Word: actorly
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...warm reviews. Yet, for reasons even Kline cannot quite explain, he chooses to keep Hamlet handy at all times. Ever the dutiful student, the star of the forthcoming movies In & Out and The Ice Storm approaches his 50th birthday on Oct. 24 with the tenacity of a young actor still in search of answers. "It changes every time you read it," he says. "Just when you think you have Hamlet figured out, he does something so unexpected, you have to reconsider him completely...
Could it be that the actor has formed a permanent mind meld with the melancholy Danish prince? In a career that has spanned 15 years of movies, Kline, like the Shakespearean character he most adores, has defied all attempts at easy explanation. He routinely follows up a mainstream Hollywood star turn (like 1993's Dave) with an eccentric role in a smaller film (like last year's Fierce Creatures). He switches--almost as though compelled to do so--from dark dramas like The Ice Storm to broad comedy like In & Out, movies he made back to back. He can play...
...Kevin is exactly like Hamlet," says acting coach Harold Guskin, his first drama teacher at Indiana University in the late 1960s and still a close friend. "Both as an actor and a person. He always makes the illogical choice. He loves doing exactly what you least expect him to do and making it work. Right from the very beginning, when he quit a good job on [the TV soap opera] Search for Tomorrow and didn't have a job for months, he has trusted his instincts. And for good reason...
...last roles he remembers not getting is the marine biologist in Jaws. "I remember I told Spielberg at my audition that I knew a marine biologist and he could really help," Kline recalls. "Spielberg said, 'You know, I think I'm more interested in finding a good actor than finding a good marine biologist.'" More than 20 years later, Kline still seems slightly annoyed that he didn't get the part...
...most of his career, however, Kline has got nearly every job he wanted. The roll began with a Tony-winning supporting part as Bruce Granit, an egomaniacal actor in the 1978 musical On the Twentieth Century; that led sitcom producer Norman Lear to beg unsuccessfully for his services. Another Tony followed for his performance as the Pirate King opposite Linda Ronstadt in The Pirates of Penzance in 1981. Movie roles came just as quickly after he landed the highly coveted male lead in Sophie's Choice, opposite eventual Oscar winner Meryl Streep; in 1988 Kline won his own Academy Award...