Kevin Costner's Real Name: Kevin Michael Costner

Quick answer: Kevin Costner's full name is Kevin Michael Costner. He was born on January 18, 1955, in Lynwood, California, and works under his real name. He starred in The Untouchables, Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, and The Bodyguard. Dances with Wolves (1990) won him Oscars for best picture and best director, and decades later he led the TV hit Yellowstone (Britannica; Library of Congress).

Real name and early life

Britannica's quick facts give his name in full as Kevin Michael Costner. The Library of Congress name authority files him as "Costner, Kevin." Its citation reads "Kevin Costner; b. Jan. 18, 1955, Lynwood, Calif.; birth name: Kevin Michael Costner." He has no stage name.

Britannica says he graduated from business school at California State University, Fullerton, in 1978. He started acting lessons after an encouraging chance meeting with actor Richard Burton on an airplane. His scenes were famously cut from The Big Chill (1983), but director Lawrence Kasdan cast him in the western Silverado (1985).

Career highlights

Costner's first starring roles came in 1987, as Eliot Ness in The Untouchables and as a naval officer suspected of murder in No Way Out. The baseball films Bull Durham (1988) and Field of Dreams (1989) made him a popular leading man, and he formed his own production company in 1989.

He produced, directed, and starred in Dances with Wolves, about a Civil War soldier who assimilates into a Sioux community. It won the Academy Award for best picture, and he won the Oscar and Golden Globe for best director. He followed it with Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), Oliver Stone's JFK (1991) as Jim Garrison, and The Bodyguard (1992) opposite Whitney Houston. His 1990s work also included A Perfect World (1993), Waterworld (1995), Tin Cup (1996), and The Postman (1997), which he directed.

He directed and starred in Open Range (2003) and won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for the miniseries Hatfields & McCoys (2012). He played Clark Kent's adoptive father in Man of Steel (2013) and appeared in Hidden Figures (2016) and Molly's Game (2017). As the patriarch of a Montana ranching family in Taylor Sheridan's Yellowstone, he won a 2023 Golden Globe. His last appearance was in 2023, and in 2024 he announced he would not return. That year he released Horizon: An American Saga—Chapter 1, the first of a planned four-film western series. Britannica says he invested some $38 million of his own money in the project.

Name notes for searchers

Kevin Michael Costner is his birth name. Michael is his middle name. He has used Kevin Costner throughout his career, in credits for both acting and directing.