Kevin Kline
The two-time Tony Award-winner, and the Oscar-winning star of such films as "Sophie's Choice," "The Big Chill," "A Fish Called Wanda" and "The Ice Storm," has proven himself one of the most versatile stage and screen actors - adept at tortured drama, light-footed musical comedy, and everything in-between. His most recent film is the buddy comedy, "Last Vegas," starring opposite three actors who are no slouches themselves: Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro and Morgan Freeman.
By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan
"Last Vegas"
"In the 'Last Vegas' trailer, it says, 'Four legends come together,'" said CBS News correspondent Tracy Smith. "What's it like to hear that word applied to you?"
"It's a lovely advertising ploy," Kline laughed, "and I love being lumped in with these 'four icons, four legends' -- three legends and Kline."
"People would argue with you about that."
"I have not done nearly the amount of, sort of commercially successful movies that these guys have."
"Is that what makes a legend?"
"Apparently -- so it has nothing to do with talent!" he laughed.
"Last Vegas"
When asked by Tracy Smith about his choice of film roles and whether he hasn't done as many commercially successful moves as his "Last Vegas" costars.
"Is that by design that you haven't done as many commercially successful moves as the other guys?" Smith asked.
"Yes, I've avoided success as much as possible," he replied. "It's a family thing. It's partially my own doing, but I mean, Morgan [Freeman] and I just shared the same agent for 35 years, [who] used to say, 'Why don't you want to do this movie? This is going to be a very commercially successful movie.' And I'd say, 'I'm sure it is, but I think it's crap, I'm sorry.'
"I just try to do what interests me at the moment. And I've made a lot of probably stupid career choices!"
Juilliard
Born and raised in St. Louis, Kline studied music at Indiana University before coming to New York as part of the Juilliard School's very first drama class.
Kline followed Juilliard by joining John Houseman's The Acting Company, which toured doing such plays as "The Three Sisters" and "Measure for Measure."
"It was God sent," Kline said. "We were all handed our Equity cards and sent out on the road doing great plays. But my agent would always say, 'Can we now get serious ... 'cause no one knows who you are, you're out there.' Even though we'd have three or four-week seasons in New York, most the time we spent touring -- you weren't establishing a reputation in New York. And so when I finally left the company after four years, it was back to square one."
"The Pirates of Penzance"
Kline told CBS News correspondent Tracy Smith that he initially resisted doing "Pirates" because, two years earlier, he'd done another musical on Broadway with a lot of physical comedy, "On the Twentieth Century," and feared he'd be pegged as a musical comedy actor.
"But I got sort of talked into it, and it was a good thing," he said, "because Alan Pakula saw me in it and cast me in 'Sophie's Choice.' It actually started my movie career, ironically."
"Sophie's Choice"
"The Big Chill"
"Silverado"
"Violets Are Blue"
"Cry Freedom"
"A Fish Called Wanda"
"A Fish Called Wanda"
And he did manage to thank his wife in his acceptance speech. "At the very last moment!" he said. "We'd only been married for about two weeks at that point. And then the music started to play. Oh, and, and my wife, thank you!"
Phoebe Cates & Kevin Kline
Kline and Cates, who had starred in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," first met briefly during auditions for "The Big Chill" (she was up for the role that went to Meg Tilly), but lightning didn't strike until a few months later, when both were in separate plays in New York.
"I was upstairs rehearsing that, and she was downstairs rehearsing that, and [we] met in the hallway," Kline recalled.
The two married in 1989.
"I Love You to Death"
"Hamlet"
When asked by Tracy Smith if he ever studied or picked apart his performances afterwards, Kline said no. "If I'm asked to, I can tell you where I've failed and where it could have been better, sure. I mean, I played Hamlet in two different productions. You can do it ten different times, you're never gonna finish it."
"And you're never satisfied?" Smith asked.
"You can be satisfied, like, 'Yeah, I think that was okay.' 'I got away with it.' Or, 'There were parts of it that -- ' But you cannot be definitive. It's different from night to night, it's different from production to production. It's different one year and then ten years later. If I did 'Hamlet' now, obviously, it's going to be different than it was 30 years ago or whenever I did it. You never 'finish' a great masterpiece of Shakespeare's or Chekhov's."
"It's always a work-in-progress?"
"Yeah, and it's open to interpretation. I mean, somewhere I read that Jane Austen used to read 'Hamlet' every year just to kind of know where she was in her life by how she responded. The same way for an actor. You want to find out where you're at? Play Hamlet this year. Once a year. Because you're forced to reckon with some of the larger question. But you're not gonna say, 'Oh, I nailed that one!'" he laughed.
"Soapdish"
"Grand Canyon"
"Chaplin"
"Consenting Adults"
"Dave"
"Dave"
"Princess Caraboo"
Though Cates later appeared with Kline (along with their two children) in the 2001 film, "The Anniversary Party," she pretty much retired from acting following the birth of her first child, in 1991.
Kline told Smith he admired Cates' decision: "It was always one of the things I admired about Phoebe. She loved acting, but it wasn't her life. Once she had children, that was it. For me, [acting] was everything; I had no life. It's just acting."
"So did she show you that there was life beyond acting?" Smith asked.
"Yeah, I think so. I think it even started once you're married; your decisions aren't just yours anymore. And Phoebe and I, before we had children, would take turns. We're not stupid enough to say, 'Sure, you can go off and do that movie for four months and I'm gonna go off and do this movie for six months and it's not gonna hurt our relationship.' It's like, get real."
"In and Out"
"They brought in a brilliant choreographer, and I said to [director] Frank Oz, 'This is not about choreography. This is a private moment, a man in his living room dancing to music and I can't be thinking about choreography. It has to be sloppy and crazy.'
"But we arrived at a sort of compromise. A guy gave me a couple [moves], 'This is what is going on in all the gay clubs right now" - which I then argued, 'Yeah, but my character doesn't go to gay clubs, so he wouldn't know that.' But maybe intuitively!
"It took two days to shoot that. I had a canister of oxygen, to do that over and over and over. It was a much longer sequence. I was doing ballet and Martha Graham and Paul Taylor and all kinds of crazy moves. But again, I did it and I thought, 'Well, this will never make it to the movie, it's too outrageous' - and it's the thing that most people seem to remember."
"The Ice Storm"
"A Midsummer Nigh's Dream"
"Wild, Wild West"
"Life as a House"
Kevin Kline
"The Emperor's Club"
Glenn Close & Kevin Kline
"De-Lovely"
"De-Lovely"
"De-Lovely"
Kevin Kline & Sigourney Weaver
"The Squid & the Whale"
"A Prairie Home Companion"
Kevin Kline starred as Guy Noir, Private Eye, who encounters singing cowboys John C. Reilly and Woody Harrelson.
Lindsay Lohan & Kevin Kline
"The Pink Panther"
"Cyrano de Bergerac"
"Queen to Play"
"The Extra Man"
"The Conspirator"
"The Conspirator"
"No Strings Attached"
"Darling Companion"
Diane Keaton & Kevin Kline
"Darling Companion"
"Bob's Burgers"
"The Big Chill"
"The Last of Robin Hood"
"Last Vegas"
Kevin Kline
By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan