Kevin Costner is an American film and television actor, producer, director, musician, and vocalist who has received widespread recognition throughout his career. Costner is widely considered to be one of the best performers in Hollywood, having won several honors, including two Oscars, a Primetime Emmy, and three Golden Globes. Costner has interests outside of acting; he formed the country rock band Kevin Costner and Modern West and recorded two albums under their name. The main vocalist, Costner, embarked on a globetrotting tour with the band and fronted multiple international performances.
Early Life
Costner was born in Lynwood, California, to electrician William Costner and social worker Sharon Rae. Costner, the youngest of three brothers, has ancestry that spans the British Isles. Costner’s family moved about since his father worked for the power company; he spent time in Ventura, Orange County, and Visalia. He started his education at Mt. Whitney High School and finished in 1973 at Villa Park High School. He was more into athletics and creative writing than studying while he was in school. In order to get a Bachelor of Arts in Marketing and Finance, Costner enrolled at California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) in 1978.
Costner’s senior year of college was when he first became interested in acting. He attended his acting class five days a week. To make ends meet, he worked as a truck driver and as a tour guide who brought paying customers through the mansions of famous people in Hollywood. He worked full-time and went to audition after audition.
Personal Life
Costner began dating Cindy Silva, another CSUF student, during his time there, and the two wed soon after he earned his degree. Anne ‘Annie’ Clayton, Lily McCall, and Joseph ‘Joe’ Tedrick are the names of the couple’s three children. They were married for 16 years until they called it quits in 1994. After splitting up with his first wife, Costner briefly dated Bridget Rooney and had a son, Liam Timothy Costner, in November 1996.
Christine Baumgartner, a German-American model and handbag designer, became Costner’s second wife in September 2004. The ceremony took place at his estate in Aspen, Colorado. Grace, who was born in June of 2010, joined older brothers Cayden and Hayes.
Movie Career
As an Actor
For an actor of Kevin Costner’s quality, his career got off to a sluggish start: the 1981 indie film he starred in and directed, Sizzle Beach, U.S.A., was mostly overlooked. The next three films he was involved with—Night Shift (1982), Stacy’s Knights (1983), and Shadows Run Black (1984)—were all either box office bombs or moderate successes, and he received little to no acclaim for his efforts. In 1985, with Kevin Reynolds making his directorial debut with the American comedy film Fandango, Costner had his first significant breakthrough. The picture, which also starred Sam Robards and Chuck Bush, was praised by critics. In his opinion, “Fandango” is among the finest first features ever made. Even though Fandango was only in theaters for a week, I watched it five times.
In 1987, Costner starred in the blockbuster movie The Untouchables, starring Charles Martin Smith, Andy Garcia, Robert De Niro, and Sean Connery, directed by Brian De Palma. The picture was nominated for four Academy Awards and was a financial success. After those four years, in 1990, Costner starred in and directed Dances with Wolves, which went on to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. The movie tells the narrative of a lieutenant in the Union Army who goes to the American frontier in search of a position, and it’s based on Michael Blake’s 1988 novel of the same name. The film was chosen for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress because of its “cultural, historical, or aesthetic significance.” The film received seven Academy Awards and the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture—Drama.
After the success of Dances with Wolves, Costner had an equally impressive performance as the title character in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991). The film’s theme song, “Everything I Do, I Do It for You,” by Bryan Adams, won a Grammy and helped make it the year’s second highest-grossing movie. In the same year, JFK, an American conspiracy thriller centered on the events surrounding John F. Kennedy’s murder, was released, with Costner working with director Oliver Stone. The picture, which also starred Michael Rooker, Tommy Lee Jones, Laurie Metcalf, and Gary Oldman, was a critical and commercial success.
In the years that followed, the actor appeared in critically and financially successful films, including The Bodyguard (1992), Wyatt Earp (1994), Tin Cup (1996), and The Postman (1997). The movie starring Robin Wright Penn, John Savage, Illeana Douglas, and Paul Newman was adapted from Nicholas Sparks’s book of the same name from 1998 and directed by Luis Mandoki. Starting off the new century, Costner’s first three films were all critical and commercial failures: Thirteen Days (2000), 3000 Miles to Graceland (2001), and Dragonfly (2002). Mr. Brooks, a 2007 American psychological thriller directed by Bruce A. Evans, was his next big break. The movie, which also starred Dane Cook and William Hurt, had a minor cult following and was critically well-received.
In 2013, Costner starred in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, a superhero picture based on DC comics. The cinematic adaptation of the comic book superhero Superman was met with lukewarm to good reviews but nevertheless became a box office smash. In 2016, Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Jesse Eisenberg, and Laurence Fishburne starred in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, where the actor made a cameo appearance. Reviews were mostly favorable, and the picture ended up making $873 million at the box office. Theodore Melfi also had an American biopic, Hidden Figures, released this year. The film was well-received by critics and audiences alike, earning several accolades and nominations (including three for the Academy Awards and two for the Golden Globes). In 2017, Costner appeared in Aaron Sorkin’s Molly’s Game.
As a Producer
Kevin Costner has produced a number of films in addition to appearing in them. Revenge (1990), directed by Tony Scott, was his first film as a producer. Dances with Wolves, for which he won an Academy Award, was released under his supervision that same year. Wyatt Earp (1994), Waterworld (1995), The Postman (1997), Message in a Bottle (1999), Open Range (2003), and Black or White (2015) are a few of his other well-known productions.
As a Director
Dances with Wolves was Costner’s first film as director, and it earned him an Oscar. His second directorial effort, The Postman (1997), was met with high hopes after the success of the film, but it bombed at the box office and earned him widespread criticism. The actor-turned-director answered his detractors with Open Range (2003), a successful American western that was well-praised by reviewers and audiences alike.
TV Career
The actor who has done it all in the film business is not hiding from television. Amazing Stories (1995), in which he appeared in two episodes as Captain, was his television acting debut. His other TV credits include the miniseries Hatfields & McCoys (2012), which he also produced, and the 1990 episode “The Earth Day Special.”
