Actors - Kevin Spacey

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	Actors - Kevin Spacey

Kevin Spacey Fowler (born July 26, 1959), better known as Kevin Spacey, is an American actor. He has won two Oscars for his film roles: a Best Supporting Actor award for The Usual Suspects
in 1995, and a Best Actor award for American Beauty
in 1999.

Biography

Early life

Spacey was born in South Orange, New Jersey to Thomas Geoffrey Fowler, a technical writer, and Kathleen Spacey, a personal secretary; he has two older siblings, a sister and a brother, Randy. His father, who has been alleged to have been a member of the American Nazi Party, was often unemployed, causing the family to move frequently, eventually settling in Southern California in 1963. Spacey attended Northridge Military Academy, but was asked to leave, and subsequently attended Chatsworth High School in Chatsworth, California, which was renowned for its drama department. In the twelfth grade, he starred in the school's senior production of The Sound of Music
, playing the part of Captain Georg von Trapp, opposite Mare Winningham's Maria. While in high school, he took his mother's maiden name, "Spacey" (originally a Welsh name, belonging to his great-grandfather, spelt "Spacy"), as his acting surname.

Spacey attended the Julliard School in New York City, where he studied drama, between 1979 and 1981.

Career

Spacey's first professional stage appearance was as a messenger in a New York Shakespeare Festival performance of Henry VI, part 1 in 1981. The following year he made his first Broadway appearance in Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts.

Although his interest soon turned to film, Spacey remains actively involved in the live theater community. In 1991, he won a Tony Award for his portrayal of "Uncle Louie" in Neil Simon's Broadway hit Lost in Yonkers.

An early role as the criminally insane arms dealer Mel Profitt in the TV series Wiseguy
earned him an avid fan following. The actor quickly developed a reputation as a character actor and co-star in demand, while taking on roles in forgettable fare like See No Evil, Hear No Evil before upgrading to better characters like one-half of the bickering Connecticut couple in The Ref
and the sadistic but apparently innocuous office manager of the all-star ensemble film Glengarry Glen Ross
. He delivered a tour de force performance in 1994's dark Hollywood satire Swimming with Sharks
, as the ultimate boss from showbiz hell. Spacey is best known for playing dark, quirky characters such as the enigmatic criminal Verbal Kint in The Usual Suspects
, an egomaniacal district attorney in A Time to Kill
, and a serial killer who murders people he thinks guilty of the seven deadly sins in Se7en. He founded Trigger Street Productions Inc., in 1997 with the purpose of producing and developing entertainment across various media.

He won the Best Supporting Actor for The Usual Suspects
. He then won the Best Actor Oscar for his role as a troubled suburban father who falls in lust with a teenage cheerleader in American Beauty
. In the last few years, however, he has taken on lighter, more sympathetic roles, such as a physically and emotionally scarred grade school teacher in Pay It Forward
, a patient in a mental institution who may or may not be an alien in K-Pax, and singer, Bobby Darin in Beyond the Sea
. It's notable that these films have been considerably less critically and financially successful than Spacey's darker films.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Kevin Spacey ]

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Actors - Kevin Spacey

Biography

Early life

Career

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