About the Cast...

KEVIN KLINE stars as Joey Boca, a man so full of life it almost kills him, in the third film he and director Kasdan have done together, the first two being "The Big Chill" and "Silverado."

Kline was born and raised in St. Louis, Mo. He studied music and drama at Indiana University, later enrolling in the Juilliard Drama Center in New York. There he studied under John Houseman and became a founding member of Houseman's The Acting Company.

Spending four years with The Acting Company, Kline played leading roles in "The School for Scandal," "Three Sisters," "The Lower Depths" and "The Robber Bridegroom," among others. He made his Broadway debut in "On the Twentieth Century," winning his first Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award.

Kline followed this musical with the Michael Weller drama "Loose Ends," first performed at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., and then on Broadway at the Circle in the Square. In the summer of 1980, he was the Pirate King in Joesph Papp's original Central Park production of "The Pirates of Penzance," with Linda Ronstadt, Rex Smith and George Rose.

Papp's Broadway staging of "The Pirates of Penzance" brought him his second Tony, this time as best actor in a musical comedy, and his first movie, "Sophie's Choice," in which he starred opposite Meryl Streep. His film debut earned Kline best actor nominations for both the British Academy Award and the Golden Globe Award.

This was followed by "The Big Chill," directed by Lawrence Kasdan, with a cast that included Glenn Close, William Hurt and JoBeth Williams. In 1986 he starred with Sissy Spacek in "Violets Are Blue" after having returned to the stage, where he played the title roles in "Richard III" and "Henry V" for Papp's Shakespeare Festival and starred in "Arms and the Man" on Broadway. He won an Obie Award for sustained achievement for his performance in the title role of "Hamlet" in Papp's Shakespeare Festival at the Public Theater. In the summer of 1988, he starred as Benedick in "Much Ado About Nothing," also at the New York Shakespeare Festival.

On screen Kline next portrayed Donald Woods in "Cry Freedom," for Richard Attenborough. "A Fish Called Wanda," with John Cleese and Jamie Lee Curtis and directed by Charles Crichton, earned Kline the 1988 Academy Award as best supporting actor for his portrayal of a lunatic hit man. His next film was "The January Man," directed by Pat O'Connor.

In 1989, Kline was awarded the William Shakespeare Award (the "Will Award") for Classical Theater from the Shakespeare Theater at the Folger in Washington, D.C., in recognition of his contributions to the classical theater, particularly his recent roles as Richard III, Hamlet and Benedick. This April he again stars as Hamlet in a production he is also directing at the Public Theater.

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