Kevin Spacey

Kevin Spacey Fowler, born on July 26, 1959, is an American actor whose career spans stage and screen. His trophy case includes two Academy Awards, a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, a Tony, and two Laurence Olivier Awards, alongside twelve Primetime Emmy nominations. In 2015, he was made an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Spacey’s film career kicked off with minor parts in Mike Nichols’s *Heartburn* (1986) and *Working Girl* (1988). He snagged his first Oscar for Best Supporting Actor as a con man in *The Usual Suspects* (1995), then won Best Actor for playing a suburban dad in midlife crisis in *American Beauty* (1999). Other notable 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 also directed *Albino Alligator* (1996) and *Beyond the Sea* (2004).

On Broadway, he starred in a revival of *Long Day’s Journey into Night* in 1986, won a Tony for *Lost in Yonkers* in 1991, and earned a Laurence Olivier Award for *The Iceman Cometh* in 1999. He played the title role in *Richard III* in 2011 and Clarence Darrow in London’s *Darrow* in 2015. From 2004 to 2015, he served as artistic director of the Old Vic theatre, receiving the Society of London Theatre Special Award. He hosted the 71st Tony Awards in 2017.

On television, Spacey portrayed Ron Klain in HBO’s *Recount* (2008) and produced *Bernard and Doris* (2008). From 2013 to 2017, he starred as Frank Underwood in Netflix’s *House of Cards*, winning a Golden Globe and two consecutive Screen Actors Guild Awards for Best Actor. Both he and the series earned five consecutive Primetime Emmy nominations for lead actor and drama series, respectively.

In 2017, multiple sexual misconduct allegations surfaced against Spacey. During 2018 and 2019, several criminal investigations followed, but in each case he was either not charged or the charges were dropped due to factors like the accuser’s death, refusal to testify, or statutes of limitations. He has denied the allegations and was found not liable in a 2022 New York lawsuit. In a separate London case, a jury acquitted him of sexual assault charges in 2023.

Spacey was born Kevin Spacey Fowler in South Orange, New Jersey, to Kathleen Ann (née Knutson), a secretary, and Thomas Geoffrey Fowler, a technical writer and data consultant. His family moved to Southern California when he was four. He has a sister and an older brother, Randy Fowler, from whom he is estranged. Randy has said their father—whom he called a racist “Nazi supporter”—was sexually and physically abusive, and that Spacey became emotionally shut down, turning “very sly and smart” to dodge beatings. Spacey first addressed this in October 2022, describing his father as “a white supremacist and a neo-Nazi” who used a homophobic slur against him. He said this made him intensely private about his personal life and delayed his coming out. Earlier, Spacey had called his father “a very normal, middle-class man.”

He attended Northridge Military Academy and Canoga Park High School, then graduated as co-valedictorian (with Mare Winningham) from Chatsworth High School in 1977. There, he played Captain Georg von Trapp in *The Sound of Music*, with Winningham as Maria. He adopted his middle name “Spacey,” his paternal grandmother’s maiden name. After trying stand-up comedy for several years, he studied drama at Juilliard from 1979 to 1981 as part of Group 12, under Marian Seldes, though he didn’t graduate. During that time, he performed comedy at bowling alley talent contests.

His first professional stage role was as a spear carrier in a 1981 New York Shakespeare Festival production of *Henry VI, Part 1*. The next year, he made his Broadway debut as Oswald in Ibsen’s *Ghosts*, starring Liv Ullmann, at the Kennedy Center. He then played Philinte in Molière’s *The Misanthrope*. In 1984, he appeared in David Rabe’s *Hurlyburly*, rotating through all the male roles (later playing Mickey in the film version). Next came Chekhov’s *The Seagull* with David Strathairn and Colleen Dewhurst. In 1986, he performed in a New Jersey dinner theatre production of *Sleuth*.

Spacey’s stage breakthrough came in 1986 when he played Jamie Tyrone opposite Jack Lemmon in Jonathan Miller’s acclaimed revival of *Long Day’s Journey into Night*. Lemmon became a mentor and, along with Spacey’s high school drama teacher, attended Spacey’s Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony in 1999. That same year, Spacey made his film debut in Mike Nichols’s *Heartburn*, with Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson, in a small credited role.