Kevin Costner

Kevin Costner (birthname: Kevin Michael Costner) has had a career as a movie star and filmmaker characterized by dramatic swings of fame and acclaim, from Oscar wins to a lengthy span of minor work to a resurgence in the 2020s with Western epics on the small and big screen.

Costner’s early years from 1981 to 1985 included several minor efforts, including his movie debut in Sizzle Beach, U.S.A. (1981), and small roles in some significant movies like Frances (1982), starring Jessica Lange, and an uncredited role in co-writer/director Lawrence Kasdan’s hit comedy-drama, The Big Chill (1983), which led Kasdan to cast Costner in his breakthrough role in the Western, Silverado (1985), starring Kevin Kline, Scott Glenn, Rosanna Arquette, John Cleese, Brian Dennehy, Danny Glover, Jeff Goldblum, and Linda Hunt.

Costner’s first major starring role was Eliot Ness in Brain De Palma’s Oscar-winning The Untouchables (1987) for Paramount Pictures, with Charles Martin Smith, Andy Garcia, Robert De Niro, and Sean Connery. Costner starred in the Roger Donaldson-directed thriller, No Way Out (1987), co-starring Gene Hackman, Sean Young, Will Patton, and Howard Duff, and returning slim returns for Orion Pictures.

Kevin Costner solidified his place as a leading man in director/writer Ron Shelton’s beloved baseball movie, Bull Durham (1988), in which he played opposite Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon, winning over critics and audiences for distributor Orion Pictures. Costner pulled off the baseball movie equivalent of a double-header with Universal Pictures’ cult classic, Field of Dreams (1989), written and directed by Phil Alden Robinson and with Amy Madigan, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta, and Burt Lancaster, and which was selected for preservation for the Library of Congress’s U.S. National Film Registry.

Costner starred and was a producer in director Tony Scott’s stylish film version of Jim Harrison’s novella, Revenge (1990), with Anthony Quinn, Madeleine Stowe, and Sally Kirkland, and released by Columbia Pictures/New World Pictures. Costner gained acclaim and Oscars (seven total, including picture and director for star-producer Costner) for his landmark Western epic debut as director/star/producer, Dance with Wolves (1990), co-starring Mary McDonnell, Graham Greene, and Rodney Grant, grossing a phenomenal $424 million (on a $22 million budget) for Orion Pictures.

Kevin Costner followed this huge success by proceeding, over the next two decades, to star and produce ten major movies (which he was also the director of two), starting with Warner Bros. blockbuster (grossing $390.5 million), Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), directed by Kevin Reynolds and featuring Morgan Freeman, Christian Slater, Alan Rickman, and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. Costner then portrayed a very different historical figure, D.A. Jim Garrison, in Oliver Stone’s controversial conspiracy-themed, JFK (1991), co-starring Kevin Bacon, Tommy Lee Jones, Laurie Metcalf, Gary Oldman, Michael Rooker, Jay O. Sanders, and Sissy Spacek, and delivering a $205-million take for Warner Bros.

Costner then starred in and produced The Bodyguard (1992), co-starring Whitney Houston (whose soundtrack album was the all-time best-seller), which grossed $411 million globally for Warner Bros. Costner continued his box-office run ($135 million gross) co-starring with director Clint Eastwood (who can be seen as Costner’s star-filmmaker model) in the John Lee Hancock-written crime drama, A Perfect World (1993), co-starring Laura Dern, and released by Warner Bros.

Kevin Costner returned to the Western genre but broke his box-office streak as star-producer of Warner Bros.’ Wyatt Earp (1994), with Dennis Quaid, Gene Hackman, Jeff Fahey, Mark Harmon, Michael Madsen, Catherine O’Hara, Bill Pullman, Isabella Rossellini, Tom Sizemore, JoBeth Williams, and Mare Winningham under Lawrence Kasdan’s direction. Costner then starred in another money-loser with director-producer Jon Avnet’s drama for Universal Pictures, The War (1994), with Elijah Wood, Winningham, Lucas Black, and Christine Baranski.

