Kevin Costner Biography all about Kevin

Kevin Costner Biography

Fast Facts

Kevin was born in Lynnwood, California on January 18th, 1955

As a youth he starred in basketball, baseball and football which would fuel his later work in Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, Tin Cup and For the Love of the Game etc.

He is a poet

He was only 5'2" upon graduating from Villa Park High School, but soon thereafter exploded to a height of 6'1

A&E's Kevin Costner Biography Video

Legendary Film Cowboys DVD set

Kevin Costner Biography

"Being a celebrity is probably the closest to being a beautiful woman as you can get"

Kevin Costner

Kevin first caught the theatre bug when he fell in love with the classic film "How the West Was Won" with film greats Henry Fonda, James Stewart and John Wayne...but due to a lack of inspirational role models in his personal life it never occurred to him to pursue acting as a career...he decided it was an impractical dream to follow.

When in college however he got involved in community theatre and was immediately hooked. He was majoring in the very practical fields of marketing and finance in school and after graduating in 1978 he did work for a bit in a marketing firm, but decided to move on and see if he could make his dreams come true. He married his college sweetheart Cindy Silva and moved to Hollywood to begin a new life.

It was a rocky start at first for Kevin. His first movie "Sizzle Beach, U.S.A.", was one he was sorry for doing almost right away and probably even more sorry later when it was released in 1986 when he was famous. Then along came the Big Chill in which his part was almost completely edited out by director Lawrence Kasdan. Kevin played the part of the man who commits suicide and the only part that remained in the film is Kevin playing the part of the corpse in the opening credits...this was not a good turn of events for Kevin and in Hollywood people were laughing at him...but he kept his head up high and didn't let it get to him.

Kasden made it up to him by creating a part just for him in the western flick "Silverado" with Kevin Kline and Danny Glover. People liked what they saw and after 1987's "Untouchables" directed by Brian de Palma and 1988's "No Way Out" he had gained respect in the industry and was considered to be a serious actor who also happened to be very sexy.

In 1988 Kevin played Crash Davis in "Bull Durham" who is an aging baseball catcher in a minor league. With Susan Sarandon he made the screen burn up with intense love scenes and cemented his sexy reputation...also the American public now associated him with one of their favorite past-times, baseball and this association was strengthened in the movie "Field of Dreams" released in 1989.

He earned Best Picture and Best Director with his first directorial debut "Dances With Wolves" at the 1990 Academy Awards. He also starred in this movie which grossed more than 900 million dollars. This was an amazing success for Kevin and proved his willingness to take risks in the industry since the movie was over 3 hours long and half of the movie used subtitles since it was a tale involving the Sioux tribe adopting an American soldier...

He was riding a wave of fame that soon would come crashing down with disappointments such as "Robin Hood", "Waterworld" and "Wyatt Earp"...but through all the high and lows of his career Kevin displayed a rare ability to stay with his confidence and belief in himself, despite what critics would say...he had better success with such movies as "Tin Cup", "The Bodyguard", "Thirteen Days", "For Love of the Game" and a Disney flick "Open Range" with Robert Duvall.

The story is ongoing as his production company Tig Pictures has several projects in the works, one of which is a sequel to the Bodyguard, Two Guys on the Job, and a musical theatre experiment called My Cuba.

I would like to acknowledge A&E's Biography website for the information gathered above.

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