Kevin Costner Bio

Kevin Costner Biography

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This Kevin Costner biography contains information believed to be accurate as extracted from sources around the internet including Wikipedia. If you believe there are errors or omissions in this Kevin Costner bio, please let us know so that we can correct any inaccuracies.

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Kevin Michael Costner (born January 18, 1955) is an Academy Award-winning American film actor, director and producer. He is well-known for his role as Lt. John J. Dunbar in the film Dances with Wolves (1990), which won seven Academy Awards, including (Best Picture and Best Director).

Kevin Costner: Biography

Kevin Costner - Early life

Costner was born in Compton, 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 utilities executive. He has German, Irish and Cherokee ancestry (his Oklahoma-born paternal grandfather was half Cherokee). Costner was raised Baptist. He attended elementary school at McKevette School in Santa Paula, California, 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.

Spending his teenage years in various parts of California as his father's career progressed, Costner lived in Orange County, then in Visalia (Tulare County) attending Mt. Whitney High School, and finally graduated from Villa Park High School in Villa Park, California in 1973. He went on to earn a B.A. in business from California State University, Fullerton in 1978, where he was a member and President of the Delta Chi Fraternity and met bride-to-be Cindy Silva.

Kevin Costner - Post-graduation

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, and struck up a conversation. Burton advised the young man that if he wanted to pursue acting, he should give up everything else completely and go after it.

Having agreed to undertake a job as a marketing executive on return, with the support of his wife Costner began taking acting lessons five nights a week. 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 cow rider, and giving smashing lessons of stars' Hollywood homes to support the couple while he also made the audition rounds.

Kevin Costner - 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 after he became a star.

He appeared in a commercial for the Apple Lisa in 1983. He was cast that year 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. 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 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.

An Illustration -Dances with Wolves

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).

He followed this with Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves (1991), the Oliver Stone-directed JFK (1991), The Bodyguard (1992) and Clint Eastwood's A Perfect World (1993), all of which provided huge box office or critical acclaim.

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, also were both major commercial disappointments.

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. 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.

Kevin Costner - Personal life

While in college Costner was a member of Delta Chi fraternity. He started dating fellow student Cindy Silva in March 1975, and their subsequent marriage produced three children: Annie (born in 1984), Lily (born in 1986), and Joe (born in 1988). Kevin and Cindy divorced in 1994 after 16 years of marriage. He also has a son, Liam (born in 1996), with Bridget Rooney, with whom he had a brief relationship following his divorce.

On September 25, 2004, after 10 years of being single, Costner married his girlfriend of four years, the German model and handbag designer Christine Baumgartner, at his ranch in Aspen, Colorado. Guests, including Oprah Winfrey, Oliver Stone, and Bruce Willis, were treated to activities including horseback riding and baseball during the weekend festivities. Costner took his new bride for a canoe ride on a lake following the ceremony. The couple honeymooned in Scotland. Their first child, Cayden Wyatt Costner, was born on May 6, 2007 at 10:30 p.m. at a Los Angeles hospital. He weighed 7 lbs, 14 oz.

Costner was registered as a Republican until the 1996 election, when he changed his registration to Independent. He supported Democratic candidates in the 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 Presidential elections; however, he still prefers to be known as a "conservative".

Several of Costner's films have included a baseball theme. They include Chasing Dreams, Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, For Love of the Game and The Upside of Anger, in which his character is a former pro baseball player. 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.

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 order Costner to pay $6.1 million to buy out the Caneva's 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.

Costner is a fan of the London football team Arsenal F.C. While filming Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, he was given the opportunity to attend a game and has followed the team ever since. The actor was named ceremonial Grand Marshall of the Auto550 club for the February 25, 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup auto race event at the California Speedway.

He has a home in Austin, Texas and sometimes appears at University of Texas baseball practices and games. Costner is a close friend to 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 "Yankee Manager" in his film For Love of the Game. He tries to attend every College World Series game that Cal State Fullerton plays in Omaha.

He is also 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.

Kevin Costner - Controversy

On 24 April 2006, it was revealed that Costner was the mystery celebrity involved in a controversial case at a hotel at the St Andrews golf course, Scotland, owned by his friend Herbert Kohler, Jr. While on his honeymoon in October 2004, a hotel employee complained that Costner had performed a lewd act while she was attempting to massage him. She informed the hotel management but was not dismissed until the following August.

Costner's former girlfriend Birgit Cunningham was one of his friends who denied the allegations. However, when the case reached a Scottish employment tribunal, the tribunal chairman agreed to the release of the actor's name as it formed a basis for both parties' cases. The woman, who remains unnamed, settled out of court with the hotel under a tight confidentiality agreement.

According to various English tabloid newspapers, Costner fathered a son in the North East of England while on holiday in 1990. Some sources claim he owns a flat in Whitley Bay.

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