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While a marketing student at California State University inFullerton, American actor Kevin Costner became involvedwith community theatre. Upon graduation in 1978, Costnertook a marketing job that lasted all of 30 days before hedecided to take a crack at acting. At least that's the officialstory; though Costner would probably like to cremate thememory, the fact is that he made his film debut in 1974 in theultra-cheapie Sizzle Beach USA. No matter. When Costnerseriously decided to take up acting, he went the usualtheatre-workshop, multiple-audition route. Casting directorssaw potential, but weren't quite sure how to use Costner; besides, the novice actorhad a bad habit of speaking up if something bothered him on the set. That may bewhy his Big-Studio debut in Night Shift (1982) consisted of little more thanbackground decoration and the subsequent Frances (1982) featured Costner as anoffstage voice. Director Lawrence Kasdan liked Costner enough to cast him in theimportant role of the suicide victim who motivated the plot of The Big Chill (1983),but when the film was released, all we saw of Costner were his dress suit andnecktie as the undertaker prepared him for burial during the opening credits. Twoyears later, a guilt-ridden Lawrence Kasdan chose Costner for a major part as ahell-raising gunfighter in the ''retro'' Western Silverado(1985) - and this time he was on camera for virtually theentire film. Costner's big breakthrough came with a brace of baseballfilms, released within months of one another: in BullDurham (1988), the actor was taciturn minor-leagueballplayer Crash Davis, and in Field of Dreams he wasRay Kinsella, a farmer who constructed a baseballdiamond in his Iowa cornfield when The Voice said ''If youbuild it, he will come.'' His Hollywood clout amplified by thecombined box-office success of these films enabledCostner to make his directing debut. With a minusculebudget of $18 million, Costner went off to the Black Hills ofSouth Dakota to film the first Western Epic that Hollywoodhad seen in years, a revisionist look at Indian-Whiterelationships titled Dances With Wolves (1990).Detractors had a field day with this supposedly foredoomed project, labeling the film''Costner's Folly'' and ''Kevin's Gate.'' But he who laughs last...Dances with Wolveswas not only one of 1990's biggest moneymakers but also that year's AcademyAward-winning film; additionally, Costner copped an Oscar as Best Director. A curious costume epic Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)followed, with Costner as the world's first Oklahoma-accentedRobin Hood; this, too, made money, though it seriouslystrained Costner's longtime friendship with the film's director,the notoriously erratic Kevin Reynolds. The Bodyguard (1992),an improbable concoction which teamed Costner with WhitneyHouston, did so well at the box-office that it seemed the actorcould do no wrong. But A Perfect World (1993), directed byClint Eastwood and casting Costner against type as ahalf-psycho, half-benign prison escapee, was a majordisappointment, even though Costner came through withone of his best performances. Unfortunately, Costnerfollowed Perfect World with another cast-against-typefailure, the 1994 sagebrush dud Wyatt Earp, which provedthat even director Lawrence Kasdan can have his off days.Costner's most recent film Waterworld received anenormous amount of negative publicity prior to openingbecause it was way over budget and schedule, however, itopened to good critical reviews and so far, has beenenjoying box office success.
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