Kevin Spacey Biography

Once settled in California, Kevin proved troublesome and after setting his sister’s treehouse on fire was enrolled in the Northridge Military Academy. Any attempts to redeem himself were short lived when he was thrown out a few months later due to more mischief.

A stint in amateur dramatics at the Chatsworth High School in San Fernando Valley channelled his thespian talents. He even played a young Captain von Trapp in ‘The Sound of Music’ as a student among many other shows.

The teenage Spacey also showed a flair for impersonations; Jimmy Stewart and Johnny Carson being two of his favourites. He would later prove how talented his impersonation skills are as a guest on BBC’s Michael Parkinson Show in 2002.

Spacey’s first professional stage role was as a messenger in ‘Henry VI’ when he signed up with the New York Shakespeare festival in 1981. The following year he made he Broadway debut in Henrik Ibsen’s ‘Ghosts’.

Quickly gaining a reputation for being a versatile and competent actor he finally got the chance to work with his idol Jack Lemmon in 1986 in a stage production of Eugene O’Neill’s ‘Long Day’s Journey Into Night’.

Spacey sealed his theatrical status with a Tony award in Neil Simon’s ‘Lost In Yonkers’ on Broadway.

An early opportunity to appear on film was as a subway thief in the Meryl Streep domestic drama ‘Heartburn’ 1986. It was only a small part but more film and TV work followed. Soon Spacey cultivated a reputation for playing dark, sinister types as epitomised in movies ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’ (1992) and cult lo-budget flick ‘Swimming with Sharks’ (1994).

But the versatile and talented actor’s breakthrough movie was the highly acclaimed 1995 hit ‘The Usual Suspects’, playing the creepy, smooth talking Verbal Klint. Spacey won a Best Supporting Oscar for the role and was soon catapulted into the big league.

Spacey’s dedication to his craft has meant that he has always kept a low profile with the public regarding his private life. He once said of his enigmatic persona "The less you know about me, the easier it is to convince you that I am that character on screen. It allows an audience to come into a movie theatre and believe I am that person".

Many of Spacey’s films are noted for their twists such as ‘Usual Suspects’, ‘The Life of David Gale’ and American Beauty’.

He even refused screen billing on the thriller ‘Se7en’ fearing it might ruin the end of the movie if audiences were expecting him.

The Oscar winning ‘LA Confidential’ (1998) brought Spacey to an even wider International audience and earned him several nominations. But it was the sensational ‘American Beauty’ (1999) written by Alan ‘Six Feet Under’ Ball that finally won Spacey a Best Actor Oscar for his funny and savage character Lester Burnham.

Spacey went on to star as the villainous Lex Luthor in the Bryan Singer-directed production, ‘Superman Returns’, which opened in the summer of 2006. This was followed by 2007's ‘Fred Claus’ and ‘21’, as well as 2008's TV film ‘Recount’, which garnered critical acclaim. His portrayal of Ron Klain in the 2000 US presidential election earned him four nominations including the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor.

Spacey has had a close affinity with the UK ever since taking on the role of Artistic Director of London’s Old Vic Theatre. He has appeared several times on various London stages including Islington’s Almeida in Eugene O’Neill’s ‘The Ice Man Cometh’ for which he won several awards including a Lawrence Olivier Theatre Award in 1999.

The Oscar winning actor’s love for the theatre is believed to surpass his interest in making movies. He is quoted as saying “The movies are not my first priority, the theatre is.” In 2005, he took on the role of Richard II at the Old Vic. The same year landed him a Doctor of Letters, honoris causa from the London South Bank University.

His relentless association with the UK and love for all things dramatic saw him appointed the Cameron Mackintosh Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre at St Catherine's College, Oxford, in 2008. Two years later Spacey received another honour when Prince Charles made him a CBE for services to drama at an event in Clarence House on behalf of the Queen.

His relationship with past British monarchs was reignited in 2010 when it was announced that Spacey would play the title character in William Shakespeare's ‘Richard III’ at the Old Vic from June 2011. Part of Sam Mendes' Bridge Project, and the first collaboration between the two since ‘American Beauty’, the play is one of Shakespeare's best-known history productions and charts the rise to power and short reign of the king.

Spacey has always kept the details of his private life closely guarded, with his sexual orientation frequently the subject of much speculation in the media. Indeed, much was made in the British tabloid press of a recent incident where he claimed he was mugged in a south London park at 4.30 in the morning.