Kevin Costner Characters Trivia Quiz

Answer: Eliot Ness

Eliot Ness, a real person (whose persona and cases were the subject of the 1960s television series "The Untouchables") was a clean-as-a-whistle, by-the-book agent -- until he met beat cop Jimmy Malone, who taught him to take on Capone and the dirty cops "the Chicago way."
Starring with Costner were Sean Connery, Andy Garcia, and Charles Martin Smith as his team and Robert De Niro as Scarface Al Capone. "The Untouchables" was directed by the great Brian De Palma from a screenplay written by the marvelous David Mamet.

Answer: Bull Durham

Why did they call the movie "Bull Durham" when the team was the Durham Bulls? Costner was the older, wiser, "been-there, done-that" one-time big league catcher sent to mentor a new young pitcher named Ebby Calvin "Nuke" LaLoosh (Tim Robbins). Susan Sarandon played the love interest of both LaLoosh and Crash in a memorable role as Annie Savoy, for whom baseball was a religion.

She fancied herself a bit of a sexual Pygmalion, selecting one player each season to sleep with and develop as a player. Thus, she and Crash often found themselves at cross-purposes, and sparks flew .... in more ways than one.

Answer: Frank Farmer

The part of Frank Farmer was written for Steve McQueen by Lawrence Kasdan who wrote the story and screenplay. (This script must have sat on a shelf for a long time; McQueen died in 1980.)
The tagline: "Never let her out of your sight. Never let your guard down. Never fall in love."
"The Bodyguard" was a romantic thriller. Somebody was threatening pop star Rachel Marron. Frank (Costner) was hired to protect her, a seemingly impossible task given her diva-esque attitude. Despite his efforts to keep their relationship professional, Frank and Rachel got involved. He broke it off, knowing he couldn't be personally involved with his client and still keep her safe. But who was trying to kill her, and why?
One source called it ""The best bad movie ever!"

Answer: Alex Marshall

The story is a legend by now. Costner was cast by Lawrence Kasdan as the friend whose suicide brings a group of college buddies together ten years later. Kasdan's script called for Alex (Costner) to be seen in flashbacks, but after editing the film the only thing left of Kevin Costner's Alex Marshall was his forehead and wrists, in two shots during the opening credits. Kasdan is said to have felt so bad about excising Kevin that he promised him a role in his next film. Lucky for Kevin it was "Silverado," which some say made him a star.

Answer: Field of Dreams

"Field of Dreams" was based on a novella titled "Shoeless Joe" by W.P. Kinsella. (Note: the same last name as Kevin's character's.) Kinsella wrote the fantasy while at or just after studying at the famed Writers Workshop at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, just up the road an hour or so from the "FoD" filming site in Dyersville, in NW Iowa.
Plot: Young Iowa farmer (and baseball fan) hears a disembodied voice coming from the corn ("If you build it, he will come.") He finally figures out he's supposed to build a baseball field, but hasn't a clue why. He soon finds out, when famous (and very dead) baseball players start showing up to use his field.
This was not even Kevin's first baseball film, believe it or not. He appeared briefly in a 1982 low-budget baseball flick titled "Chasing Dreams," which is what "Field of Dreams" could have been titled.

Answer: Wyatt Earp

Although Kevin did star as Robin Hood, that film came out in 1991 and was directed by Kevin Reynolds. Kevin also appeared in "JFK," but not in the title role. (He'd already played a dead man in "The Big Chill," and probably didn't want to be typecast.)
As far as I know, there's no movie titled "Eliot Ness," but of course Kevin did play that character in "The Untouchables."
"Wyatt Earp," (not to be confused with "Tombstone" (1993), where Kurt Russell played the famous Kansas lawman) covered the lives, loves, and deaths of the Earp brothers and their wives and girlfriends. 'Twas a heckuva good movie.

Answer: No Way Out

In "No Way Out," a Washington, D.C.-based film, Kevin played a U.S. Navy officer assigned to find a KGB "mole" supposedly responsible for killing a beautiful young woman (Sean Young). Farrell (Costner) had been having an affair with her, and he was the last person to see her alive, except her killer. The more evidence he found, the closer he was to being identified as her murderer.
Hackman played the evil Secretary of Defense who had a long-term "relationship" with the dead woman.

