Kevin Kline

Kevin Kline - Quick Facts

Profile Overview of Kevin Kline

Kevin Delaney Kline (born October 24, 1947) is an American actor. In a career spanning over five decades, he has become a prominent leading man across both stage and screen. His accolades include an Academy Award and three Tony Awards, along with nominations for two British Academy Film Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and six Golden Globes. In 2003, he was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.

This profile of Kevin Kline covers Early Life and Family Background, 1970–1981: Rise to prominence, 1982–1999: Breakthrough and stardom, 2000–2016: Established actor and 2017–present.

Kline began his acting career on stage in 1972 with The Acting Company and gained prominence for his numerous performances with The Public Theater and in New York Shakespeare Festival. He has gone on to win three Tony Awards for his work on Broadway, including wins in Best Featured Actor in a Musical in On the Twentieth Century (1978), Best Actor in a Musical for The Pirates of Penzance (1981), and Best Actor in a Play for the revival of Noël Coward's Present Laughter (2017). He was Tony-nominated for playing John Falstaff in Henry IV (2004).

Kline made his film debut in Sophie's Choice (1982) before winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his comedic role in A Fish Called Wanda (1988). He also acted in The Big Chill (1983), The Pirates of Penzance (1983), Silverado (1985), Cry Freedom (1987), The January Man (1989), Soapdish (1991), Grand Canyon (1991), Chaplin (1992), Consenting Adults (1992), Dave (1993), The Ice Storm (1997), In & Out (1997), Life as a House (2001), The Emperor's Club (2002), De-Lovely (2004), A Prairie Home Companion (2006), Last Vegas (2013) and Beauty and the Beast (2017). He also voiced roles in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) and The Road to El Dorado (2000).

On television, Kline started his career in the soap opera Search for Tomorrow (1976). He received nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for playing the title role in the PBS production of Cyrano de Bergerac (2008). He starred in the Apple TV+ miniseries Disclaimer (2024). Since 2011, he has voiced Calvin Fischoeder in the animated sitcom Bob's Burgers.

Early Life and Family Background of Kevin Kline

Kline was born on October 24, 1947, in St. Louis, Missouri, to Margaret Agnes Kirk and Robert Joseph Kline (1909–1996). His father was a classical music lover and amateur opera singer who owned The Record Bar, a record store in St. Louis that opened in 1942. He also sold toys during the 1960s and 1970s; his father's family owned Kline's Inc., a department store chain. Kevin Kline described his mother as the "dramatic theatrical character in our family". His father was of German-Jewish descent, and his mother Catholic; Kline was raised in his mother's faith. He has an older sister, Kate, and two younger brothers, Alexander and Christopher.

He graduated from the Saint Louis Priory School in 1965. In 1997, the school named its new auditorium the Kevin Kline Theater. At its dedication, he performed selections from Shakespeare as a benefit. He attended Indiana University Bloomington, where he was a classmate of actor Jonathan Banks. He began studying composing and conducting music, but switched to a theater and speech major for his last two years, and graduated in 1970. He said: "When I switched to the Theater Department, all I did was theater... I could barely make it to class because this was my passion." While an undergraduate, he was a co-founder of the Vest Pocket Players, an off-campus theatrical troupe.

1970–1981: Rise to prominence of Kevin Kline

In 1970, Kline won a scholarship to the newly formed drama division of the Juilliard School in New York. In 1972, he joined fellow Juilliard graduates, including Patti LuPone and David Ogden Stiers, and formed the City Center Acting Company (now The Acting Company), under the aegis of John Houseman. The Company traveled across the U.S. Performing Shakespeare's plays, other classical works, and the musical The Robber Bridegroom, founding one of the most widely praised groups in American repertory theatre. At Juilliard, he studied singing with Beverley Peck Johnson.

In 1976, Kline left The Acting Company and settled in New York City, doing a brief appearance as Woody Reed in the now-defunct soap opera Search for Tomorrow. He returned to the stage in 1977 to play Clym Yeobright opposite Donna Theodore as Eustacia Vye in The Hudson Guild Theater production of Dance on a Country Grave, Kelly Hamilton's musical version of Thomas Hardy's The Return of the Native. In 1978, he played Bruce Granit, a matinée idol caricature, in Harold Prince's On the Twentieth Century, for which he won his first Tony Award.

In 1980, he appeared with Linda Ronstadt, Rex Smith and Patricia Routledge in the New York Shakespeare Festival's Central Park production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance, which moved to Broadway and won Kline another Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his comically dashing portrayal of the Pirate King. In 1983 he played the role in a film version of the musical, also with Ronstadt, Smith and Angela Lansbury, which had a limited theatrical release.

In the ensuing years, Kline appeared many times in New York Shakespeare Festival productions of Shakespeare plays, including starring roles in Richard III (1983), Much Ado About Nothing (1988), Henry V (1984), and two productions of Hamlet, in 1986 and 1990 (which he also directed). A videotape of the 1990 production has aired on PBS. Kline was dubbed "the American Olivier" by The New York Times theater critic Frank Rich for his stage acting.

1982–1999: Breakthrough and stardom

Kline finally ventured into film in 1982 in Sophie's Choice. He won the coveted role of the tormented and moody Nathan opposite Meryl Streep. The New York Times film critic Janet Maslin wrote of Kline's performance, "Mr. Kline, whose Nathan convincingly demonstrates the greatest of tenderness toward Sophie, is also called upon to rail at her mercilessly. In the tender scenes Mr. Kline makes himself appealing; in the cruel ones, he does the best he can to affect a viciousness that, even on the page, seemed less than fully convincing." Kline was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actor and the BAFTA Award for Most Outstanding Newcomer To Film.

During the 1980s and early to mid-1990s, Kline made several films with director Lawrence Kasdan, starting with The Big Chill (1983). The film revolves around friends from college reuniting after the death of a friend. Kline co-stars alongside Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, and William Hurt. The film was a critical and commercial success. He reunited with Kasdan with the western film Silverado (1985) where he starred with Kevin Costner, Rosanna Arquette, and John Cleese. He then portrayed Donald Woods in Richard Attenborough's Cry Freedom (1987) opposite Denzel Washington about the friendship between activist Stephen Biko and editor Donald Woods.

Source: adapted from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Kline), text available under CC BY-SA 4.0.