Talk:Kevin Costner

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[edit] Another baseball film?

I remember reading something that said Kevin Costner was going to do another baseball movie, but I can't seem to find information on this. Anyone have an idea?

        Chasing Dreams (He appears only briefly in the film)

[edit] Inconsistencies in the article

The last sentence of the "Bio" section reads:

"He booked one of his first leading roles in the softcore sex comedy Sizzle Beach U.S.A., a film which prompted the actor to swear off doing that kind of film to wait for a proper break which came years later with Silverado."

Meanwhile, the "Filmography" reads:

  1. Stacy's Knights (1982)
  2. Chasing Dreams (1982)
  3. Night Shift (1982)
  4. Frances (1982)
  5. Table for Five (1983)
  6. The Big Chill (1983) (scenes deleted)
  7. Testament (1983)
  8. The Gunrunner (1984)
  9. Fandango (1985)
  10. Silverado (1985)
  11. American Flyers (1985)
  12. Sizzle Beach, U.S.A. (1986)

Huh?

"Sizzle Beach, U.S.A." was made in 1974 but never released. After "Silverado" came out and was a hit, "Sizzle Beach" was quickly released to try and capitalize on Costner's success. Michael24 18:52, 5 September 2006

[edit] Kevin Costner's ancestors are German??

The article says that Kevin Costner's father was of German descent.

I maybe wrong, but I presume that this assumption is not correct: "Costner" (or "Kostner") is a very common name in Val Gardena (German: Grödnertal) in South Tyrol/Italy. South Tyrol was not part of Germany, but part of Austria until 1919 and then became Italian. So, Costner may be of Austrian instead of German descent.

One cannot even say that Costner's ancestors come from a German (or Austrian) speaking area, although today about 70% of all South Tyroleans speak German as their mother tongue. In Val Gardena most people (today about 95%) speak Ladin (not Latin!), a roman language (related to Rhetoromance, French and Catalan), as first language. Due to the isolated location of the valley in the Dolomite mountains, German (the major language in South Tyrol) and Italian (the national language) here are still regarded as foreign languages.

Finally the surname "Costner" is not a German, but a Ladin name that derives from "costa", meaning "edge" or "rim" ("Costner" = a person coming from the edge of the mountains). The ladin word "costa" is related to Latin/Italian/Spanish "Costa" and even to English "coast".

I do not know Costner's true family background, but his last names leads directly to Val Gardena in Italy and surely not to Germany.


AFAIK German American is a historic term also used for Austrians and Swiss Germans. South Tyrol was surely still a part of Austria when his ancestors immigrated and has still a German speaking majority. The ladin familyname has no big relevance, e.g. one quarter of the German family names are of slavic origin!


Well, you are right that South Tyrol was part of Austria when Costner's may have emmigrated to the US. And you are right that South Tyrol was and still is a German speaking area. But the family name "Costner" is a name from a valley, where the great majority does not speak German but Ladin, a Roman language. Even today about 95% of the valley's population speaks Ladin as mother tongue. I think the Ladin family name "Costner" has a certain relevance, because in the most Ladin valleys there was never an immigration or emmigration of a great number of people to or from other German speaking areas.
So, you cannot compare here with German family names of Slavic orgin. The mountain valley communities are still very homogenious, and you can very often easily identify the place of birth of a South Tyrolean or Ladin, if you know his family name.
My question now is the following: Is a person regarded as "German American" only because of geographical reasons, even if his ancestors never spoke German as mother tongue? On the other hand (due to the close relation of the Ladin and the Italian language), "Italian American" would be the wrong term as well, as the Val Gardena was not Italian at that time.
Unfortunately, we could not yet verify the assupmtion that K. Costner's ancestors actually came from this valley. All discussion about Costner being Ladin or not may be ended by locating his ancestors in Germany, Austria or where ever.

[edit] German ancestry

Does anyone have a source that he's of significant German ancestry? I've removed the category until someone provides one. I realize he has "some" German ancestry, but unless it's a full parent or he somehow identifies with it, the category isn't fully appropriate. JackO'Lantern 05:11, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

Costner [Kostner] is a German surname.
These various trees give his full ancestry[1]. His last German ancestor was in the 18th century. Mad Jack 18:45, 28 August 2006 (UTC)
Unfortunately, I cannot find his ancestry on this website. Can you say something about the Ladin valley discussion from above? Where did his ancestors come from? Germany, Austria, South Tyrol?

