Kevin Spacey Fowler, KBE (born July 26, 1959) is an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, and singer. He began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s before obtaining supporting roles in film and television. He gained critical acclaim in the early 1990s that culminated in his first Academy Award for Best Supporting Actorfor the neo-noir crime thriller The Usual Suspects(1995), and an Academy Award for Best Actor for midlife crisis-themed drama American Beauty(1999).
His other starring roles have included the comedy-drama film Swimming with Sharks (1994), psychological thriller Seven (1995), the neo-noir crime film L.A. Confidential (1997), the drama Pay It Forward (2000), the science fiction-mystery filmK-PAX (2001), Bobby Darin in the musical biopicBeyond the Sea (2004), Lex Luthor in the superhero film Superman Returns (2006), and Doc, a criminal kingpin in the action film Baby Driver(2017).
In Broadway theatre, Spacey won a Tony Award for his role in Lost in Yonkers. In 2017, he hosted the71st Tony Awards. He was the artistic director ofthe Old Vic theatre in London from 2004 until stepping down in mid-2015. Since 2013, Spacey has played Frank Underwood in the Netflix political drama series House of Cards. For his role as Underwood, he has won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama and two consecutive Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series.
Early life
Spacey was born in South Orange, New Jersey, to Kathleen Ann (née Knutson), a secretary, and Thomas Geoffrey Fowler, a technical writer and data consultant.[1][2] He has an older brother, Randy Fowler, who is a limo driver and Rod Stewart impersonator in Boise, Idaho. [3]His family relocated to Southern California when Spacey was four years old.[4] Spacey's brother (from whom he is estranged)[5] has stated that Kevin was sexually abused by their father[6][7] in the 10th and 11th grades; nonetheless he graduated co-valedictorian (along with Mare Winningham) of the 1977 of Chatsworth High School in Chatsworth, California.[8][9][10]
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 is also his paternal grandmother's maiden name.[2][11] He had tried to succeed as a comedian for several years, before attending the Juilliard School in New York City, a member of Group 12, where he studied drama,[12] between 1979 and 1981. During this time period, Spacey performed stand-up comedy in bowling alley talent contests.[13]
Political views and activism
Spacey's political views have been described as left-leaning and mirroring some of those possessed by his fictional character in House of Cards.[52] Spacey is a Democratic donor and a friend of President Bill Clinton.[53] Having met the former U.S. President before his presidency began, Spacey once described Clinton as a "one of a shining light" of the political process. [13]He additionally made a cameo appearance in the short film President Clinton: Final Days, a light-hearted political satire produced by the Clinton administration for the White House Correspondents Dinner.[54]
Spacey met Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez in September 2007, and never spoke to the press about their encounter. During the trip, he donated money to the Venezuelan film studioVilla del Cine.[55]
In March 2011 – following Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko's crackdown on theBelarusian democracy movement – Spacey joined Jude Law on the street in a protest against Lukashenko's regime.[56]
Sexual assault allegations
In October 2017, actor Anthony Rapp alleged that Spacey, while appearing drunk, made a sexual advance to him in 1986, when Rapp was 14 years old.[57][58] In response, Spacey said he did not remember the encounter, but that if he behaved as described by Rapp, he owes him "the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior."[59]
Shortly afterwards, journalist and former news anchor Heather Unruh said that she had witnessed Spacey assaulting a loved one in the summer of 2016 when Spacey allegedly walked into a restaurant, sat beside a man, and did something "completely unexpected, completely inappropriate" underneath the table. Unruh said that a woman who witnessed the incident warned the victim to "run" when Spacey left to use the toilets.[60]
Personal life
Around 1999, reports suggested Spacey was dating a script supervisor named Dianne Dreyer, with their relationship possibly dating back as far as 1992.[61][62][63][64] In 2000, Spacey brought Dreyer to the Academy Awards;[61] during the acceptance speech for his Best Actor award, Spacey stated, "Diane, thank you for teaching me about caring about the right things, and I love you."[65] Tabloid publications The Sun and Gawker reported that he dated Helen Hunt andJennifer Jason Leigh around this same time.[66][64]
An article in The Sunday Times Magazine in 1999 stated that Spacey's "love affair with acting, and the absence of a visible partner in the life of an attractive 40-year-old, has resulted inEsquire magazine asserting two years ago that he must be gay."[67] He responded to the rumors by telling Playboy and other interviewers that he was not gay,[68] and telling Lesley White of The Sunday Times,
I chose for a long time not to answer these questions because of the manner in which they were asked, and because I was never talking to someone I trusted, so why should I? Recently I chose to participate because it's a little hard on the people I love.[67]
In 2007, Gotham magazine quoted Spacey saying:
I've never believed in pimping my personal life out for publicity. Although I might be interested in doing it, I will never do it. People can gossip all they want; they can speculate all they want. I just happened to believe that there's a separation between the public life and the private life. Everybody has the right to a private life no matter what their professions are.[61]
In the same statement in which Spacey apologized to Anthony Rapp, Spacey also came out as gay and disclosed that "I have had relationships with both men and women. I have loved and had romantic encounters with men throughout my life, and I choose now to live as a gay man."[69][70] His statement drew negative reactions from many noting that Rapp's gender was not the issue.[71] Spacey's timing of coming out was also criticized by some[72] as an attempt to change the subject away from Rapp's accusation, for using his own drunkenness as an excuse[73] and for making a connection between homosexuality and pedophilia.[74]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Spacey
