Kevin Kline
Kevin Kline is an actor, born 1947.
Kline came to film from the stage and never really left it: three Tony Awards, an induction into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 2003, and a screen career that has always looked like a classical actor moonlighting. His first two films set out both halves of him. Sophie's Choice gave him Nathan, a man running on charm and something much worse underneath, and The Big Chill made him the settled one holding a weekend of old friends together.
Then he did the thing classical training makes possible and most stars will not risk: he played a complete idiot with total technical precision. Otto in A Fish Called Wanda is stupid, vain, violent and utterly convinced of his own intellect, and Kline assembles him out of tiny physical decisions, right down to the way he smells his own armpit. It won him the Academy Award and it is still funnier than nearly anything else from its decade.
The rest divides neatly. He is a very good light leading man in Dave, French Kiss and In and Out, and a genuinely restrained dramatic actor whenever someone asks, in The Ice Storm and The Emperor's Club. Voice work has kept him busy, from Phoebus in The Hunchback of Notre Dame to a long run as Mr. Fischoeder on Bob's Burgers. Disclaimer in 2024 gave him his best late role, an old man with a grudge and a plan.
Movies (53)
- Beauty and the Beast (2017)
- No Strings Attached (2011)
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
- The Road to El Dorado (2000)
- A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (2025)
- The Pink Panther (2006)
- Wild Wild West (1999)
- Definitely, Maybe (2008)
- A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
- Last Vegas (2013)
- The Ice Storm (1997)
- In & Out (1997)
- Silverado (1985)
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame II (2002)
- A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999)
- The Big Chill (1983)
- French Kiss (1995)
- Dave (1993)
- Chaplin (1992)
- The Tale of Despereaux (2008)
- Sophie's Choice (1982)
- Orange County (2002)
- I Love You to Death (1990)
- The Bob's Burgers Movie (2022)
- Life as a House (2001)
- Cry Freedom (1987)
- Trade (2007)
- The Conspirator (2011)
- Soapdish (1991)
- The Emperor's Club (2002)
TV (3)
Where to start with Kevin Kline
A Fish Called Wanda is the first stop, no argument. It won him the Oscar and it explains his method: the ridiculousness is executed with the precision of a man who has played Shakespeare for a living, and that discipline is exactly what makes it funny.
Then Dave for the charm at full strength, a decent-man comedy that would collapse without an actor who can play sincerity without sugar. Sophie's Choice and The Ice Storm are the two for the dramatic actor, the first volatile and the second almost entirely internal. In & Out has aged into something more interesting than it looked at the time. For lighter evenings, Silverado is the western where he seems most at home inside a genre, and Bob's Burgers has quietly become his most consistent job, a long run as a landlord who talks like a Victorian rake.