Kevin Michael Costner (born January 18, 1955) is an American film actor, director and producer. One of Costner's most successful films was Dances with Wolves (1990), which won seven Academy Awards, including (Best Picture and Best Director).

Costner, the youngest of three sons (the middle of whom died at birth), was born in Lynwood, California, the son 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 small stature, and took piano lessons, wrote poetry and even sang in the First Baptist Choir.

Spending his teenage years in various parts of California as his father's career progressed, the family 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 Portuguese-American Cindy Silva.

Costner became interested in acting whilst 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 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.

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.

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. Costner then appeared in a commercial for the Apple Lisa in 1983. He was cast in the hit The Big Chill (1983). He filmed several scenes which were planned as flashbacks, but they never made it to the final cut. His role was as Alex, the friend who committed suicide, the event around which the plot of the movie revolves. 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 later promised the actor a role in a future project, which became the 1985 film Silverado and became a breakout role for Costner. He also starred that year in the smaller, but interesting films, Fandango and American Flyers.

1987 marked full-blown movie star status for Costner as he starred as Eliot Ness in The Untouchables and played a Russian spy in No Way Out. In 1988 he solidified his A-list status in the comedy Bull Durham and in Field of Dreams in 1989.

Costner's biggest success was the epic Dances with Wolves (1990). He directed and starred in the film and served as one of two producers. The film was nominated for twelve Academy Awards and won seven, including two for him personally (Best Picture and Best Director). Costner 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 takings or critical acclaim.

He then took the title role in the biopic Wyatt Earp (1994), directed by established collaborator Lawrence Kasdan, which fizzled at the summer 1994 box office. The science fiction epics Waterworld (1995) and The Postman (1997), the latter of which Costner also directed, were both initially considered major disappointments at the box office. However, Waterworld grossed $264 million worldwide from a $175 million budget, despite generally poor reviews and The Postman is now looked upon as a prescient pro-government political piece. Costner again showed his comic chops in Tin Cup (1996), before developing the film Air Force One. He was set to play the lead role in the film, but ultimately decided to concentrate on finishing The Postman instead. He personally offered the project to Harrison Ford.

Costner's career revived somewhat in 2000 with Thirteen Days. Open Range, in which he directed and starred, received high critical acclaim in 2003 as a Revisionist Western, though it was only a minor success commercially. Costner starred in The Guardian and in Mr. Brooks, where 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 along side other great actors and entertainers.

While in college, Costner was a member of Delta Chi fraternity, where he met another portuguese student, Cindy Silva. They started dating in March 1975, and their 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 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 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, and For Love of the Game. (In The Upside of Anger, his character is a former baseball professional.) Costner has a love for baseball and has stated he loves to play baseball even more than he loves watching it. He 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 $6.1 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 at $3.1m, to dissolve the partnership.

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. Costner was named ceremonial Grand Marshall of the Auto550 club, at the February 25, 2007 Nascar Nextel Cup event at the California Speedway.

Costner has a home in Austin, Texas and sometimes appears at University of Texas Longhorn baseball practices and games. Costner is a close friend to Longhorns baseball coach Augie Garrido, from Garrido's days coaching at Cal State Fullerton where Costner attended. He cast Garrido to play the role of "Yankee Manager" in his film For Love of the Game. He is also known 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 recently founded with the encouragement of his wife (Christine). He is currently on a worldwide tour with the band (October 2007). Tour includes shows in Istanbul and Rome and both shows sold out.

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 case. The woman, who remains unnamed, settled out of court with the hotel under a tight confidentiality agreement.

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*KevinCostner.com * *JewReview.net interview with Kevin Costner