[edit] Casino and businesses

I added the Midnight Star information, but Kevin and his brother Dan are also developing a larger resort, "The Dunbar" (after his DwW character), outside of Deadwood, SD. I don't have sufficient info about the resort to add anything verifiable or substantial.

Additionally, I know he was a major part of a movement to finance and build a rail line from the airport near Rapid City, SD (the nearest airport of decent size) to Deadwood to help ferry in more tourism. This movement appears to have died out after a few years of effort. Again, I don't have the details.

From what I know, the movement is completely dead. It is still talked about from time to time but I understood it to be a matter of inadequate financing and the state not wishing to contribute. I know of no verifiable sources to substantiate this however. --151.151.73.165 15:50, 14 July 2006 (UTC)CostnerM

I moved this here:

Costner owns 93.5% of the "Midnight Star" casino in Deadwood, South Dakota. The casino, its sports bar "Diamond Lil's", and its restaurant "Jake's" are all named after characters and locations from the movie Silverado; and the facility contains posters, costumes, and other memorabilia from Costner's films. In July 2004, Costner fired Francis and Carla Caneva, who managed the "Midnight Star". A judge subsequently order Costner to pay $6.1m to buy out the Caneva's as his business partners. In November2006, the South Dakota Supreme Court overturned the lower court's verdict. The SDSC ruled that the casino be appraised and if found to be worth less than $4.9 million, the amount the Costner has put into the hotel, he will not be force to pay his former partners.

This desperately needs a) references, b) copyediting.--Eloquence* 08:27, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Kevin Costner was not on Jungle Cruise at Disney

During a radio interview on syndicated morning radio show "Bob and Tom" http://www.bobandtom.com on July 19, 2006, host Tom Griswold asked Kevin Costner about his being a former Disney Jungle Cruise worker. Costner repled that he never was employed at Disney, but his first wife had been Snow White. The interview was replayed again on July 20, 2006 during Bob and Tom's second hour.

[edit] Trivia?

What happened to the trivia section? There were some interesting facts about his films and his penchant for baseball / water based films - but now it all appears to have vanished. Is there a reasonable explanation for the removal? --Costner 20:11, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Cal Ripken

the urban legend concerning kevin costner possibly sleeping with mrs. ripken has reached cult status and should be somehow noted. WillC 23:06, 14 December 2006 (UTC)


[edit] "Lewd Act" Incident

I seem to remember there was incident where Costner had a wank after a massage and upset the masseuse who complained, was fired and then launched an unfair dismissal claim against her employer. Why is there no mention of this? I'd say it is as important as the Oscar he won for Dances with Wolves

The incident used to be on this page, but I guess somebody deleted it. From what I recall, I don't think the identity of the celebrity involved was ever confirmed to be Costner. His name was likely attached to the story because the spa where it happened is owned by a friend of his and he was an occasional visitor. Michael24 12:34, 17 February 2007
His identity was revealed conclusively, it was probably deleted by a fan. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.61.16.14 (talk) 05:46, 8 May 2007 (UTC).
I put it back, with its ref. Rgds, --Trident13 23:26, 12 May 2007 (UTC)
I put it back, with its ref - AGAIN!!! Rgds, - Trident13 23:28, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Explorers Club

There seems to be an interesting project looming. [2] I'd suggest Explorers Club (film) (which would cover the animated series of shorts and feature. Does anyone have any extra information before I get the stub rolling? (Emperor 12:29, 1 July 2007 (UTC))

[edit] No Way Out

While Wikipedia no longer includes spoiler warnings in plot descriptions, I didn't think it right for an entry on an actor to blow a movie's surprise ending, so I removed that detail regarding No Way Out from this article. TJSwoboda (talk) 06:40, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Obviously everyone editing this article is blind...

or how else do you explain that references to him being a 'cow rider' and giving 'smashing lessons' have been sitting in the article since 4th October 2007. We really need to do better than this. Exxolon (talk) 18:52, 14 May 2008 (UTC)