Kevin Costner

Kevin Costner, born in 1955, American motion-picture actor, director, and producer, who became one of Hollywood’s most popular stars in the late 1980s. Costner was born in a suburb of Los Angeles, California. He considered becoming a professional baseball player after high school, but instead enrolled at California State University, Fullerton. He graduated in 1978 with a degree in marketing. Costner became interested in acting, and after playing some roles in community theater, he decided to pursue an acting career.

Costner landed a number of small film parts in the early 1980s. After a near miss at fame in the popular motion picture The Big Chill (1983)—Costner’s part was edited out of the film—he got his first real break in 1983 playing a nuclear-war survivor in the film Testament. Costner’s portrayal of a gunfighter in Silverado (1985) established him as a leading actor.

After Silverado, Costner appeared in several highly successful films. In The Untouchables (1987) he played United States Treasury agent Eliot Ness, who fought organized crime in Chicago, Illinois, in the 1920s. No Way Out (1987) featured Costner as a naval officer and spy. In Bull Durham (1988) he won acclaim for his performance as Crash Davis, an aging professional baseball catcher who falls in love with an ardent fan played by Susan Sarandon.

One of Costner’s most successful films was Field of Dreams (1989), which features him as Ray Kinsella, an Iowa farmer who hears a mysterious voice telling him to plow up one of his cornfields to build a baseball diamond. He does, and the spirits of the members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox appear and play baseball there. When commands from the voice continue, Ray ignores his farming work to puzzle out what they mean.

Wanting to produce and direct, Costner formed his own production company in 1989. In association with Orion Pictures Corporation, he directed, coproduced, and starred in the ambitious three-hour film Dances with Wolves (1990), the story of a soldier during the time of the American Civil War (1861-1865) who lives among the Sioux people. The film won seven Academy Awards, including Oscars for best picture and best director.

Costner’s next two films, both released in 1991, were JFK, a movie about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy directed by Oliver Stone, and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Costner also starred in The Bodyguard (1992) with Whitney Houston and in A Perfect World (1993), in which he portrayed an escaped convict pursued by a Texas Ranger played by Clint Eastwood.

Costner returned to directing with the futuristic fantasy Waterworld (1995), which received much press attention as its budget spiraled to $180 million. When it was finally released, critics were quick to pounce on its rambling storyline, and it was only rescued from total box-office disaster by the verve of Costner’s performance. He received strong criticism again with the release of The Postman, a big-budget, post-apocalyptic thriller, which he produced, directed, and starred in.

Costner’s other roles have included a Vietnam War veteran suffering post-traumatic stress disorder in The War (1994); a struggling golfer in Tin Cup (1996); a baseball player near the end of his career in For Love of the Game (1999); a political aide during the Cuban missile crisis in Thirteen Days (2000); a member of a gang of robbers in 3000 Miles to Graceland (2001), a comedy thriller about a casino heist during an Elvis Presley convention; and a widower who believes his dead wife is trying to communicate with him in Dragonfly (2002). Costner returned to directing with the Western Open Range (2003), in which he also starred with Robert Duvall. In 2005 he played a washed-up former baseball star in the family melodrama The Upside of Anger. In 2006 he starred as an unorthodox Coast Guard instructor in the action-adventure film The Guardian.