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KEVIN COSTNER BIOGRAPHY |
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While a marketing student at California State
University inFullerton, American actor Kevin Costner became
involvedwith community theatre. Upon graduation in 1978,
Costnertook a marketing job that lasted all of 30 days before
hedecided to take a crack at acting. At least that's the
officialstory; though Costner would probably like to cremate
thememory, the fact is that he made his film debut in 1974 in
theultra-cheapie Sizzle Beach USA. No matter. When
Costnerseriously decided to take up acting, he went the
usualtheatre-workshop, multiple-audition route. Casting
directorssaw potential, but weren't quite sure how to use
Costner; besides, the novice actorhad a bad habit of speaking up
if something bothered him on the set. That may bewhy his Big-Studio
debut in Night Shift (1982) consisted of little more
thanbackground decoration and the subsequent Frances (1982)
featured Costner as anoffstage voice. Director Lawrence Kasdan
liked Costner enough to cast him in theimportant role of the
suicide victim who motivated the plot of The Big Chill (1983),but
when the film was released, all we saw of Costner were his dress
suit andnecktie as the undertaker prepared him for burial during
the opening credits. Twoyears later, a guilt-ridden Lawrence
Kasdan chose Costner for a major part as ahell-raising
gunfighter in the ''retro'' Western Silverado(1985) - and this
time he was on camera for virtually theentire film.
Costner's big breakthrough came with a brace of baseballfilms,
released within months of one another: in BullDurham (1988), the
actor was taciturn minor-leagueballplayer Crash Davis, and in
Field of Dreams he wasRay Kinsella, a farmer who constructed a
baseballdiamond in his Iowa cornfield when The Voice said ''If
youbuild it, he will come.'' His Hollywood clout amplified by
thecombined box-office success of these films enabledCostner to
make his directing debut. With a minusculebudget of $18 million,
Costner went off to the Black Hills ofSouth Dakota to film the
first Western Epic that Hollywoodhad seen in years, a
revisionist look at Indian-Whiterelationships titled Dances With
Wolves (1990).Detractors had a field day with this supposedly
foredoomed project, labeling the film''Costner's Folly'' and ''Kevin's
Gate.'' But he who laughs last...Dances with Wolveswas not only
one of 1990's biggest moneymakers but also that year's
AcademyAward-winning film; additionally, Costner copped an Oscar
as Best Director.
A curious costume epic Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)followed,
with Costner as the world's first Oklahoma-accentedRobin Hood;
this, too, made money, though it seriouslystrained Costner's
longtime friendship with the film's director,the notoriously
erratic Kevin Reynolds. The Bodyguard (1992),an improbable
concoction which teamed Costner with WhitneyHouston, did so well
at the box-office that it seemed the actorcould do no wrong. But
A Perfect World (1993), directed byClint Eastwood and casting
Costner against type as ahalf-psycho, half-benign prison escapee,
was a majordisappointment, even though Costner came through
withone of his best performances. Unfortunately, Costnerfollowed
Perfect World with another cast-against-typefailure, the 1994
sagebrush dud Wyatt Earp, which provedthat even director
Lawrence Kasdan can have his off days.Costner's most recent film
Waterworld received anenormous amount of negative publicity
prior to openingbecause it was way over budget and schedule,
however, itopened to good critical reviews and so far, has
beenenjoying box office success. |
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