Kevin Spacey

Info

Full Name: Kevin Spacey Fowler
Date of birth: July 26, 1959 (67 years old)
Location: South Orange, New Jersey
Country: USA
Height: 1,79m

Kevin Spacey has been active for 40 years, participating in 48 movies that average a 7.0/10 score.

Videos eCartelera

Tráiler oficial de 'Masters del Universo', con Nicholas Galitzine como He-Man

Biography

Kevin Spacey won two Oscars in the space of five years, ran one of London's great theatres for over a decade and fronted the series that turned Netflix into a proper studio. Then October 2017 happened, and no fall in modern Hollywood has been steeper. He was born Kevin Spacey Fowler on 26 July 1959 in South Orange, New Jersey, and grew up in Southern California after his family moved west when he was four, sharing classrooms at Chatsworth High with Val Kilmer and Mare Winningham, his co valedictorian.

He trained at Juilliard in New York, paid the bills doing stand up impressions, and found his footing on stage: as a teenager he met Jack Lemmon at an acting seminar, and years later Lemmon took him under his wing in the 1986 Broadway production of 'Long Day's Journey into Night', then shared the screen with him in 'Glengarry Glen Ross' (1992). A Tony Award came in 1991 for 'Lost in Yonkers'; his film debut had already come as a subway thief in Mike Nichols' 'Heartburn' (1986).

John Doe, Verbal Kint and an Oscar double

1995 made him. He played the serial killer John Doe in David Fincher's 'Seven' with Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman, insisting on staying out of the opening credits, and he was Verbal Kint in 'The Usual Suspects', owner of the decade's most quoted twist and of the Best Supporting Actor Oscar that followed.

The run barely paused: Clint Eastwood's 'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil' (1997), celebrity cop Jack Vincennes in 'L.A. Confidential' (1997) with Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce and Kim Basinger, 'The Negotiator' (1998) and the voice of Hopper in 'A Bug's Life' (1998). Then came Lester Burnham, the imploding suburban dad of Sam Mendes' debut 'American Beauty' (1999), opposite Annette Bening, and a second Oscar, this time as Best Actor.

The Old Vic years and Frank Underwood

After a patchier stretch with 'Pay It Forward' (2000), 'K-Pax' (2001) and 'The Life of David Gale' (2003), plus his passion project 'Beyond the Sea' (2004), which he directed and sang as Bobby Darin, he made an unexpected move: in 2003 he became artistic director of the Old Vic, and for eleven years he was a fixture of London theatre, capping the tenure as Richard III for Sam Mendes on a world tour captured in the documentary 'NOW: In the Wings on a World Stage' (2014).

He kept filming: Lex Luthor in 'Superman Returns' (2006), the bank boss of 'Margin Call' (2011), the voice of GERTY in 'Moon' (2009), the boss from hell in 'Horrible Bosses' (2011) and Nixon in 'Elvis & Nixon' (2016), while his company Trigger Street produced 'The Social Network' (2010) and 'Captain Phillips' (2013). In 2013 his scheming, camera addressing Frank Underwood in 'House of Cards' changed television and won him the Golden Globe in 2015, alongside Robin Wright. Weeks before his world collapsed he was still riding the success of Edgar Wright's 'Baby Driver' (2017).

The fall: allegations, acquittals and near bankruptcy

In October 2017 actor Anthony Rapp accused him of making a sexual advance in 1986, when Rapp was 14. Spacey said he didn't remember the incident, apologised in case it happened and came out as gay in the same statement, a move widely criticised for linking the two. Within days Netflix sacked him, killing Underwood off for the final season, and Ridley Scott cut him from 'All the Money in the World', reshooting with Christopher Plummer. Netflix also shelved 'Gore', his completed Gore Vidal biopic, and the Old Vic ran an internal review in which twenty people described inappropriate behaviour from his years in charge. 'Billionaire Boys Club' famously took 126 dollars on its opening day in America.

The courts told a different story: Massachusetts prosecutors dropped their charge in 2019, a New York jury found him not liable in Rapp's civil suit in October 2022 and in July 2023 a London jury at Southwark Crown Court acquitted him of all nine charges brought by four men. An arbitration ruling did order him to pay 31 million dollars to the makers of 'House of Cards', and he later admitted he was close to bankruptcy, with his Baltimore home ending up at auction. In 2024, Channel 4's documentary 'Spacey Unmasked' aired accounts from ten men describing inappropriate behaviour; he called the claims nonsense, conceded he had been flirtatious and promiscuous, and pointed out that every courtroom has cleared him.

A slow road back

The rehabilitation began far from Hollywood, with a small part in Franco Nero's Italian film 'The Man Who Drew God' (2022), and has continued in small steps: an award and masterclass at Turin's National Museum of Cinema in January 2023, parts in independent films like 'Peter Five Eight' (2024) and the British thriller 'Control' (2023), where he's heard but never seen, and a tearful honorary award in May 2025 at a charity gala held alongside the Cannes festival, where he summed it up simply: it's very nice to be back. His loudest comeback, oddly enough, came from Spain, where Santiago Segura cast him as the puppet master villain of the hit comedy 'Torrente presidente' (2026), with Alec Baldwin also on board.

Always guarded about his private life, he hasn't spoken about it since that 2017 statement. Approaching 67, he insists his story isn't over. The courts sided with him; the industry and the audience are still making up their minds.