Famous Half-Jews: Kevin Kline

[Gary Freedman]

Kevin Delaney Kline (born October 24, 1947) is an American theatre and film actor. He has won one Academy Award, two Tony Awards and was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2009.

Kline was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Peggy and Robert Kline. Robert was a classical music lover and an amateur opera singer who owned and operated The Record Bar, a record store in St. Louis that opened in the early 40s, and also sold toys during the 60s and 70s. Kline's father was an agnostic of German Jewish descent, while Kline's Irish-American mother, the daughter of an emigrant from County Louth, was Catholic. His father's family also owned Kline's Inc., a department store chain. Kline has described his mother as the "dramatic theatrical character in our family."

Kline and his siblings were raised as Catholics. He graduated from the Catholic Saint Louis Priory School in 1965. He attended Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, where he began as an aspiring classical pianist. After joining the on-campus theater group "Vest Pocket Players" as an undergraduate, he fell in love with the theater and switched to acting, graduating from IU in 1970.