Kevin Kline

Kevin Kline Bio

Kevin Delaney Kline (born October 24, 1947) is an American actor whose career has spanned more than five decades across stage and screen. Widely regarded as one of the most versatile performers of his generation, he earned an Academy Award and three Tony Awards, along with nominations for two British Academy Film Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and five Golden Globe Awards. In 2003, he was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.

Kline first gained notice on the New York stage before moving into film, where his performances in dramas and comedies alike earned him both critical praise and popular recognition. He is also known to younger audiences for his voice work in animated features and the long-running sitcom Bob’s Burgers.

Early Life and Background

Kevin Delaney Kline was born on October 24, 1947, in St. Louis, Missouri, to Margaret Agnes Kirk and Robert Joseph Kline. His father, a classical music lover and amateur opera singer, owned The Record Bar, a record store in St. Louis that had opened in 1942, and also sold toys during the 1960s and 1970s. Kevin has described his mother as the dramatic theatrical character in the family. He has an older sister, Kate, and two younger brothers, Alexander and Christopher.

He graduated from the Saint Louis Priory School in 1965, a school that would later name its auditorium the Kevin Kline Theater in his honor. He then attended Indiana University Bloomington, where he was a classmate of actor Jonathan Banks. He originally studied music composition and conducting before switching to a theater and speech major for his final two years, graduating in 1970. While an undergraduate, he co-founded the Vest Pocket Players, an off-campus theatrical troupe that gave him some of his earliest stage experience.

Path to Acting

In 1970, Kevin Kline won a scholarship to the newly formed drama division of the Juilliard School in New York. There he studied singing with Beverley Peck Johnson. In 1972, he joined fellow Juilliard graduates, including Patti LuPone and David Ogden Stiers, to form the City Center Acting Company (now known as The Acting Company) under the guidance of John Houseman. The troupe toured the United States performing Shakespeare, other classical works, and the musical The Robber Bridegroom, and quickly became one of the most widely praised repertory groups in American theater.

After leaving The Acting Company in 1976, Kline settled in New York City and made a brief appearance in the soap opera Search for Tomorrow. He returned to the stage in 1977 in a musical version of Thomas Hardy’s The Return of the Native. His breakthrough came the following year in Harold Prince’s On the Twentieth Century, where his performance as the matinée idol caricature Bruce Granit won him his first Tony Award.

Kevin Kline Career

Early Career (1970–1981)

During the late 1970s, Kevin Kline became a frequent presence in the New York Shakespeare Festival, taking on starring roles in productions of Richard III, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V, and two productions of Hamlet. The New York Times theater critic Frank Rich dubbed him the American Olivier for the strength of his stage work. In 1980, he joined Linda Ronstadt, Rex Smith, and Patricia Routledge in the Central Park production of The Pirates of Penzance, which moved to Broadway and won him a second Tony Award, this time for Best Leading Actor in a Musical, for his comically dashing Pirate King.

In 1983, Kline appeared in a filmed version of The Pirates of Penzance with the same principal cast, including Angela Lansbury. He also began collaborating with director Lawrence Kasdan on The Big Chill (1983), co-starring with Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, and William Hurt, in a film that proved both a critical and commercial success.

Breakthrough (1982–1999)

Kline made his major film debut in Sophie’s Choice (1982), playing the tormented Nathan opposite Meryl Streep. His performance drew strong reviews and earned him a 1983 Golden Globe nomination for New Star of the Year and a BAFTA nomination for Most Outstanding Newcomer to Film. The following year he reunited with Kasdan on the western Silverado (1985) alongside Kevin Costner, Rosanna Arquette, and John Cleese, and in 1987 portrayed journalist Donald Woods in Richard Attenborough’s Cry Freedom opposite Denzel Washington.

In 1988, Kline took on the role of a painfully inept American ex-CIA thug in the British comedy A Fish Called Wanda, opposite John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Michael Palin. His comedic turn earned him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor the following year, and the American Film Institute later placed the film at number 21 on its 100 Years… 100 Laughs list. He continued to balance comedy and drama throughout the decade in The January Man (1989), I Love You to Death (1990), Soapdish (1991), Grand Canyon (1991), Chaplin (1992), and French Kiss (1995).

The 1990s saw Kline expand into voice acting as Captain Phoebus in Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) and as a father navigating family crisis in Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm (1997). He earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his role in Frank Oz’s In & Out (1997), about an English teacher publicly outed by his student’s Academy Award speech. He capped the decade with the Steampunk Western Wild Wild West (1999) opposite Will Smith and a well-received turn as Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1999), co-starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Rupert Everett, Stanley Tucci, and Christian Bale.

Notable Works and Milestones

Among Kevin Kline’s signature films are Sophie’s Choice (1982), A Fish Called Wanda (1988), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), In & Out (1997), and Beauty and the Beast (2017), the last of which became the highest-grossing live-action musical film. On stage, his defining achievements include Tony-winning performances in On the Twentieth Century (1978), The Pirates of Penzance (1981), and Present Laughter (2017), along with a Tony-nominated turn as Falstaff in Henry IV (2004). He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2004 and was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 2003.

Kevin Kline Award Nominations

Kevin Kline has received multiple major award nominations across his career in film, television, and theater. These include two British Academy Film Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and five Golden Globe Awards, as well as a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Play for his performance as John Falstaff in Henry IV (2004) and an Emmy nomination for voicing Calvin Fischoeder in Bob’s Burgers.

Kevin Kline Awards Won

Kevin Kline’s career is marked by major competitive wins in both film and theater. He received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for A Fish Called Wanda (1989) and three Tony Awards: Best Actor in a Musical for On the Twentieth Century (1978), Best Actor in a Musical for The Pirates of Penzance (1981), and Best Actor in a Play for Present Laughter (2017). He also won four Drama Desk Awards and a Screen Actors Guild Award, and was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 2003.

Kevin Kline Family

Kevin Kline is the son of Robert Joseph Kline and Margaret Agnes Kirk. His father was of German-Jewish descent, and his mother was Catholic; Kevin was raised in his mother’s faith. He has an older sister, Kate, and two younger brothers, Alexander and Christopher. The Kevin Kline Awards, which honor theater professionals in St. Louis across categories including acting, set design, choreography, and new plays, are named in his honor.

Personal Life

Kevin Kline met actress Phoebe Cates in 1983. They began dating in 1985 and married on March 5, 1989, in a private New York wedding. The couple lives on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. They have two children: son Owen Joseph Kline, born in 1991, and daughter Greta Kline, born in 1994, who fronts the indie band Frankie Cosmos.