Who

Oscar-winning actor Kevin Kline is best known for his roles in movies like The Big Chill and A Fish Called Wanda, his penchant for Shakespearean parts, and for reeling in '80s pinup Phoebe Cates.

Backstory

The St. Louis native was a drama geek in high school, but apparently not a big fan of the classics—a bored, teenage Kline snuck out of the first Shakespeare play he ever went to see, King Lear. After studying at Juilliard, he spent the '70s touring with a classical repertory group, the City Center Acting Company, and began earning roles on Broadway, winning a Tony in 1981 for his performance in the Gilbert and Sullivan musical The Pirates of Penzance. A brief stint on a schlocky soap opera called Search for Tomorrow was followed by his big-screen debut in Sophie's Choice with Meryl Streep in 1982; he gained mainstream fame the following year after appearing in the megahit The Big Chill.

In the late '80s and '90s, Kline dabbled in both comedy (A Fish Called Wanda, In & Out) and drama (Ang Lee's The Ice Storm), and managed to escape the horrific 1999 film Wild Wild West with his career intact. He's continued to act in both film and on stage, recently appearing in A Prairie Home Companion, As You Like It, and Definitely, Maybe. Critics had high hopes for his starring role alongside Streep in the Public Theater's Central Park production of Mother Courage in 2006; unfortunately, much like a youthful Kline three decades ago, several dozen theatergoers walked out of a preview of the three-hour play, bored and exhausted.

Personal

Kline dated Patti LuPone, Gilda Radner, and Linda Ronstadt before marrying actress Phoebe Cates—who earned the devotion of teenage boys everywhere with her topless scene in the 1982 comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High—in 1989. They have three kids: Owen, Greta, and Autumn. Son Owen starred in the 2005 Noah Baumbach-directed film The Squid and the Whale and inspired Kline's involvement in juvenile diabetes fundraising after being diagnosed with the disease.

Habitat

Kline and Cates live in Carnegie Hill. They sold their previous apartment, a three-bedroom duplex on West 67th Street, to family friend/playwright David Henry Hwang. The couple also owns a home in Garrison, NY, not far from where fellow thespian Dianne Wiest has a property.