Kevin Kline

Kevin Kline has seamlessly transitioned between the worlds of theatre and film and has earned equal distinction in both. Kline was most recently seen on Broadway in the 2017 revival of Present Laughter, portraying the role of Garry Essendine. Kline is the recipient of numerous awards, including an Academy Award and two Tony awards. Kline was seen in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, directed by Bill Condon with an all-star cast including Emma Watson, Ian McKellen, Luke Evans, Emma Thompson, Dan Stevens, and Josh Gad. In addition to his 1988 Academy Award for his role in the comedy A Fish Called Wanda and a 2008 Screen Actors Guild Award for HBO's As You Like It, Kline is a five-time Golden Globe nominee for his roles in Sophie's Choice, Dave, In & Out, Soapdish and De-Lovely; and he earned a Screen Actors Guild nomination for his performance in Life As A House.

He was also the recipient of a Career Tribute at the 1997 Gotham Independent Film Awards. His additional film credits include The Big Chill, Silverado, I Love You To Death, Grand Canyon, French Kiss, Cry Freedom, The Ice Storm, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Anniversary Party, Fierce Creatures, Wild Wild West, The Emperor's Club, Pink Panther, A Prairie Home Companion, The Extra Man, Trade (for which he won the CineMerit Award at the Munich Film Festival), Queen to Play, The Conspirator, Darling Companion (his sixth collaboration with director Lawrence Kasdan), The Last of Robin Hood, Last Vegas, My Old Lady, and Ricki and The Flash.

A Juilliard graduate, Kline made his Broadway debut playing Vershinin in Anton Chekhov's The Three Sisters for John Houseman's The Acting Company, of which he is a founding member. For Hal Prince's On the Twentieth Century, he won both a Tony and a Drama Desk Award, and for The Pirates of Penzance, which had a successful run at The Public Theater before transferring to Broadway, he again won both a Tony and a Drama Desk Award, as well as the Obie Award for Outstanding Achievement by an actor. More recently, Kline was seen on Broadway in the critically acclaimed Cyrano de Bergerac, for which he received an Outer Critics Circle Award. Additionally, this is Kline's second staged production to air on PBS'Great Performances Series. The production earned him Emmy and SAG Award nominations. Kline won rave reviews for his Broadway performance in Shaw's Arms and the Man directed by John Malkovich as well as Michael Weller'sLoose Ends, directed by Alan Schneider, and starred in Gerry Gutierrez's production of Chekhov's Ivanov at Lincoln Center.

He won a Drama Desk award for his performance as Falstaff in Lincoln Center Theater's production of Shakespeare's Henry IV. At The Public's Shakespeare in the Park, Kline has also appeared opposite Meryl Streep in The Seagull and in Mother Courage and Her Children. Kline has a three-decades-long history with The Public Theater, during which he has played numerous Shakespearean characters, including the title roles in King Lear, Richard III and Henry V.

Additional credits include Duke Vincentio in Measure for Measure, Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, and the title role in two productions of Hamlet. For the first production of Hamlet he won the Obie Award for Sustained Achievement in Theatre and for the second, which he also directed, he received five Drama Desk nominations, including best director and actor nominations. Later, he co-directed a televised version of the production for the PBS Great Performances Series. Kline has received the William Shakespeare Award for Classical Theatre by the Shakespeare Theatre Company, which recognizes an artist who has made a significant contribution to classical theatre in America and was the first American actor to receive the Sir John Gielgud Golden Quill Award. In 2007, he was honored with the Lucille Lortel Award for Lifetime Achievement. In 2004, Kline was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame.

Kline has voiced characters in the films The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), The Road to El Dorado (2000), The Tale of Despereaux (2008), and the animated comedy series Bob's Burgers (2011–present) and its theatrical feature The Bob's Burgers Movie (2022), for which he has earned a Primetime Emmy nomination.