Costner delivered his biggest-budgeted ($175 million) production as producer and star of the sci-fi dystopian epic, Waterworld (1995), with Dennis Hopper, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Tina Majorino, and Michael Jeter, eliciting many negative reviews but spawning several Universal Studios theme-park attractions (in Los Angeles, Singapore, Japan, and Beijing). Costner reunited with director-writer Ron Shelton for Warner Bros.’ golf-themed rom-com, Tin Cup (1996), co-starring Rene Russo, Cheech Marin, and Don Johnson, earning some of Costner’s best reviews as an actor.

Kevin Costner’s second movie as director/producer/star was the post-apocalyptic epic, The Postman (1997), with Will Patton, Larenz Tate, Olivia Williams, James Russo, and Tom Petty, and which was widely panned and lost money for Warner Bros. Costner bounced back as star-producer of Warner Bros.’ romantic drama based on Nicholas Sparks’ novel, Message in a Bottle (1999), co-starring Robin Wright, Paul Newman, John Savage, Ileana Douglas, and Robbie Coltrane, grossing $118 million globally.

Costner returned to the ballpark as the star of director Sam Raimi’s version of Michael Shaara’s book, For Love of the Game (1999), co-starring Kelly Preston, John C. Reilly, Jena Malone, and Brian Cox, but turned into a loss for Universal Pictures. Costner’s next star-producer project was Thirteen Days (2000), his second movie about JFK centered on the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis with Bruce Greenwood, Steven Culp, and Dylan Baker under Roger Donaldson’s direction.

Kevin Costner starred in one of his few comedies and biggest bombs for Warner Bros. with the derided Vegas-themed 3000 Miles to Graceland (2001), co-starring Kurt Russell, with Courteney Cox, Christian Slater, Kevin Pollak, David Arquette, and Howie Long under writer-producer Demian Lichtenstein’s direction. Costner’s run of box-office failures continued with Universal Pictures’ critically-panned supernatural thriller, Dragonfly (2002), with Costner leading a cast including Joe Morton, Ron Rifkin, Linda Hunt, and Kathy Bates under Tom Shadyac’s direction.

Costner’s third turn as star/director/producer marked another return to the Western and his biggest success in a few years with the Disney/Touchstone Pictures-backed Open Range (2003), based on Lauran Paine’s novel, The Open Range Man and co-starring Robert Duvall, Annette Bening, Michael Gambon, and Michael Jeter, grossing $68 million worldwide. Costner received good reviews for his lead performance opposite Joan Allen in director/writer Mike Binder’s comedy-drama, The Upside of Anger (2005), with Erika Christensen, Evan Rachel Wood, Keri Russell, Alicia Witt, and Binder, which premiered at the Sundance film festival.

Kevin Costner joined director Rob Reiner’s cast as a co-star in Rumor Has It (2005), with Jennifer Aniston, Shirley MacLaine, Mark Ruffalo, Richard Jenkins, and Mena Suvari, and then Costner co-starred with Ashton Kutcher in Disney/Touchstone Pictures’ poorly-reviewed U.S. Coast Guard action movie, The Guardian (2006), directed by Andrew Davis.

Costner delivered back-to-back movies as star-producer of the MGM-backed Mr. Brooks (2007), with Costner portraying a serial killer/businessman opposite John Hurt, Demi Moore, and Dane Cook under co-writer Bruce A. Evans’ direction; and then of Disney/Touchstone’s disappointing political comedy-drama, Swing Vote (2008), with Paula Patton, Kelsey Grammer, Dennis Hopper, Nathan Lane, Stanley Tucci, and George Lopez under co-writer Joshua Michael Stern’s direction.

Costner starred in the little-seen horror movie directed by Luis Berdejo, The New Daughter (2009), and then joined director/writer/producer John Wells’ movie about corporate downsizing, The Company Men (2010), co-starring Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, Tommy Lee Jones, Maria Bello, Rosemarie DeWitt, and Craig T. Nelson, premiering at the Sundance film festival before muted box office via The Weinstein Company.

