Kevin Costner has captivated audiences for decades as one of Hollywood’s most iconic leading men and acclaimed filmmakers. The veteran actor is known for playing characters with a solid personal morality as a portrait of the ideal “American” male that people identified with for the latter part of the 20th century. Costner’s first feature film role was in Sizzle Beach, USA, which, according to Outsider, he tried to purchase from Troma Entertainment because of an embarrassing sex scene he didn’t want to do but was afraid to say no out of fear that he’d never work in Hollywood again.
Updated June 27, 2023: To keep the article fresh and relevant by adding more information and entries, this article has been updated by Timothy Lindsey.
From there, he went on to star in some of the most iconic films ever made, which include Bull Durham, The Untouchables, and Dances With Wolves, for which he earned two Academy Awards for Best Director and Producer. Since then, he has transitioned from major movie star to television star as his role on the hit series Yellowstone made it one of the biggest shows on broadcast television. Here is a look at the actor's best performances, ranked.
15 The Big Chill
We’ll start out with the most controversial entry on this list since Costner gets only seconds of screen time in The Big Chill as a corpse in a coffin, and all flashback scenes with him were cut out of the final edit. To this day, Costner's role in this wonderful film is one of the most legendary performances ever left on the cutting room floor, and even without his physical presence, he plays the most critical role in this classic 1983 film about a group of college friends who reunite at a South Carolina vacation house to remember their friend who died by suicide.
It’s an unbelievably tough and uncomfortable task to face your mortality and lay down in a coffin for a second, let alone how long it takes to shoot a scene, but this movie doesn't happen without him or the scenes that he filmed. The ensemble cast acts knowing who he is and spent time with him in the scenes he filmed and helped forge a bond between this tight-knit group of friends. His death serves as the central device that brings all these thirty-somethings together to examine their lives and the existential ennui that comes with staring down the barrel of middle age, and none of it happens without the metaphorical ghost of Costner’s character Alex looming over the entire film.
14 Thirteen Days
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In Roger Donaldson's 2000 political thriller, Costner portrays the role of White House assistant Kenneth P. O'Donnell. Alongside President John F. Kennedy (Bruce Greenwood) and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy (Steven Culp), O'Donnell helps find a solution to the Cuban Missile Crisis that does not include war as tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union rise during the Cold War. For movie lovers who enjoy historical dramas and political thrillers, Thirteen Days is one of the most underrated films of its era.
12 Draft Day
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In one of the top sports drama films of the last decade, Draft Day gives NFL fans and movie lovers alike a glimpse into what happens inside NFL front offices and organizations. The film depicts Cleveland Browns General Manager Sonny Weaver Jr. (Costner) and the events leading up to the fictionalized 2014 NFL Draft.
Costner leads a loaded cast that includes the likes of Jennifer Garner, Denis Leary, Sam Elliott, Chadwick Boseman, Terry Crews, Griffin Newman, Sean Combs, and many others. According to WhatCulture, Draft Day had the 10th-best script out of any movie in the 2010s. Despite being a box office failure, Costner's portrayal of Weaver is one that should make fans feel more passionate about the NFL.
10 McFarland, USA
The release of McFarland, USA, in 2015 marked the second consecutive year that Kevin Costner starred in the main protagonist role of a sports drama. The setting of the story is McFarland, California, in 1987, and Costner portrays the role of football coach Jim White, who has recently been fired for injuring a player. After losing his new assistant coaching gig for pulling off an injured player, he becomes a track coach after seeing the speed of certain students.
In a predominantly Latino area, White helps the team overcome bigotry en route to winning a state championship. Costner's portrayal of White earned strong reviews from The Hollywood Reporter, which stated, "It is Costner who holds the picture together." This movie is a true story and one for movie lovers who enjoy sports, family, and inclusion.
9 Yellowstone
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The Dutton family, led by patriarch John (Costner), must survive as one of the biggest ranches in Montana in a world that feels that the cowboy life should already be extinct. Costner is giving one of his most charismatic performances as the patriarch of this family, who must do everything in his power to survive in a world that doesn’t think his life profession is worth it anymore. Creator Taylor Sheridan gives him enough dramatic moments to prove Costner still knows how to show decency and a moral compass with a few words and a smirk.
The actor's presence has made Yellowstone one of the most-watched shows in the whole country and has brought Costner to a new audience who sees him as an old-style, imposing, movie-star presence. With news of Costner leaving the series, all eyes are on the popular franchise to see how it will go on without him.