Answer: Charley Waite

Why Costner (director/star) and this film weren't given the same 'props' Clint Eastwood (director/star) received for "Unforgiven," I don't know; it deserved them, in my book. Charley Waite and Boss Spearman (Robert Duvall) worked together, with their two employees, on the range moving cattle for ten years.

They encountered some bad guys who beat up one of the boys and jailed the other, then threatened Boss and Charley to leave town or harm would ensue. Harm ensued and bullets flew in a Western battle-royal between the "free grazers" and the bullying local ranchers. Oh, yes; there was a real romance, too, between Charley and the doctor's sister, Sue Barlow, played by Annette Bening.

Answer: Dances With Wolves

This was quite a triumph for a relative rookie in his first directorial effort, only seven years after he'd been cut out of "The Big Chill."
Lt. John Dunbar served in the Army during the Civil War. After failing in a suicide mission which led to his status as hero, Dunbar asked and was reassigned, alone, to an outpost in the Dakota territories. He gradually became friends with the local native American tribe, the Lakotas, members of the Sioux federation. He fell in love with and married a white woman, played by Mary McDonnell, who had been raised by the tribe.
Many have commented that the hugely successful "Avatar" was really "Dances With Wolves" set on another planet. I can see that...

Answer: Mr. Brooks

This film gave me the major heebie-jeebies, so of course I watch it every chance I get.
Costner and William Hurt (his invisible partner in crime) were both realistically brilliantly evil. Plot: Mr. Brooks makes one mistake during a murder, and a neighbor -- who has his own secret desire to commit murder -- takes advantage of that mistake. Lots of twists and turns. I loved it!

Answer: Roy McAvoy

Kevin Costner can play an "Aw-Shucks" kind of character with the best of them.
In "Tin Cup," McAvoy, a lowlife pro at a cheesy local driving range in Texas, was given a chance to play in the U.S. Open. He had some head problems, for which he saw the lovely Rene Russo, psychologist to the star athletes. Cheech Marin played McAvoy's caddie, critic, cheerleader, and reality-touchstone.
Don Johnson played the suave, successful circuit golf pro and old friend/rival for the affection of Molly Griswold (Russo). Several well-known, real golf pros appeared in cameo roles.

Answer: A Perfect World

Clint Eastwood (director) and Laura Dern co-starred in this movie.
Escaped prisoner Butch Haynes, on the run, kidnapped an eight-year-old boy, Phillip (played by T.J. Lowther), as a hostage. A bond formed between the two in a film that has been described as "a small character study ... in the guise of a cops-and-robbers action film."

Answer: Message in a Bottle

Spoiler Alert!
"Message" was a tender tear-jerker about a man who wrote a letter to his dead wife, put it in a bottle and sent it out to sea. A Chicago journalist (Wright) found the bottle, wrote a story for her paper about the bittersweet note and was encouraged by her editor to try to find the man who wrote it. She tracked him down, they fell in love -- he, reluctantly and precariously. He didn't know that she had found the message, and when he discovered that fact, he rejected her -- temporarily. He ultimately forgave her, but before they could get back together, Blake died trying to save a family whose boat had capsized.
Paul Newman was truly outstanding in a character role that called for a wide range of emotions.

Answer: Love of the Game

An aging major league pitcher and his better half (catcher Gus Osinski, played by John C. Reilly) were the battery against the Yankees in the House That Ruth Built. Billy was having trouble focusing on the game because he had just learned that the owner had sold the team and he would probably be traded.

As if that weren't enough to take him off his game, his girlfriend (Kelly Preston) just told him she had decided to take a job in England. Despite these distractions and an ailing shoulder, Billy's pitching was carrying him towards a no-hitter. The film, directed by Sam Raimi, was done quite effectively in flashbacks.

Answer: The Guardian

After losing several members of his team, Ben Randall, rescue swimmer phenom, was sent by his commander to become an instructor at the training facility. There he met Jake Fischer (Kutcher), a younger form of himself: cocky, incredibly fast, but with a secret of his own that could pull him down.