Who Is Kevin Costner?

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The American actor and musician made his breakthrough in 1987 with Brian de Palma’s film The Untouchables. At the height of his career, Costner produced, directed and starred in the lavish epic western Dances With Wolves in 1990. Contrary to the expectations of the professional world, the more than three-hour strip was an international cinema success and was awarded seven “Oscars”, including for Costner’s direction and Best Picture. Some economic failures followed, but he is still one of the most popular filmmakers and actors in Hollywood. Other major productions with Costner include JFK, Bodyguard, Perfect World, Waterworld, Where Love Falls and Hatfields & McCoys…

Michael Kevin Costner was born on January 18, 1955 in Lynwood, California, into a working-class family.

Costner grew up in Oklahoma. After graduating from high school, he majored in economics. His passion for theater was awakened while he was still at school, and so he took part in various theater groups during his studies, in which he mostly played classical roles. Kevin Costner made his first professional appearances at the South Coast Actors Coop. It was there that he was discovered for the film. After smaller productions, Costner played his first film role in 1987 in the Brian de Palma film “The Untouchables”. In it he embodied the enthusiastic and smart policeman Elliot Ness, who tries to stop Al Capone in Chicago in the 1920s. In this production he has already worked with the top of international film such as Sean Connery, Andy Garcia and Robert De Niro. Shortly thereafter he founded his own film company. The reason for this was, among other things, the screenplay for the Indian epic “Dances With Wolves”, in which he himself played the leading role of US Lieutenant “Dunbar”.

But at the end of the 1980s, no producer was interested in filming a western-style love story with Native Americans. Kevin Costner made the film himself and invested almost all of his earnings over the past few years in the production costs. In 1990, the stiffy was in the cinemas. The strip not only became the internationally best-attended film of the year, but also made Costner a Hollywood star overnight. The work was honored with seven “Oscars” and is still one of the most successful film productions in the USA. After this project, all doors were open to Costner. In 1991, like many others before him, he filmed “Robin Hood – King of Thieves”. If this repetition of the topic was considered a big risk, Costner was even able to win over veteran Sean Connery to collaborate. Although this film did not receive any awards, it was also one of the most successful productions of the year and triggered a remake hysteria of old themes in the 1990s. In the same year, 1991, he co-produced “J.F.K – Tatort Dallas” with Costner.

Oliver Stone filmed the murder and the attempted clarification of the real killers of John F. Kennedy. In 1992 the film “Bodyguard” was made, in which Coster played the guard of the singer Whitney Houston; at the same time he produced this strip. In the social crime drama “Perfect World” (1993), also directed by Clint Eastwood, Kevin Costner played the criminal “Butch Haynes” with a special relationship with a boy he kidnapped. In the same year, 1993, Kevin Costner ventured into the science fiction film “Waterworld” as a producer. Outsiders rejected the topic – as they did with his hit “Dances With Wolves”. Once again, Costner set out to fund the film from his own resources. The cost of filming on the open sea far exceeded initial bills, yet Costner remained obsessed with filming the material. Upon completion, the work became one of the most expensive productions Hollywood had ever seen.

In 1994 “Waterworld” was released in cinemas. Even the premiere was flat. Numerous cinemas did not want to show the film at all, or only outside of the prime time and only in side rooms. The reviews and box office results were just as devastating. “Waterworld” became a million dollar grave. In the romantic comedy “Tin Cup” from 1996, Costner played the former successful golf pro “Roy McAvoy”, aka Tin Cup. His opponent in it is Don Johnson. In 1997, Costner was another, already highly controversial production. Again he failed to find investors and produced the film himself. The disaster was called “Postman” and was awarded five “raspberries” for the worst film. Since the late 1990s, Costner has been investing huge sums in a new technical process that is supposed to separate oil and water. The costs of ship disasters with oil tankers should be amortized.

In the political thriller “Thirteen Days” (2000), in which the events of the “Cuba Crisis” of 1962 are impressively presented, Kevin Costner not only played a leading role, but was also one of the producers. Costner’s other film projects include the 2001 psychological thriller Dragonfly, which was not well received by many critics. In September 2004 he married Christine Baumgartner from Austria. In 2005, after a long break from the screen, Costner appeared in the drama On Your Shoulder and the comedy Where Love Falls. In 2013, he won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor for “Hatfields & McCoys.” In 2019 he played the leading role in the crime film “The Highwaymen”.

Table of Contents

Filmography

1984 – “The Gunrunner”.

1984 – “Fandango”.

1985 – “Silverado”.

1985 – “The Winners – American Flyers”.

1987 – “The Untouchables”.

1987 – “No Way Out”.

1988 – “Field of Dreams”.

1990 – “Dances With Wolves”.

1990 – “A Dangerous Affair – Revenge”.

1991 – “JFK – Crime Scene Dallas”.

1991 – “Robin Hood – King of Thieves”.

1992 – “Bodyguard”.

1993 – “Perfect World”.

1994 – “Wyatt Earp”.

1994 – “The Tree House”.

1995 – “Water World”.

1996 – “Tin Cup”.

1997 – “Postman”.

1998 – “Message in a Bottle”.

1999 – “For the love of the game”.

2000 – “Thirteen Days”.

2005 – “On Your Shoulder”.

2005 – “Where love falls…”.

2006 – “Every Second Counts”.

How old is Kevin Costner?

67 years
January 18, 1955