Kevin Kline

name="Robert"/> His father was a classical music lover and amateur opera singer who owned The Record Bar, a record store in St. Louis that opened in 1942.

Kevin Delaney Kline (born October 24, 1947) is an American actor.

Kline is known for his over five decade career as a leading man on stage and screen.

He is the recipient of an Academy Award and three Tony Awards, and has been nominated for two British Academy Film Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and five Golden Globe Awards.

Kline was born on October 24, 1947, in St. Louis, Missouri, to Margaret Agnes Kirk and Robert Joseph Kline (1909–1996).

He also sold toys during the 1960s and 1970s; his father's family owned Kline's Inc., a department store chain.

Kevin Kline described his mother as the "dramatic theatrical character in our family".

His father was Jewish and his mother Catholic; Kline was raised in his mother's faith.

He has an older sister, Kate, and two younger brothers, Alexander and Christopher.

He graduated from the Saint Louis Priory School in 1965.

He began studying composing and conducting music, but switched to a theater and speech major for his last two years, and graduated in 1970.

He said: "When I switched to the Theater Department, all I did was theater... I could barely make it to class because this was my passion."

While an undergraduate, he was a co-founder of the Vest Pocket Players, an off-campus theatrical troupe.

In 1970, Kline won a scholarship to the newly formed drama division of the Juilliard School in New York.

Kline began his career on stage in 1972 with The Acting Company and gained prominence for his numerous performances with The Public Theatre and in New York Shakespeare Festival.

In 1972, he joined fellow Juilliard graduates, including Patti LuPone and David Ogden Stiers, and formed the City Center Acting Company (now The Acting Company), under the aegis of John Houseman.

The Company traveled across the U.S. performing Shakespeare's plays, other classical works, and the musical The Robber Bridegroom, founding one of the most widely praised groups in American repertory theatre.

At Juilliard, he studied singing with Beverley Peck Johnson.

In 1976, Kline left The Acting Company and settled in New York City, doing a brief appearance as Woody Reed in the now-defunct soap opera Search for Tomorrow.

He returned to the stage in 1977 to play Clym Yeobright opposite Donna Theodore as Eustacia Vye in The Hudson Guild Theater production of Dance on a Country Grave, Kelly Hamilton's musical version of Thomas Hardy's The Return of the Native.

He has gone on to win three Tony Awards for his work on Broadway, winning Best Featured Actor in a Musical for the 1978 original production of On the Twentieth Century, and Best Actor in a Musical for the 1981 revival of The Pirates of Penzance.

In 1978, he played Bruce Granit, a matinée idol caricature, in Harold Prince's On the Twentieth Century, for which he won his first Tony Award.

In 1981, he appeared with multi-genre renowned singer Linda Ronstadt and singer Rex Smith in the New York Shakespeare Festival's Central Park production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance, which moved to Broadway and won Kline another Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his comically dashing portrayal of the Pirate King.

He made his film debut in romantic drama Sophie's Choice (1982).

Kline finally ventured into film in 1982 in Sophie's Choice.

He won the coveted role of the tormented and moody Nathan opposite Meryl Streep.

The New York Times film critic Janet Maslin wrote of Kline's performance, "Mr. Kline, whose Nathan convincingly demonstrates the greatest of tenderness toward Sophie, is also called upon to rail at her mercilessly. In the tender scenes Mr. Kline makes himself very appealing; in the cruel ones, he does the best he can to affect a viciousness that, even on the page, seemed less than fully convincing."

His other films include The Pirates of Penzance (1983), Silverado (1985), Cry Freedom (1987), The January Man (1989), Chaplin (1992), Princess Caraboo (1994), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999), Wild Wild West (1999), The Anniversary Party (2001), The Emperor's Club (2002), The Pink Panther (2006), Last Vegas (2013), My Old Lady (2014), and The Good House (2021).

In 1983 he played the role in a film version of the musical, also with Ronstadt, Smith and Angela Lansbury, which had a limited theatrical release.

In the ensuing years, Kline appeared many times in New York Shakespeare Festival productions of Shakespeare plays, including starring roles in Richard III (1983), Much Ado About Nothing (1988), Henry V (1984), and two productions of Hamlet, in 1986 and 1990 (which he also directed).

For his role in the comedy A Fish Called Wanda (1988), he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

A videotape of the 1990 production has aired on PBS.

Kline was dubbed "the American Olivier" by New York Times theater critic Frank Rich for his stage acting.

He has also voiced characters in the films The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), The Road to El Dorado (2000), The Tale of Despereaux (2008), and the animated comedy series Bob's Burgers (2011–present).

In 1997, the school named its new auditorium the Kevin Kline Theater.

At its dedication, he performed selections from Shakespeare as a benefit.

He attended Indiana University, Bloomington, where he was a classmate of actor Jonathan Banks.

In 2003, he was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.

In 2003, he starred as Falstaff in the Broadway production of Henry IV, for which he won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play.

In 2017 he won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for the revival of Noël Coward's Present Laughter.