Kevin Spacey

Did You Know?

• He hosted the 71st Tony Awards in 2017.
• Spacey's high school drama teacher was invited to be present when he received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1999.

Early life, family and education

Kevin Spacey Fowler was born in South Orange, New Jersey. His mother, Kathleen Ann, worked as a secretary, and his father, Thomas Geoffrey Fowler, was a technical writer and data consultant. When Spacey was four, his family moved to Southern California. He has a sister and an older brother, Randy Fowler, with whom he is no longer in contact.

Randy has said their father was a racist and abusive, and Spacey later confirmed his father was a white supremacist and neo-Nazi who used a homophobic slur against him. Spacey said this caused him to keep his personal life private and delayed his coming out as gay. He attended Northridge Military Academy and Canoga Park High School, then graduated as co-valedictorian from Chatsworth High School in 1977. There, he played Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music and adopted his middle name Spacey, his paternal grandmother's maiden name.

He studied drama at Juilliard from 1979 to 1981 without graduating, having previously tried stand-up comedy in bowling alley talent contests.

Career

Spacey's first professional stage appearance was as a spear carrier in a New York Shakespeare Festival production of Henry VI, Part 1 in 1981. He made his Broadway debut the following year as Oswald in Ghosts. His stage prominence grew in 1986 when he played Jamie in a revival of Long Day's Journey into Night opposite Jack Lemmon, who became a mentor. Spacey's first film role was a small part in Heartburn (1986), followed by a brief appearance in Working Girl (1988).

He earned a fan base playing a manic depressive arms dealer on the television series Wiseguy (1988). Spacey won Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor in The Usual Suspects (1995) and Best Actor in American Beauty (1999). He directed the films Albino Alligator (1996) and Beyond the Sea (2004). From 2004 to 2015, he served as artistic director of the Old Vic theatre in London.

He starred as Frank Underwood in House of Cards from 2013 to 2017, winning a Golden Globe Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Personal life

Spacey briefly dated actress April Winchell in the early 1980s. In 1999, media speculation about his sexuality led him to tell interviewers he was not gay. He was reported to be dating script supervisor Dianne Dreyer, with whom he attended the Academy Awards in 2000, thanking her in his acceptance speech. In 2017, Spacey came out as gay in a statement denying a sexual misconduct allegation. He is a Democrat and worked on Jimmy Carter's 1976 presidential campaign. He is a friend of former President Bill Clinton and made a cameo in a short film for the 2000 White House Correspondents Dinner. Spacey has been active in HIV/AIDS activism, accompanying Bill Clinton on a trip to African countries in 2002 to promote AIDS awareness. He participated in fundraisers including amfAR Cinema Against AIDS in 2016 and the Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Award Party in 2017.

Sexual misconduct allegations

In October 2017, Spacey faced various allegations of sexual misconduct. He was fired from his role on House of Cards and removed from the film All the Money in the World. Over subsequent years, he faced civil and criminal cases, none resulting in civil liability or a criminal conviction. In 2019, Massachusetts brought charges for indecent assault and battery, which were dropped after the complainant's mother admitted to tampering with evidence. In 2022, Spacey was found not liable in a civil suit brought by Anthony Rapp. In a 2023 London criminal case, a jury found him not guilty on nine sexual assault charges. Spacey denied all charges and has never been found guilty of a crime.