Kevin Costner has one of the great showbiz stories, almost as good as the "Lana Turner was discovered at Schwab's Drugstore" tale...but in his case, the story is evidently true.

Lawrence Kasdan's 1983 movie "The Big Chill" was about a group of 30-something Boomers gathering years after they were together in college, to mourn the suicide death of their most charismatic male member. He's never seen in the movie -- save a shot of his hairline being combed BEFORE we learn he's a corpse in a funeral parlor -- but he's always talked about.

And Kevin Costner played him, in a famous flashback that Kasdan decided had to be cut from the film so as to maintain the mystery of the character.

Kasdan felt bad, and so cast Costner in his Western "Silverado" (1985), with billing behind three "bigger stars" -- Kevin Kline (from "Big Chill"), Scott Glenn (Costner played his brother) and Danny Glover. Costner played the "wild-ass crazy kid," but he played him well, as a top gunslinger and girl-chaser.

Costner personally didn't like playing such a live-wire kid; he was more interested in playing the Strong and Silent Type. In 1987 , he got his chance: after Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson and William "The Big Chill" Hurt passed on the role, Kevin Costner was cast as Elliott Ness in Brian DePalma's "The Untouchables," with Connery and DeNiro as "star cover" for the still untried young leading man.

Canny producers held onto another, smaller Costner movie called "No Way Out" (that he made BEFORE "The Untouchables") until later in the summer of 1987 AFTER "The Untouchables" hit big. If Costner was a straight-arrow married man as Ness, he was Mr. Steamy Big Love in Limo in "No Way Out" and the one-two punch (action and romance; sex and violence) made him an InstaStar.

In this early period, Costner was a darling of not only Lawrence Kasdan, but of Kasdan's pal Steven Spielberg, who directed Costner in an episode of his "Amazing Stories" TV show and put Costner in a movie called "Fandango," which Spielberg produced and then dropped,but which was quite good. Spielberg, in turn, helped moved Costner towards Brian DePalma, who was directing "The Untouchables." And so it goes. Getting cut from "The BIg Chill" was a helluva career move.

Fully launched in 1987, Kevin Costner stepped up to superstardom with a string of hits: The Untouchables, No Way Out, Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, and then the lollapalooza of 1990's "Dances With Wolves," which won Best Picture and Best Director (for Costner!) and further cemented Costner's status as the Star for the 90's To Come. Indeed, in 1990, Kevin Costner was a much bigger star than Tom Hanks (tanking in "Bonfire of the Vanities") and Tom Cruise (underperforming in "Days of Thunder.")

To win everything for "Dances With Wolves," Costner defeated Scorcese and "GoodFellas." Movie Envy was planted among Costner's enemies. It was time for Movie Star Hubris.

The early 90's found Costner doing OK, for awhile. He inexplicably played Robin Hood with his surfer-guy voice and got a hit anyway. Oliver Stone used him "seriously" as the linchpin of an all-star cast in "JFK" , and then a pairing with Whitney Houston in an old unmade Steve McQueen script (by Lawrence Kasdan) called "The Bodyguard" was a great big megahit, despite being kinda cheesy.

And then it started to turn sour.

Clint Eastwood, hot off of "Unforgiven," directed Costner in "A Perfect World," and deigned to co-star in it. Costner's divaish ways bugged "Simple Clint" and the two clashed (Costner sat in his trailer; Clint filmed his double and said "you watch, I'll film the whole movie around your double.")The movie underperformed, though Costner was good in it as an escaped convict with a nasty streak.

Costner set out to make an epic of "Wyatt Earp" -- as superlong and stoic as "Dances With Wolves." The Disney guys got mad for some reason and rushed "Tombstone" into production, renting costumes Costner needed and beating his movie to the office by six months. "Wyatt Earp" underperformed, too. Kurt Russell's Wyatt Earp was more popular. And Val Kilmer's Doc Holliday stole all thunder.

Costner's winning streak was down two, and then he hit his personal iceberg: "Waterworld" (1995.) 'nuff said. He swears it made money and is a cult hit, but it was one of those famous way-too-costly superproductions that took way too long to make, and Costner was now in the danger zone.

Smartly, Costner recouped with a raffish little 1996 golf comedy written and directed by "Bull Durham" creator Ron Shelton: "Tin Cup." Funny movie, and Costner played well off of fading TV cute guy Don Johnson as his rival. But "Tin Cup" was only a modest hit...and Costner was still wobbly.

"The Postman" took him all the way down. Another overlong epic, directed by Costner. A big bomb. "GoodFellas" got its revenge, seven years later.

"The Postman" was 11 years ago. Costner's still here, but whatever it is that knocks a star permanently out of the firmament happened to him. We can assume that neither his pay nor his percentages are what they once were. We can also assume all the old hits paid him well and still do. He'll never be poor. And even little movies like "Swing Vote" pay a few mil.

The thing of it is: back when he hit the scene, Costner WAS an impressively thoughtful star actor. He chose good projects. That first string of hits generally had great scripts and great plots ("No Way Out" is a corker of a spy thriller with a twist). "Bull Durham" is funny and sexy (as is the lesser-known "Tin Cup") , and "Field of Dreams" is some kind of fantasist tearjerker classic in many circles. If you build it...he will come. I'd say Costner's selection of scripts was a lot better in his time than, say, Burt Reynolds' or Tom Cruise's. ("The Untouchables" was by David Mamet, with Costner's Ness noting, "I have become what I beheld." Classy.)

In his younger years, Costner had the looks, it was said, of Steve McQueen mixed with Gary Cooper. Costner knew this...he even took that old McQueen script in "The Bodyguard." But he had his own very specific features, and he had that requisite "male star orneriness" to go with his boyish side (in "The Bodyguard," a seductress comes up and says "I've been watching you all night from across the room" and he snarls "Why don't you go back across the room and watch me from over there?" )

One big irony in his career: Kevin Costner, the "unseen corpse" in "The Big Chill" was supposed to be the coolest of those reunited Boomers, the biggest star in the fictional circle of friends. As it turned out -- versus Kevin Kline, William Hurt, Glenn Close, Tom Berenger, Jeff Goldblum et al -- Kevin Costner WAS the biggest star. It just took a little time.

He'll always have that. And I might go see "Swing Vote" accordingly.