Kevin Costner

Kevin Michael Costner Bio

Kevin Michael Costner (born January 18, 1955) is an American actor, filmmaker, and musician whose career has spanned more than four decades. He has received two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award, along with nominations for three British Academy Film Awards. Costner rose to international fame with leading roles in acclaimed films of the late 1980s and early 1990s, and he later built a second wave of acclaim on television.

Costner became one of the most recognizable leading men in Hollywood through starring roles in The Untouchables (1987), Bull Durham (1988), Field of Dreams (1989), JFK (1991), Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), The Bodyguard (1992), and A Perfect World (1993). He directed and starred in the Western epic Dances with Wolves (1990), winning Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director. In recent years, he has balanced film work with the hit television series Yellowstone, a project that brought him new awards attention and a wider modern audience.

Early Life and Background

Kevin Michael Costner was born on January 18, 1955, in Lynwood, California, and grew up in nearby Compton. He is the youngest of three boys, the second of whom died at birth. His mother, Sharon Rae Costner, worked as a welfare worker, and his father, William Costner, was an electrician and utilities executive. Costner has German, English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, and Cherokee ancestry, and he was raised in a Baptist household.

As a child, Costner was not strongly drawn to academics, but he played sports, took piano lessons, wrote poetry, and sang in the First Baptist Choir. He has often cited watching the 1962 film How the West Was Won as a defining moment that sparked his lifelong love of Western movies. Because his father’s career required frequent moves, Costner spent his teenage years in different parts of California, including Ventura and Visalia, a period he has described as a time when he often had to rebuild his confidence and make new friends.

Costner graduated from Villa Park High School in 1973, where he played baseball and was a member of the marching band. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree from California State University, Fullerton, in 1978. While attending the university, he joined the Delta Chi fraternity. During his final year of college, he became interested in acting and dance, setting the stage for the career that would follow.

Path to Acting

On a flight in 1978, returning from his honeymoon in Puerto Vallarta, Costner had a well-known chance encounter with Welsh actor Richard Burton. Unsure whether to pursue acting, Costner asked Burton for advice, and Burton encouraged him to follow that path. Costner has credited that conversation as the moment that convinced him to commit to a life in film.

After agreeing to work as a marketing executive to support his new family, Costner instead enrolled in acting classes, attending lessons five nights a week. His marketing job lasted only thirty days, after which he took a series of odd jobs, including working on fishing boats, driving a truck, and giving tours of Hollywood stars’ homes. These jobs paid for his acting tuition while he built the foundation of his craft.

Kevin Michael Costner Career

Early Career (1981-1986)

Costner made his film debut in the low-budget Sizzle Beach, U.S.A. (1981), which was released years after it was filmed. He followed that with a small part as Frat Boy #1 in the Ron Howard comedy Night Shift (1982) and a role in Stacy’s Knights (1983). That same year, he appeared in a commercial for the Apple Lisa and had parts in Table for Five and the nuclear drama Testament.

Costner was cast in The Big Chill and filmed flashback scenes as Alex, the friend whose death brings the ensemble together, but his scenes were removed from the final cut. Director Lawrence Kasdan, a personal friend, later promised him a future role, and that promise led to Silverado (1985), which became Costner’s breakout film. He also appeared in Fandango and American Flyers that year, and joined Kiefer Sutherland in an episode of Steven Spielberg’s anthology series Amazing Stories.

Breakthrough (1987-1994)

Costner achieved full movie star status in 1987 by starring as federal agent Eliot Ness in The Untouchables and as a leading man in the thriller No Way Out. He cemented his A-list standing with the baseball films Bull Durham (1988) and Field of Dreams (1989). In 1990, he partnered with producer Jim Wilson to form Tig Productions, and the company’s first project was Dances with Wolves, which Costner directed and starred in. The film received twelve Academy Award nominations and won seven, including Best Picture and Best Director for Costner personally.

He went on to portray Robin Hood in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), a major box-office success in which he also served as a producer, and earned a Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of District Attorney Jim Garrison in Oliver Stone’s JFK (1991). In 1992, he starred opposite Whitney Houston in The Bodyguard, a romantic drama that became a global cultural and commercial hit. He followed that with Clint Eastwood’s A Perfect World (1993), and in 1994, he produced and starred in the Western biopic Wyatt Earp and the drama The War, opposite Elijah Wood.

Notable Works and Milestones

Beyond Dances with Wolves, Costner’s signature films of this era include The Untouchables, Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, JFK, The Bodyguard, and A Perfect World. He cemented his awards profile by winning two Academy Awards and a Golden Globe nomination in a single awards cycle, a rare feat for an actor-director. His box-office dominance in this period made him one of the most bankable stars in the world.

