He is an actor and director
born Kevin Spacey Fowler in South Orange, New Jersey.His father was a technical writer and his mother a secretary.His father was often without work
and alleged to have been part of the American Nazi Party by Fox News, so
they moved around a lot until they finally settled in Southern
California.Often
in trouble, he was sent to NorthridgeMilitaryAcademy
for setting his sister's treehouse on fire
but had to leave there when he had thrown a tyre
at another student.He began
performing on stage at his high school where a classmate was Val Kilmer.In
his 12th grade production of The
Sound of Music he played Georg von Trapp, and after he had decided he
wanted to become an actor he took his mother's maiden name of
Spacey.During and prior to him
studying at the JuilliardSchool
in New
York he performed as a
stand-up comedian, often at talent contests.His professional stage debut was in
1981 in the New York Shakespeare Festival where he played a messenger in Henry VI, Part I and the following
year his Broadway debut was in Ibsen's Ghosts.He moved
between theatre, TV and film with his first TV appearance being in Crime Story and his film debut in
the made-for-TV The Murder of Mary Phagan.His other TV appearances have been in the series L.A. Law and Wiseguy.His
successful film career has seen him appearing in films such as Superman Returns, Swimming with Sharks,
and Se7en, winning Academy Awards
for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor in American Pie and The
Usual Suspects and directing movies such as Albino Alligator and Beyond
the Sea, for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe for his
performance.In theatre he has
won a Tony Award for Lost in Yonkers
and he worked with Dame Judi Dench at the Old Vic
Theatre in London on the fundraiser for victims of 9/11.He returned to the Old Vic in 2003
as artistic director and also stars in two shows a season.It is his intention to stay there
for the next 9 years and claim dual British citizenship.LondonSouthBankUniversity
awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2005.His latest role has been in the 2006
direct-to-video release Edison Force.