8 The Bodyguard
Rachel Marron (Whitney Houston) is a famous singer and has been receiving threatening notes from a stalker fan, so her team hires a bodyguard (Costner). Although she hates him at first, they end up falling in love. This is Whitney Houston’s movie, both for her acting and singing, but it wouldn’t work without Costner’s stern, weary performance as The Bodyguard, which makes her performance shine even more. His character gives her a perfect balance and perspective, and you believe the respect they feel for each other and their work evolves into something different and more intimate, culminating in a memorable climactic scene. The incredible soundtrack still resonates with anyone who listens to it.
7 Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Robin Hood (Costner) decides it's time to steal for the rich and give to the poor as the Sheriff of Nottingham (Alan Rickman) isn’t helping anyone but himself. In Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Costner plays the legendary character, a skilled archer and swordsman with a heart of gold, showing why he was a massive movie star at the time. The actor’s performance is as athletic as it is charismatic, even if his English accent is weird and anachronistic.
Costner transforms the folk legend into a medieval action hero, creating an entertaining film full of great set pieces. The movie also works because there’s an incredible cast of supporting actors giving their all: Morgan Freeman, Christian Slater, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and especially Alan Rickman (who had already been Hans Gruber in Die Hard) as the villainous Sheriff of Nottingham.
6 Dances With Wolves
The film that famously beat Goodfellas for Best Picture in 1991, Dances With Wolves, is the most polarizing film on this list that both sides have legitimate arguments for. Some say that it is a classic example of Hollywood's “White Savior” trend that's existed since its inception, while others defend the film by claiming it was actually the Indigenous People who saved him.
No matter what side you agree with, Costner's effort came from a good place, and his performance was honest, making it worth a watch. It follows Union Soldier Lt. Dunbar as he escapes the horrors of The Civil War and eventually finds himself as he lives among members of the Sioux Tribe of Native Americans.
5 A Perfect World
Set in early 1960s Texas, A Perfect World follows Butch (Costner) as he escapes prison and takes a little boy raised in a family of Jehovah's Witnesses as a hostage to help him escape. Along the way, they become friends as Butch provides the kid with certain indulgences he is not allowed to have or participate in due to his family's strict faith, and Butch becomes a somewhat father figure type that he never really got to have when he was young.
It's a shame that this film is somewhat forgotten by the average movie watcher because this is one of the most underrated Clint Eastwood movies, and the character Costner takes on is both heartwarming and tragic and is definitely worth revisiting.
4 The Untouchables
Brian De Palma's 1987 film follows Eliot Ness as he assembles a team of agents to take down infamous gangster Al Capone in this crime drama set in prohibition-era Chicago. The Untouchables may be more of a romantic portrait of early 20th-century America that is more tinsel-town fantasy than historically accurate, but this love letter to the classic gangster films of old Hollywood is something to appreciate on its own terms. While Costner's take on Eliot Ness can be borderline cheesy at times, it is the perfect foil to De Niro's Capone and an outstanding balance to Sean Connery's Academy Award-winning performance as the jaded veteran police officer Jimmy Malone.
3 JFK
Oliver Stone's intense conspiracy thriller sees both Stone and Costner at the peak of their creative powers. In what might be his finest acting performance, Costner takes on the role of Jim Garrison as the former New Orleans district attorney who is tasked with finding out who killed John F. Kennedy. This is the prototypical Costner role. A character with a moral backbone who is willing to take on the Federal Government to ask the questions that he believes are worth asking.
JFK is another film that, while historically inaccurate, captures the chaos that surrounded that moment in history with a passion and intensity that only an Oliver Stone film can. It's also one of the best movies about politics from the 20th century.
2 Bull Durham
In the land of baseball movies, Costner is King. Bull Durham ranks up there as one of the greatest sports movies ever made and one of the funniest ever made, making it onto the American Film Institute’s 100 Years 100 Laughs list. Costner pops off the screen as Crash Davis, a career minor leaguer who is sent to help the talented but raw rookie Ebby Calvin Laroosh (played by Tim Robbins) control his wild pitching and groom him into a bona fide major league ace while also competing with him for the affection of Annie, a baseball groupie who chooses one player each year to be her lover.
This film is widely regarded as one of Costner's finest performances and among the most accurate portrayals of life in the minor leagues. Even the great Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle had some surprising thoughts on the life of minor league baseball was portrayed in this film
1 Field Of Dreams
Field of Dreams is more than just a movie about baseball. This is a movie about fathers and sons, risks and rewards, and the lengths someone will go to when they lose themselves in the things in life that don't matter and the lengths they will go to find themselves again.
This is the role that Costner will probably be most remembered for because of his tender and empathetic portrayal as Ray Kinsella, an Iowa corn farmer who is afraid of growing old without ever accomplishing anything extraordinary, but through a series of trials and tribulations, he ends up giving closure to the ghosts of the talented young men responsible for one of the greatest scandals in sports history and himself a reconciliation between him and his estranged late father.
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