Kevin Kline's Real Name: Kevin Delaney Kline

Quick answer: The actor is known professionally as Kevin Kline. Britannica and Encyclopedia.com independently give the fuller form Kevin Delaney Kline and date his birth to October 24, 1947, in St. Louis, Missouri (Britannica; Encyclopedia.com).

Real name and early life

Independent publishers support the documented full name Kevin Delaney Kline. Encyclopedia.com names his parents as Robert Joseph, a toy and record store owner and singer, and Peggy, whose maiden name was Kirk, and says he earned a B.A. in speech and theatre at Indiana University in 1970 and a diploma from the Juilliard School in 1972. Britannica independently says he studied piano as a child, began acting in high school, attended Indiana University in Bloomington intending at first to major in music, switched to drama, graduated in 1970, then studied from 1970 to 1972 under John Houseman in Juilliard's drama division.

Career highlights

Britannica says that in 1972 he joined The Acting Company, a repertory group cofounded that year by Houseman, and toured with it for four years. Encyclopedia.com independently calls him a founding member of the Acting Company from 1972 to 1976. Britannica says he first appeared on Broadway in 1973, won a Tony Award for best featured actor in a musical for On the Twentieth Century in 1978, and won a second Tony, for best lead actor in a musical, as the Pirate King in a 1980–81 revival of The Pirates of Penzance, a role he later reprised in the 1983 film. Encyclopedia.com independently records Tony Awards for those two stage roles, in 1978 and 1980.

Britannica says his film debut was opposite Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice (1982), and later names The Big Chill (1983), Silverado (1985), and Cry Freedom (1987). It says his performance in A Fish Called Wanda (1988) won him an Academy Award for best supporting actor, and later names Dave (1993), The Ice Storm (1997), and In & Out (1997). Encyclopedia.com independently lists Sophie's Choice as his film debut, records the Academy Award for A Fish Called Wanda in 1988, and lists those later titles among his credits. Britannica also names later work including Life as a House (2001), The Emperor's Club (2002), and The Pink Panther (2006).

Name notes for searchers

People looking up Kevin Kline or Kevin Delaney Kline are looking for the same American actor. Independent sources support the fuller form used in the title.