimately, its decent box office total in no way offset its cost. The following year, Costner was able to rebound somewhat with the romantic comedy Tin Cup, which was well-received by the critics and the public alike. Unfortunately, he opted to follow up this success with another large-scaled directorial effort, an epic filmization of author David Brin's The Postman. The 1997 film featured Costner as a Shakespeare-spouting drifter in a post-nuclear holocaust America whose efforts to reunite the country give him messianic qualities. Like Waterworld, The Postman received a critical drubbing and did poorly with audiences. Costner's reputation, now at an all-time low, received some resuscitation with the 1998 romantic drama Message in a Bottle, and later the same year he returned to the genre that loved him best with Sam Raimi's baseball drama For Love of the Game. A thoughtful reflection on the Cuban missile crisis provided the groundwork for the mid-level success Thirteen Days (2000), though Costner's next turn -- as a member of a group of Elvis impersonating casino bandits in 3000 Miles to Graceland -- drew harsh criticism, relegating it to a quick death at the box office. Though Costner's next effort was a more sentimental supernatural drama lamenting lost love, Dragonfly (2002) was dismissed by many as a cheap clone of The Sixth Sense and met an almost equally hasty fate.
Costner fared better in 2003, and returned to directing, with Open Range, a Western co-starring himself and the iconic Robert Duvall -- while it was no Dances With Wolves in terms of mainstream popularity, it certainly received more positive feedback than The Postman or Waterworld. In 2004, Costner starred alongside Joan Allen in director Mike Binder's drama The Upside of Anger. That picture cast Allen as an unexpectedly single, upper-middle class woman who unexpectedly strikes up a romance with the boozy ex-baseball star who lives next door (Costner). Even if divided on the picture as a whole, critics unanimously praised the lead performances by Costner and Allen.
Costner then undertook another change-of-pace with one of his first psychological thrillers: 2007's Mr. Brooks, directed by Bruce A. Evans. Playing a psychotic criminal spurred on to macabre acts by his homicidal alter ego (William Hurt), Costner emerged from the critical- and box-office failure fairly unscathed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Costner was born in Lynwood, California, the youngest of the three sons (the middle of whom died at birth) of Sharon Rae (née Tedrick), a welfare worker, and William Costner, an electrician and later utilitiesexecutive.[1][2] He has German, Irish and Cherokee ancestry (his Oklahoma-born paternal grandfather was half Cherokee).[3][4][5] Costner was raised Baptist.[6] He attended Cabrillo Jr. High School and Buena High in Ventura, California. A poor student, Costner enjoyed sports in spite of his slight stature and took piano lessons, wrote poetry and sang in the First Baptist Choir.[1]
Kevin Costner became interested in acting while in college, and on graduation married Cindy. The couple honeymooned in Puerto Vallarta and on the return plane journey had a chance encounter with actor and fellow passenger Richard Burton, who had purchased all the seats around him for solitude. Burton agreed to speak to Costner after he finished his book. Costner, who had been taking acting classes, but had not told his wife about his desire to be an actor, watched Burton closely and approached when Burton gestured him to. Costner told Burton that he would prefer that his life was not filled with the type of drama that had followed Burton and asked if he would have to tolerate that if he became an actor. Burton replied, "You have green eyes. I have green eyes. I think you'll be fine." After landing, Burton's limousine pulled up to the curb where Costner and Cindy were waiting for a taxi, where Burton wished Costner luck. Costner would never see Burton again, but credits Burton with partially contributing to his career.[1][7]
Having agreed to undertake a job as a marketing executive on return, Costner began taking acting lessons five nights a week, with the support of his wife. His marketing job lasted 30 days. He took work which allowed him to develop his acting skills via tuition, including working on fishing boats, as a truck driver, and giving tours of stars' Hollywood homes to support the couple while he also made the audition rounds.[1]
Career
Costner made his film debut at age 19, in the 1974 film, Sizzle Beach, U.S.A., although the film was not released until 1986.
Costner made a very brief cameo in the 1982 Ron Howard film Night Shift, he is listed in the credits as 'Frat Boy #2' and appears at the climax of a Frat-style blow-out party in the N.Y.C. morgue, when the music is suddenly stopped by a frantic Henry Winkler, Costner can be seen holding a beer and looking surprised at the sudden halt of celebration.
He appeared in a commercial for the Apple Lisa in 1983, and in the same year, had a small role in the nuclear holocaust film Testament. Later, he was cast in The Big Chill and filmed several scenes that were planned as flashbacks, but they never made it to the final cut. His role was that of Alex, the friend who committed suicide, the event that brings the rest of the cast together. All that is seen of him are his slashed wrists as the mortician dresses his corpse in the movie's opening scenes.[8] Costner was a friend of director Lawrence Kasdan, who promised the actor a role in a future project. That became 1985's Silverado and a breakout role for Costner. He also starred that year in the smaller films Fandango and American Flyers.
Full-blown movie star status for Costner arrived in 1987 when he starred as federal agent Eliot Ness in The Untouchables and in the leading role of the thriller No Way Out. He solidified his A-list status in the baseball-themed films Bull Durham and Field of Dreams.
Costner's greatest success came with the epic Dances with Wolves (1990). He directed and starred in the film and served as one of its producers. The film was nominated for 12 Academy Awards and won seven, including two for him personally (Best Picture and Best Director). Revenge (1990), in which he starred along with Anthony Quinn and Madeleine Stowe, directed by Tony Scott (Costner had wanted to direct it himself), was another notable film from the same year.
He then took the title role in the biopic Wyatt Earp (1994), directed by Kasdan. It fizzled at the summer 1994 box office. The science fiction epics Waterworld (1995) and The Postman (1997), the latter of which Costner also directed, were both major commercial disappointments and are both largely regarded by critics as artistic failures. (Waterworld in particular has made several critics' "Worst Movies of All Time" lists.)
