Kevin Michael Costner (born January 18, 1955) is an Oscar winning American film actor and director who has often produced his own films. During his career, Costner's films have grossed over $1.3 billion.
Biography
Costner was born in Lynwood, California, the youngest of the three sons (the middle son died at childbirth) of William Costner, an electrician, and Sharon Tedrick; he has English, Irish, and distant Native American and German ancestry. He attended elementary school at McKevette School in Santa Paula, California. He spent his teenage years and pre-actor adulthood in Orange County, California, attending Mt. Whitney High School in the baseball town of Visalia, California, graduating from Villa Park High School in Villa Park, California in 1973, and earning a B.A. in business from California State University, Fullerton in 1978, where he was a member and President of the Delta Chi Fraternity.
Costner became interested in acting while still in college, and began taking acting lessons five nights a week. Costner later worked briefly with a California marketing firm. During a chance encounter with actor Richard Burton, who struck up a conversation with him, Burton advised the young man that if he wanted to pursue acting, he should give everything up completely and go after it with both hands. Costner married a Portuguese-American by the name of Cindy Silva. With his wife behind him, Costner worked on fishing boats and as a truck driver, and gave tours of stars' Hollywood homes to support the two while he made the audition rounds.
Personal life
Costner has three children with Cindy: Annie (born in 1984), Lily (born in 1986) and Joe (born in 1988). Lily is currently attending college. Joe is currently a freshman, and Annie graduated from Brown University in 2006. All three of his children with Cindy were educated in part at the Chandler School in Pasadena, California. He also has a son, Liam (born in 1996), with Bridget Rooney, with whom he had a brief relationship following his divorce from Cindy. Only through blood tests was it revealed that Costner was Liam's father. Kevin and Cindy divorced in 1994 after 16 years of marriage.
On September 25, 2004, after ten years of being single, Costner married his girlfriend of four years, Christine Baumgartner at his ranch in Aspen, Colorado. Guests, including Oprah Winfrey, Oliver Stone and Bruce Willis, were treated to activities including horse riding and baseball during the weekend festivities. Costner took his new bride for a canoe ride on a lake following the ceremony. The couple planed to honeymoon in Scotland 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 Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, and For Love of the Game. Costner has a love for baseball and has stated he loves to play baseball even more than he loves to watch it. Costner plays regularly in celebrity golf tournaments, including the annual 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 all 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 $6.1m to buy out the Caneva's as his business partners. In November2006, the South Dakota Supreme Court overturned the lower court's verdict. The SDSC ruled that the casino be appraised and if found to be worth less than $4.9 million, the amount the Costner has put into the hotel, he will not be force to pay his former partners.
Kevin Costner's Photos
Filmography
Stacy's Knights (1982)
Chasing Dreams (1982)
Night Shift (1982)
Frances (1982)
Table For Five (1983)
The Big Chill (1983) (scenes deleted)
Testament (1983)
The Gunrunner (1984)
Fandango (1985)
Silverado (1985)
American Flyers (1985)
Sizzle Beach, U.S.A. (1986) (originally filmed in 1974)
Shadows Run Black (1986)
The Untouchables (1987)
No Way Out (1987)
Bull Durham (1988)
Field Of Dreams (1989)
Revenge (1990) (actor and executive producer)
Dances With Wolves (1990) (actor, director and producer)
Madonna: Truth Or Dare (1991) (documentary)
Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves (1991) (actor, producer)
JFK (1991)
Oliver Stone (1992) (documentary)
Beyond 'JFK': The Question Of Conspiracy (1992) (documentary)
The Bodyguard (1992) (actor, producer)
Amazing Stories: Book One (1992), episode: The Mission, in which he plays the captain of the plane
A Perfect World (1993)
A Century of Cinema (1994) (documentary)
Wyatt Earp (1994) (actor, producer)
The War (1994)
Waterworld (1995) (actor, producer, and uncredited director)
Tin Cup (1996)
Sean Connery, An Intimate Portrait (1997) (documentary)
The Postman (1997) (director, producer, and actor)
Message in a Bottle (1999) (actor, producer)
For Love of the Game (1999)
Play It To The Bone (1999) (Cameo)
Thirteen Days (2000) (actor, producer)
3000 Miles to Graceland (2001)
Dragonfly (2002)
Open Range (2003) (actor, director, and producer)
The Upside of Anger (2005)
Rumor Has It (2005)
The Guardian (2006)
Mr. Brooks (2007) (currently filming)
The Tortilla Curtain (2006) (currently in pre-production) (actor, producer)
