Kevin Costner

Kevin Michael Costner is an American actor, singer, musician, producer, director, and businessman born on January 18, 1955 in Lynwood, California . He is the youngest of the three sons (the middle of whom died at birth) of Sharon Rae, awelfare worker, and William Costner, an electrician and later utilities executive. He has German, English, Irish, and Cherokee ancestry (his Oklahoma-born paternal grandfather was half Cherokee). He attended Cabrillo Middle School andVilla Park High School. Costner was not academically inclined. Rather, he enjoyed sports, took piano lessons, wrote poetry and sang in the First Baptist Choir.
This handsome, amiable man with a stoic, deadpan style made his now-infamous major film debut in director Lawrence Kasdan’s “The Big Chill” in 1983. Though his scenes ended up being excised nearly completely, the cutting room disaster only delayed Costner's rise to superstardom. In recompense, Kasdan gave him the prominent, flashy role of the wild gunfighter, Jake, in the action-packed neo-modern western, "Silverado" (1985). Costner's frequent collaborations with Kasdan - as well as directors Ron Shelton and Kevin Reynolds - yielded an impressive string of hits through to the 1990s, cementing his status as one of Hollywood's top leading men. Equally comfortable in variety of genres, Costner's aura of straightforward common virtue earned him comparisons with Gary Cooper and Jimmy Stewart.
Costner has been nominated for three BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) Awards, two-time Academy Award-winner and two Golden Globe Awards. Among of Costner’s renowned films include “Dances with Wolves” portraying the role of Lt. John J. Dunbar, “JFK” as Jim Garrison, “Field of Dreams” as Ray Kinsella, “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” playing Robin Hood, “Bull Durnham” as Crash Davis, in “A Perfect World” as Robert “Butch” Haynes, “The Bodyguard” as Frank Farmer and in “The Untouchables”. He also founded the band “Modern West” in 2007 and has performed with the band since then.