Costner took on the role of Superman’s adoptive father (and his first truly supporting role in many years) in a string of DC Comics superhero movies directed by Zack Snyder, starting with Man of Steel (2013), starring Henry Cavill; Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), co-starring Ben Affleck and Cavill; and the much-discussed and praised Zack Snyder cut of what was titled Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021), again co-starring Affleck and Cavill, and released on streaming by HBO Max.

Kevin Costner co-starred opposite Chris Pine’s Jack Ryan, Keira Knightley, and director-star Kenneth Branagh in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014), which made modest box office for Paramount Pictures. Costner stayed in the action-thriller mode as the star of 3 Days to Kill (2014), with Amber Heard, Hailee Steinfeld, and Connie Nielsen under McG’s direction, and grossing a fair $52.6 million for EuropaCorp/Relativity Media.

Costner delivered a fine performance as a crafty NFL general manager in director Ivan Reitman’s final movie, Draft Day (2014), with Jennifer Garner, Denis Leary, Frank Langella, Sam Elliott, Ellen Burstyn, and Chadwick Boseman, but which lost money for distributor Lionsgate. Costner made an unusual appearance in dramatic recreation sequences in Peter Anthony’s Danish-produced documentary about a false nuclear alarm in 1983, The Man Who Saved the World (2013), which premiered at Hot Docs documentary film festival before a release by Syndicate.

Kevin Costner produced and starred with Octavia Spencer and reunited with writer-director Mike Binder for the race-relations drama, Black or White (2014), with Bill Burr, Jennifer Ehle, Andre Holland, and Anthony Mackie, which premiered at the Toronto film festival. Costner returned to the sports movie genre as a high school cross country coach in Disney’s true-story drama, McFarland USA (2015), with Maria Bello and Morgan Saylor under Niki Caro’s direction.

Costner reunited with co-stars Gary Oldman and Tommy Lee Jones by playing the title role in the Ariel Vroman-directed thriller, Criminal (2016), with Alice Eve and Gal Gadot, which lost money for distributor Lionsgate. Costner earned acclaim for a winning supporting performance in the Oscar-nominated Space Race drama, Hidden Figures (2016), starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Kirsten Dunst, Mahershala Ali, and Glen Powell, and grossing $236 million for 20^th Century Fox.

Kevin Costner co-starred opposite Jessica Chastain and Idris Elba in Oscar-nominated Aaron Sorkin’s true drama, Molly’s Game (2017), based on Molly Bloom’s memoir, with Michael Cera, Jeremy Strong, Chris O’Dowd, and Bill Camp, and which premiered at the Toronto film festival before a release by STX Entertainment and Sierra/Affinity. Costner then co-starred with Woody Harrelson in the John Fusco-written true story of the pursuit of Bonnie and Clyde, The Highwaymen (2019), with Kathy Bates, John Carroll Lynch, Kim Dickens, and William Sadler under John Lee Hancock’s direction for Netflix theatrical and streaming release.

Costner took on one of his most unusual assignments as the voice of a golden retriever (played on screen by a dog named Parker) with Milo Ventimiglia, Amanda Seyfried, Kathy Baker, Martin Donovan, and Gary Cole in The Art of Racing in the Rain (2019), receiving mixed reviews and muted box office for 20^th Century Fox. Costner co-starred with Diane Lane in Focus Features’ 1961 Montana neo-western, Let Him Go (2020), based on Larry Watson’s 2013 novel, and with Lesley Manville, Kayli Carter, Will Brittain, and Jeffrey Donovan, and directed, written and co-produced by Thomas Bezucha.

Kevin Costner parlayed his massive success as star producer of the hit TV series, Yellowstone (2018-present) by creating (as director, writer, producer, and star) his biggest Western project to date with the multi-film epic about the post-Civil War expansion of the American West, Horizon: An American Saga—Chapter 1 (2024), Chapter 2 (2024), and Chapter 3 (date to be announced), with a large cast including Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Giovanni Ribisi, Jena Malone, Abbey Lee, Michael Rooker, Danny Huston, Luke Wilson, Isabelle Fuhrman, Jeff Fahey, Will Patton, Tatanka Means, Owen Crow Show, and Thomas Haden Church, and which was produced by New Line Cinema and Territory Pictures and released by Warner Bros. and K5 International.