Kevin Spacey

Kevin Spacey Fowler (born July 26, 1959) is an American actor. Known for his work on stage and screen, he has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Tony Award, and two Laurence Olivier Awards as well as nominations for twelve Emmy Awards.

Spacey began his film career with small roles in Mike Nichols's comedy-drama films Heartburn (1986) and Working Girl (1988). He won two Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actor for playing a con man in The Usual Suspects (1995) and Best Actor for playing a suburban husband and father going through a midlife crisis in American Beauty (1999). His other films include Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), Outbreak (1995), Se7en (1995), A Time to Kill (1996), L.A. Confidential (1997), Pay It Forward (2000), Superman Returns (2006), 21 (2008), Margin Call (2011), Horrible Bosses (2011), and Baby Driver (2017). He has also directed the films Albino Alligator (1996) and Beyond the Sea (2004).

In Broadway theatre, Spacey starred in a revival of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night in 1986. He won a Tony Award in 1991 for his role in Lost in Yonkers. He won a Laurence Olivier Award for his performance in a revival of The Iceman Cometh in 1999. Spacey portrayed the title role in Richard III in 2011 and Clarence Darrow in a West End production of Darrow in 2015. He was the artistic director of the Old Vic theatre in London from 2004 to 2015, for which he received the Society of London Theatre Special Award. He was named an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2015. In 2017, he hosted the 71st Tony Awards.

In television, Spacey portrayed Ron Klain in Recount (2008) and produced Bernard and Doris (2008), both for HBO Films. From 2013 to 2017, he starred as Frank Underwood in the Netflix political drama series House of Cards, which won him a Golden Globe Award and two consecutive Screen Actors Guild Awards for Best Actor. Both Spacey and the show itself were nominated for five consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series and Outstanding Drama Series, respectively.

In 2017, Spacey faced several allegations of sexual misconduct. In 2018 and 2019, Spacey faced multiple criminal investigations; however, in each case Spacey was either not charged or the charges against him were dropped, due to reasons such as death, refusal to testify, and statute of limitations. He has denied the accusations and was found not liable in a 2022 lawsuit in New York. In a separate case in London, he was acquitted by a jury of sexual assault charges in 2023.

Early life, family and education

Kevin Spacey Fowler was born in South Orange, New Jersey, to Kathleen Ann (née Knutson), a secretary, and Thomas Geoffrey Fowler, a technical writer and data consultant. His family relocated to Southern California when he was four years old. Spacey has a sister and an older brother, Randy Fowler, from whom Spacey is estranged. His brother has stated that their father, whom he described as a racist "Nazi supporter", was sexually and physically abusive, and that Spacey shut down emotionally and became "very sly and smart" to avoid beatings. Spacey first addressed the matter in October 2022, saying that his father was "a white supremacist and a neo-Nazi" who would call him "an F-word that is very derogatory to the gay community". He stated that, as a result, he became extremely private about his personal life and did not come out as gay earlier in his life. Spacey had previously described his father as "a very normal, middle-class man".

Spacey attended Northridge Military Academy, Canoga Park High School in the 10th and 11th grades. He graduated co-valedictorian (along with Mare Winningham) of the class of 1977 of Chatsworth High School in Chatsworth, Los Angeles, California. At Chatsworth, Spacey starred in the school's senior production of The Sound of Music, playing the part of Captain Georg von Trapp, with Winningham as Maria von Trapp. He started using his middle name "Spacey", which was his paternal grandmother's maiden name. Spacey had tried to succeed as a comedian for several years before attending the Juilliard School in New York City, as a member of Group 12, where he studied drama with teacher Marian Seldes between 1979 and 1981. During this time period, he performed comedy in bowling alley talent contests.

Career

1981–1989: Early roles and breakthrough

Spacey's first professional stage appearance was as a spear carrier in a New York Shakespeare Festival performance of Henry VI, Part 1 in 1981. The following year, he made his first Broadway appearance, as Oswald in a production of Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts, starring Liv Ullmann and director John Neville, which opened at the Eisenhower Theater in Washington's Kennedy Center. He then portrayed Philinte in Molière's The Misanthrope. In 1984, Spacey appeared in a production of David Rabe's Hurlyburly, in which he rotated through each of the male parts (he would later play Mickey in the film version). Next came Anton Chekhov's The Seagull alongside David Strathairn and Colleen Dewhurst. In 1986, Spacey appeared in a production of Sleuth in a New Jersey dinner theatre.

Spacey's prominence as a stage actor began in 1986, when he was cast opposite Jack Lemmon, Peter Gallagher, and Bethel Leslie, as Jamie, the eldest Tyrone son, in Jonathan Miller's lauded production of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night. Lemmon in particular would become a mentor to Spacey and was invited, along with Spacey's high school drama teacher, to be present when Spacey received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1999. In 1986, Spacey made his first film appearance in Mike Nichols's Heartburn starring Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson. Spacey plays a small role credited as a subway thief. In 1988, Spacey also briefly appeared in another Nichols film, Working Girl, as businessman Bob Speck. Some of Spacey's other early roles include a widowed millionaire on L.A. Law; the television miniseries The Murder of Mary Phagan (1988), opposite Lemmon; and the comedy See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989). In 1987, Spacey made his first major television appearance in the second-season premiere of Crime Story, playing a Kennedy-esque American senator. That same year he appeared in spy thriller series The Equalizer as Detective Sergeant Cole in the episode "Solo". He earned a fan base after playing the manic depressive arms dealer Mel Profitt on the television series Wiseguy (1988).

1990–1999: Stardom and acclaim

Spacey remained actively involved in the live theatre community. In 1991, he won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Uncle Louie in Neil Simon's Broadway hit Lost in Yonkers. His father was unconvinced that Spacey could make a career for himself as an actor and did not change his mind until Spacey became well known. Spacey quickly developed a reputation as a character actor, and was cast in bigger roles, including the malevolent office manager in the ensemble film adaptation of the David Mamet play Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), as well as news reporter Harry Kingsley in a film based on a 1917 dog sled race Iron Will (1994) directed by Charles Haid. Spacey also played one-half of a bickering Connecticut couple alongside Judy Davis in the dark comedy Christmas film The Ref (1994), and a malicious Hollywood studio boss in the satire Swimming with Sharks (1995). Spacey gained prominence for his role as the enigmatic criminal Verbal Kint in Bryan Singer's neo-noir film The Usual Suspects (1995). He starred opposite an ensemble cast including Gabriel Byrne, Benicio del Toro, and Chazz Palminteri. Todd McCarthy of Variety wrote, "Spacey is terrific as the mysterious weak link in the chain of thieves". The role won him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture and Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Actor in a Supporting Role. That same year, Spacey also appeared in the David Fincher detective thriller Seven (1995) starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. Spacey made a sudden entrance late in the film as serial killer John Doe after going uncredited and unmentioned in the film's advertisements and opening credits. His work in Seven, The Usual Suspects and Outbreak earned him Best Supporting Actor honors at the 1995 Society of Texas Film Critics Awards.