AceShowbiz - Kevin Costner hopes he eventually becomes best-known for his part in the oil spill clean-up in the Gulf of Mexico - because he would rather be recognized for his environmental work than his movie career. The Hollywood actor has sold an oil-filtration system to bosses at BP in a bid to minimize the damage caused by the massive slick, which has been drifting ashore on America's Gulf Coast since a rig ruptured in April.

British Petroleum bosses have bought 32 filtration machines manufactured by the movie star's Costner Industries Nevada Corporation and invented by his brother Dan. And Costner hopes he will one day become more famous for his work developing the innovative technology than his acting.

He tells veteran newsman Larry King, "When I die, I hope that on my headstone... it would just say 'And he made movies, too.' I don't define myself by just the movies. I have had a wonderful life. I'm not without my own bruises, you know. But it's been good. And I'd like to not let my own celebrity or how people see me define who I am as a person..."

"I thought if I could bring what I have, which is a dreaming mentality and the money that I have been able to amass, I would throw it at this problem and I could make a difference. And I know, you know, I'm the actor with the magic machine. I know that that's how it was going to read, so I was prepared to have my neck cut off and watch my head roll into the street by intellectuals, by cynics. But I had to reengage, because, you know... it was a fight worth fighting and I didn't want this machine to be silent. And so I had to speak for it."