Kevin Michael Costner (born January 18, 1955) is an
American actor,
producer, and
Academy Award-winning
director. He has been nominated for three
BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) Awards, won two
Oscars and a
Golden Globe Award. His first leading role was the 1987 film
The Untouchables, opposite
Sean Connery,
Robert De Niro, and
Andy Garcia. Kevin Costner is well-known for his roles as Lt. John J. Dunbar in the film
Dances with Wolves,
Jim Garrison in
JFK, and Ray Kinsella in
Field of Dreams.
Biography
Early life
Costner was born in
Lynwood, California, the youngest of the three sons (the middle of whom died at birth) of Sharon Rae (
née Tedrick), a
welfare worker, and William Costner, an
electrician and later
utilities executive.
[Todd Keith, Kevin Costner: The Unauthorized Biography, Ikonprint Publishers: Southwark, London (1991)][Adherents.com's Guide to Movies] He has
German,
Irish and
Cherokee ancestry (his
Oklahoma-born paternal grandfather was half Cherokee).
[Pursuing The Dream Time Magazine Jun. 26, 1989] 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 slight stature and took piano lessons, wrote poetry and sang in the First Baptist Choir.
Spending his teenage years in various parts of California as his father's career progressed, Costner lived in
Orange County, then in
Visalia (
Tulare County), attending Mt. Whitney High School, and 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 bride-to-be Cindy Silva.
