Oscar Profile #557: Kevin Kline

Born October 24, 1947, in St. Louis, Missouri, Kevin Kline was the second of four children of Robert and Margaret Kline. His father was of German Jewish descent and his mother was Irish Catholic. He was raised in mother’s faith. His father’s family owned a chain of stores. His father was an amateur opera singer who owned and operated a record store from the 1940s on.

Kline began studying composing and conducting music at Indiana University, Bloomington but switched to theatre in his last two years, graduating in 1970. Later that year, he was awarded a scholarship at the newly formed Drama Division of New York’s Julliard School. In 1972, he joined fellow Julliard graduates Patti LuPone and David Ogden Stiers in forming the City Center Acting Company under the aegis of John Houseman. He left the Acting Company in 1976 to take a role in the TV soap opera, Search for Tomorrow.

Back on stage in 1977, Kline won the first of three Tonys for his supporting role in the 1978 Broadway musical, On the Twentieth Century. He won his second as the lead in 1981’s The Pirates of Penzance and then filmed the Hollywood version of the Gilbert & Sullivan classic. His second film, Sophie’s Choice opposite Meryl Streep was, however, released first and made him a film star overnight.

Kline’s third film, 1983’s The Big Chill was a huge success, earning three Oscar nominations including one for Best Picture. Between 1985 and 1989, he was in one film per year including 1987’s Cry Freedom for which Denzel Washington won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and 1988’s A Fish Called Wanda for which he himself won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. In 1989, he married actress Phoebe Cates with whom he had two children.

Alternating between Broadway and Hollywood more regularly beginning in the 1990s, Kline’s films in the decade included 1991’s Soapdish and Grand Canyon, 1992’s Chaplin in which he played Douglas Fairbanks, 1993’s Dave in which he played the U.S. president and his double, 1996’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame in which he voiced the soldier Phoebus, 1997’s The Ice Storm and In & Out, and 1999’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Nominated for a Best Actor award from the Screen Actors Guild for 2001’s Life as a House, his films in the early part of the decade also include 2002’s The Emperor’s Club and 2004’s De-Lovely in which he played Cole Porter.

In the 2010s, Kline played the title character in The Last of Robin Hood and then starred opposite Maggie Smith in My Old Lady and Meryl Streep in Rikki and the Flash. He won a third Tony for the 2017 revival of Present Laughter. That same year he played Maurice in the live action version of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.

Kevin Kline remains a vibrant star at the age of 73. He has three films in post-production including The Good House opposite Sigourney Weaver.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

SOPHIE’S CHOICE (1982), directed by Alan Jay Pakula

A total of five Oscar nominations went to this instant classic adapted by Pakula from William Styon’s award-winning 1979 novel. Kline played Nathan, a Brooklyn Jew in Post-World War II, obsessed with the Holocaust. Meryl Streep plays the titled Sophie, a survivor of Nazi concentration concentration camps, who has found a reason to live with Nathan. Peter MacNicol plays Stingo, a young writer obsessed with Sophie. All three performances were much admired but only Streep’s resulted in major awards including her second Oscar primarily for the devastating scene in which the secret of her choice is revealed.

THE BIG CHILL (1983), directed by Lawrence Kasdan

Nominated for three Oscars including Best Picture, this megahit ensemble film about the reunion of a group of seven friends after the funeral of their former classmate was important to the careers all eight of its stars, Kline, Oscar-nominated Glenn Close, Tom Berenger, William Hurt, JoBeth Williams, Mary Kay Place, and Jeff Golblum as the friends, and Meg Tilly as the fiancé of the deceased. Kevin Costner played the deceased, but his scenes were cut except for the one is which he is seen as the corpse being dressed. Kline met future wife Phoebe Cates when she auditioned for the part that eventually went to Tilly.

DAVE (1993), directed by Ivan Reitman

Both Bill Clinton, president at the time of the film’s release, and Barack Obama was elected president fifteen years later, were huge fans of this comic gem in which Kline plays both the sitting U.S. president and the lookalike stand-in brought in to take his place while he recuperates from a stroke. Sigourney Weaver as the First Lady and Frank Langella as the evil Chief of Staff co-star with an all-star supporting cast that includes Kevin Dunn, Ving Rhames, Ben Kingsley, Charles Grodin, Faith Prince, Laura Linney, Bonnie Hunt, and Anna Deavere Smith. Kline’s performance is one of his best.

LIFE AS A HOUSE (2001), directed by Irwin Winkler

A rare directorial effort from prolific producer Winkler gave Kline one of his best dramatic roles as a man diagnosed with terminal cancer who takes custody of misanthropic teenage son played by Hayden Christensen in a star-making role. Both Kline and Christensen were nominated for SAG awards for their performances but missed out on Oscar nominations. The strong supporting cast includes Kristin Scott Thomas, Jena Malone, Mary Steenburgen, Ian Somerhalder, Jamey Sheridan, Scott Bakula, and Sam Robards. Haydensen’s next film was Star Wars II – Attack of the Clones which brought him to prominence.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (2017), directed by Bill Condon

Kline’s last major film release, the year he turned 70, found him playing Belle’s father Maurice whose imprisonment by the Beast begins Belle’s adventures at the castle in this well-made live-action remake of Disney’s 1991 animated film from the classic fairy tale. Emma Watson as Belle, Dan Stevens as the Beast, Luke Evans as Gaston, Ewan McGregor as Lumiere, Ian McKellen as Cogsworth, and Emma Thompson as Mrs. Potts were also among the film’s stars. Kline solos on “How Does a Moment Last Forever (Music Box)” which was written for the film. The film was nominated for two Oscars for its Production Design and Costume Design.