Today In History

Costner born January 18, 1955 | Lynwood, California, and grew up in Compton, California. Costner landed a role as a suicide victim in the 1983 ensemble drama The Big Chill with Glenn Close, Kevin Kline, William Hurt, Jeff Goldblum and others. What looked like his first big break ended in disappointment when all of his scenes ended up on the cutting room floor. "I rehearsed for a month with the whole cast and shot for about a week. I knew when I was shooting it that if anything would be cut it would be my scenes," Costner later explained. But the film's director Lawrence Kasdan remembered Costner and later signed him for the 1985 western Silverado. The film, which also starred Kevin Kline, Scott Glenn and Danny Glover, proved to be a springboard to other opportunities in Hollywood. In 1987, Costner's career really took off with two hit films. He starred with Sean Young in the popular thriller No Way Out and played the legendary crime fighter Eliot Ness in The Untouchables with Sean Connery. Untouchables director Brian De Palma praised Costner's work on the film, saying that "he can take those old Western lawman lines and make them real." Continuing his winning streak, Costner starred in the baseball romantic comedy Bull Durham with Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins the following year. In 1989's Field of Dreams, Costner again won over audiences with his everyman appeal. He played a farmer who creates a baseball diamond on his land on the instruction of a voice he hears. The fantastical yet heartfelt film did well both critically and commercially. Costner, now an established box office star, got the green light to work on his directorial debut Dances with Wolves 1990, the movie won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Costner also won the Academy Award for Best Director. Costner continued to enjoy box office success with the action adventure tale Robin Hood | Prince of Thieves 1991 and the romantic drama The Bodyguard 1992 with Whitney Houston. In everything he does, he listens to his own counsel, not following any typical Hollywood playbook. "You've got to blaze your own trail or you're just going to feed at the trough," he once explained. "Feeding at the trough can get you pretty fat. But I choose to go my own way."