Movie Musings: Disney and More

Kevin Kline: The American Olivier 

He has been actor on Broadway, Television, and Film for nearly 50 years. He has been ranked among the likes of Sir Ian McKellen, Dame Judi Dench, and Ralph Fiennes as one of the all-time great “Shakespearean” actors and he’s made three films where he plays a dual role. He has been accoladed with one Oscar and three Tony awards and he has also acted in two of Disney’s greatest love stories. He is none other than Kevin Kline!

Kevin Kline was born in St. Louis, Missouri on October 24th, 1947 to Robert Joseph and Agnes Kirk Kline. His father owned The Record Bar, a record store which opened in the early 1940s, though it went on to sell toys in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Although his father was Jewish, he was raised in his mother’s Catholic faith. Kevin Kline has fondly described his mother as “nuts” and as the “dramatic theatrical character” in the family for her political tirades at dinner when he and his three other siblings were growing up (He has one older sister and two younger brothers).  

Kline graduated from the St. Louis Priory School in 1965 and enrolled at Indiana University in Bloomington as a music major. He studied both composing and conducting, but he switched his major to theater and speech for his last two years, graduating in 1970. He is quoted as having 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.” His graduation earned him a scholarship to the Drama Division at Juilliard School in New York City.

Kline relocated to New York where he formed the City Center Acting Company in 1972, and for the next four years he travelled with the company’s other members (including Patti Lupone and David Ogden Stiers), performing Shakespeare and other various works including the musical The Robber Bridegroom. He left the acting company in ’76 to do a small role on the soap opera Search for Tomorrow (1951-1986). He made his Broadway debut in the original musical production of On the Twentieth Century under the direction of Harold Prince, winning his first Tony Award. In 1981 he originated the role of the Pirate King in the New York Shakespeare Festival’s Central Park Production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s production of The Pirates of Penzance, which won him another Tony. It was around this time that Hollywood also came knocking on his door.

Kevin Kline made his feature film debut in Sophie’s Choice (1982) starring opposite Meryl Streep and Peter MacNicol. The film won Steep her second Oscar and when she accepted the award she said “I’d like to thank the 37 members of the American and European casts, who I won’t mention all of their names but for two. I feel like I owe them this because everything I had I got from looking in their eyes and for the great love they gave me for five months: I thank Kevin Kline and Peter MacNicol.” Next, Kline made his first two films under the direction of Lawrence Kasdan, The Big Chill (1983) and Silverado (1985). He himself was awarded an Oscar, in the category of Best Supporting Actor in 1988 for his performance as Otto West in A Fish Called Wanda, which was co-written and starred “Monty Python” alumni John Cleese and Michael Palin.

Kline reunited with Lawrence Kasdan on the films I Love You to Death (1990), Grand Canyon (1991) and French Kiss (1995). Prior to “French Kiss,” he also made the film Dave (1993) in which he plays Dave Kovic who is hired to impersonate the President of the United States. He later made The Wild Wild West (1999) opposite Will Smith and reunited with John Cleese on Fierce Creatures (1997), playing the dual father-and-son role of Vince and Rod McCain.

When Disney was looking to hire someone who would voice the role of Phoebus, the love interest for Esmerelda in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), they wanted a combination of Errol Flynn and John Wayne, and Kline’s name topped their list. He reprised the character for Disney’s direct-to-video sequel The Hunchback of Notre Dame 2: The Secret of the Bell in 2002 and starred in a revival of Shakespeare’s Henry IV in 2004. He reunited with “Sophie’s Choice,” co-star Meryl Streep two more times in the films A Prairie Home Companion (2006) and Ricki and the Flash (2015). In 2008, he starred in the leading role of Cyrano de Bergarac, a character who is ashamed of his huge nose, ironically like Quasimodo in “Hunchback,” who is ashamed of his entire appearance.

The same year as “Cyrano,” Kevin Kline also lent his voice to Universal Animation’s The Tale of Despereaux, which also featured the voice of Emma Watson. When Emma Watson was cast as Belle in Disney’s live-action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast (2017), Kline was cast as Belle’s father, Maurice. (The original “Beauty and the Beast” was directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise who also directed Kevin Kline as Phoebus in “Hunchback of Notre Dame.”). In the film, Kevin Kline performed the song “How Does A Moment Last Forever,” which was written by Alan Menken, the Oscar-winning composer of the original animated film. (The song was written exclusively for the live-action film. It wasn’t in the original film or the ’93 Broadway stage version.) Kline won his third Tony for his performance in the revival of Noel Coward’s play Present Laughter in 2017 as well. He has also provided the voice of Mr. Fischoeder in Bob’s Burgers (2011-present) and he is set to appear as himself in the comedy Here Today (2020) co-starring, co-written and under the direction of Billy Crystal.

Kevin Kline was nicknamed “The American Olivier,” for his performances on stage by theatre critic Frank Rich. Of course that is easy to understand, but it could easily be argued that he’s still the “American Olivier,” for his movie performances too. He is a wonderfully versatile actor, and he showing no signs of retirement anytime soon.