CAIRO – 24 October 2017: October 24 is birthday number 70 for Kevin Kline. He is one of Hollywood’s most versatile actors; ranging from drama, Shakespeare to comedy.
Kline was born in Missouri in 1947. His family was interested in music and theatre, and his father was a former opera singer. Originally interested in becoming a pianist, Kline studied at the Indiana University in Bloomington, and switched over to theatre after joining the campus’s theatre group.
He would steadily establish himself in the world of theatre, gradually working his way up as an actor before winning two Tony Awards for his performances in “On the Twentieth Century” in 1978 and “The Pirates of Penzance” in 1981. He also performed in various Shakespeare play adaptations, with roles such as Hamlet and King Lear.
Starring alongside Meryl Streep, Kline would make his film debut in 1982 with the drama “Sophie’s Choice.” In this haunting drama, Kline plays Nathan, the husband of Sophie (Streep) a survivor of the Nazi holocaust camps traumatized by her past. The two harbor secrets, which the film’s narrator, a writer named Stingo (Peter MacNicol) begins to grow steadily aware of.
It was the black comedy “A Fish Called Wanda” in 1988 that would propel Kline’s career further. Set in London, this film followed four crooks aiming to steal a diamond and double-cross each other. Starring John Cleese and Jamie Lee Curtis as Wanda Gershwitz, Kline portrayed the hapless Otto, a pretentious weapons expert who served as Wanda’s lover, scheming with her to backstab her boyfriend Archie Leach, played by Cleese. Kline would win the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, the first time a supporting actor in a comedy has ever won the award.
Kline’s career would continue to range from the height of hilarity to the depths of drama, starring alongside Will Smith in “Wild, Wild West” in 1999. He acted with the same talent and skill that he brought to roles, such as the 1987 political drama “Cry Freedom.”
He portrayed a South African journalist during the time of the Apartheid. Other films he starred in include 1983’s “The Big Chill,” a comedy drama about a group of friends bonding at the funeral of a friend.
From Shakespeare to comedy, Kline proves that sometimes, just one actor can be enough to fill a dozen roles.
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