Later Career (1995-2011)

The mid-1990s brought commercial and critical challenges. The science fiction epics Waterworld (1995) and The Postman (1997), the latter of which Costner also directed, were seen as disappointments, and The Postman won five Golden Raspberry Awards, including Worst Picture, Worst Actor, and Worst Director for Costner. He rebounded in part with the golf comedy Tin Cup (1996) and the romantic drama Message in a Bottle (1999), and regained strong reviews with Thirteen Days (2000) and the Western Open Range (2003), which he directed and starred in to critical and commercial success.

He received some of his strongest reviews of the era for his supporting role in The Upside of Anger (2005), winning the San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor. In 2006, he was honored with handprints and footprints set in concrete at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Other notable films of this period include Mr. Brooks (2007), Swing Vote (2008), The Company Men (2010), and Man of Steel (2013), in which he portrayed Jonathan Kent. In 2008, he reorganized Tig Productions into Tree House Films.

Television Resurgence and Recent Work (2012-Present)

Costner returned to the small screen as Devil Anse Hatfield in the History Channel miniseries Hatfields & McCoys (2012), a ratings record-breaker that earned him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie, as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Golden Globe Award. He later starred in films such as 3 Days to Kill (2014), Draft Day (2014), Black or White (2014), McFarland, USA (2015), Hidden Figures (2016), and Molly’s Game (2017).

From 2018 to 2024, Costner starred in and executive produced Yellowstone, his first regular television series role, portraying rancher John Dutton. The performance brought him a Golden Globe Award. In 2024, he released Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1, the first installment of a planned multi-film Western epic that he directs and stars in, with subsequent chapters in production. In 2025, he hosted the documentary series Kevin Costner’s The West on the History Channel.

Kevin Michael Costner Award Nominations

Kevin Michael Costner has received multiple major award nominations across his career, reflecting both his acting range and his work behind the camera. He earned a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama for his portrayal of District Attorney Jim Garrison in JFK (1991), as well as another Golden Globe nomination for Dances with Wolves. His television work has also been recognized with Golden Globe nominations for Hatfields & McCoys and Yellowstone. Beyond Golden Globe recognition, he has been nominated for awards from organizations including the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, the Screen Actors Guild, and the Broadcast Film Critics Association, including a Critics Association nomination for his supporting performance in The Upside of Anger.

Kevin Michael Costner Awards Won

Costner has won two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, one Primetime Emmy Award, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards across his career. His most celebrated night came in 1991, when Dances with Wolves earned him Academy Awards for both Best Picture and Best Director. His later Golden Globe Awards recognized his television performances in Hatfields & McCoys and Yellowstone, while his Primetime Emmy Award came for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for Hatfields & McCoys. He also won the San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor for The Upside of Anger.

Kevin Michael Costner Family

Kevin Michael Costner was born to William Costner, an electrician and utilities executive, and Sharon Costner, a welfare worker. He grew up as the youngest of three boys, with one brother who died at birth. Costner has spoken warmly of how his parents’ work ethic and his father’s steady career shaped a childhood marked by moves across California.

Costner has seven children. With his first wife, Cindy Silva, he has three children: Annie, born in 1984, Lily, born in 1986, and Joseph, born in 1988. He also has a son, Liam, born in 1996, from a later relationship. With his second wife, Christine Baumgartner, he has two sons, Cayden, born in 2007, and Hayes, born in 2009, and a daughter, Grace, born in 2010. His family life has remained a central part of his public identity.

Personal Life

Kevin Michael Costner married his college sweetheart, Cindy Silva, in 1978, and the couple later divorced in 1994 after sixteen years of marriage. Following his divorce, he had a relationship with Bridget Rooney, with whom he had a son, and he later dated political activist Birgit Cunningham and lived with supermodel Elle Macpherson. On September 25, 2004, he married model and handbag designer Christine Baumgartner at his ranch in Aspen, Colorado. Baumgartner filed for divorce in May 2023, and the couple finalized their divorce on February 20, 2024.

Beyond film, Costner is the frontman of the country rock band Kevin Costner & Modern West, which he founded with encouragement from Baumgartner. The band has released albums including Untold Truths, Turn It On, and Tales from Yellowstone, the last of which was written from the perspective of his Yellowstone character John Dutton. Costner also pursues business interests, including oil-water separation technology, the Tatanka attraction in South Dakota, and the Midnight Star Casino in Deadwood, and he is a lifelong baseball fan who has supported the California State University, Fullerton Titans and the New York Yankees.