Costner then starred in the golf comedy Tin Cup (1996) for Ron Shelton, who had previously directed him in Bull Durham. The actor developed the film Air Force One and was set to play the lead role of the President, but ultimately decided to concentrate on finishing The Postman instead. He personally offered the project to Harrison Ford.
His career revived somewhat in 2000 with Thirteen Days, in which he portrayed a top adviser to John F. Kennedy. The western Open Range, which he directed and starred in, received critical acclaim in 2003, though it was only a minor success commercially.
After that, Costner starred in The Guardian and in Mr. Brooks, in which he portrayed a serial killer. In 2008, Costner starred in Swing Vote. Costner was honored on September 6, 2006 when his hand and foot prints were set in concrete in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre alongside those of other celebrated actors and entertainers.[8]
Country music career
Costner is the singer of "Kevin Costner and Modern West," a rock/country band which he founded with the encouragement of his wife Christine. He began a worldwide tour with the band in October 2007, which included shows in Istanbul and Rome. It also performed at NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at Daytona International Speedway and Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, NC.
The band released a country album, Untold Truths, on November 11, 2008 on Universal South Records. The album peaked at #61 on the BillboardTop Country Albums and #35 on the Top Heatseekers chart. Three singles ("Superman 14", "Long Hot Night" and "Backyard") have been released to radio, although neither has charted. The single "Superman 14" has been made into a live music video.
In 2009, he went on tour with his band, the Modern West, and special guests The Alternate Routes. In August, at the Big Valley Jamboree in Camrose, Alberta, Costner and the band were scheduled next on stage when a severe thunderstorm struck, collapsing the stage and stands on the main stage. One person was reported dead and forty wounded.[9] Later, an auction was held to raise money for the two young sons of the woman killed. A dinner with Costner was auctioned off for $41,000. Two guitars, one autographed by Costner, helped raise another $10,000 each.[10]
Personal life
Relationships
While in college, Costner was a member of Delta Chi fraternity.[1] He started dating fellow student Cindy Silva in March 1975, and their subsequent marriage three years later produced three children: Annie (born in 1984), Lily (born in 1986), and Joe (born in 1988). The couple divorced in 1994 after 16 years of marriage. He has a son, Liam (born in 1996), with Bridget Rooney, with whom he had a brief relationship following his divorce.[11]
On September 25, 2004, Costner married his girlfriend of four years, German model and handbag designer Christine Baumgartner,[13] at his ranch in Aspen, Colorado. Costner took his new bride for a canoe ride on a lake following the ceremony. The couple honeymooned in Scotland.[14] Their first child, Cayden Wyatt Costner, was born on May 6, 2007 at a Los Angeles hospital.[15] Their second son, Hayes Logan, was born on February 12, 2009.[16]
He has a home in Austin, Texas and sometimes appears at University of Texas baseball practices and games. Costner is a close friend of Longhorns baseball coach Augie Garrido from Garrido's days coaching at Cal State Fullerton, the actor's alma mater. He cast Garrido to play the role of the Yankee manager in For Love of the Game. He tries to attend every College World Series game that Cal State Fullerton plays in Omaha, Nebraska.
Costner owns 93.5% of the "Midnight Star"casino, in Deadwood, South Dakota. The casino, its sports bar, "Diamond Lil's", and its restaurant, "Jake's", are named after characters and locations from the movie Silverado and the facility contains posters, costumes, and other memorabilia from Costner's films. In July 2004, Costner fired Francis and Carla Caneva, who managed the Midnight Star. A judge subsequently ordered Costner to pay $6.1 million to buy out the Canevas as his business partners. In October 2006, Costner asked the South Dakota Supreme Court to re-examine the ruling, as an accountant hired by the actor had determined the market value of the casino to be $3.1 million.[19]
NASCAR
Costner was named ceremonial Grand Marshall of the NASCARNextel Cup Series' Auto Club 500 which took place on February 25, 2007, at the California Speedway.[20] In 2008, he worked with the NASCAR Media Group and CMT Films to help produce the NASCAR Documentary, "The Ride of Their Lives" which would be released in 2009. Costner would be the narrator for that documentary. Also in 2009, he was named the spokesperson for NASCAR Day which took place on May 15. The next day, May 16, he and his country music band would perform in the infield of Lowe's Motor Speedway as well as participate as a judge in the 2nd annual Pennzoil Victory Challenge before the 25th Running of the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race.
Other interests
The actor plays regularly in celebrity golf tournaments, including the PGA Tour's annual pro-am at Pebble Beach, California and the BMW Pro-Am held each April in Greenville County, South Carolina.
Since 1992, Costner has financially supported a variety of Democratic Party politicians, including Al Gore and Tom Daschle, but also made contributions to Republican PartyPhil Gramm as late as 1995.[21] He said publicly in 2008 that he has no ambition to run for political office, adding "I've lived quite a colorful life."[22]
In the final days before the 2008 election, Costner campaigned for Barack Obama, visiting various places in Colorado—a state in which he has a home. In his speech, Costner stated the need for young voters to get to the polls, early and with enthusiasm. "We were going to change the world and we haven't," Costner said at a Colorado State University rally. "My generation didn't get it done, and we need you to help us."[23]
I have seen soldiers panic at the first sight of battle, and a wounded squire pulling arrows out from his wound to fight and save his dying horse. Nobility is not a birth right but is defined by one's action.
- Kevin Costner, Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves
I have seen soldiers panic at the first sight of battle, and a wounded squire pulling arrows out from his wound to fight and save his dying horse. Nobility is not a birth right but is defined by one's action.
