Rise to Fame
He got cut from The Big Chill, but director Lawrence Kasdan liked him enough to cast him in Silverado anyway. That led to The Untouchables, which led to the riskiest directorial debut in recent memory. The press dubbed it 'Kevin's Gate' and predicted it would end his career. Dances with Wolves grossed $424 million, won Best Picture and Best Director, and revived the Western genre. JFK followed the next year, The Bodyguard the year after that. For a stretch in the early 90s, he was the closest thing Hollywood had to a sure thing.
In the Spotlight
He walked away from Yellowstone (reportedly earning $1.3 million per episode) to make Horizon, a four-part Western he wrote, directed, and sank $38 million of his own money into. Chapter One opened in summer 2024 to $11 million domestically on a $100 million budget. Chapter Two is still on ice. He's called 2026 his redemption year and is now attached to a horror thriller, a Bill Clinton series, and a rom-com with Jake Gyllenhaal. The man doesn't slow down, even when the math isn't working.
Side Notes
At 18, he built his own canoe and paddled the same rivers Lewis and Clark followed to the Pacific. After Dances with Wolves, the Sioux tribe inducted him as an honorary member, citing his accurate portrayal of their daily life. He also co-developed an oil-water separation machine used in the 2010 BP spill cleanup. He fronts a country rock band called Kevin Costner & Modern West. He has seven kids from three relationships. The band probably makes more sense than the canoe, but only barely.