Biography

Kevin Spacey Fowler (born July 26, 1959) is an American actor, producer, director, and former theater executive. Known for controlled performances, dry wit, and a talent for playing morally ambiguous or manipulative characters, he became one of the most prominent American screen actors of the 1990s and 2000s. His career has included major work in film, television, and theater, although it was severely disrupted by sexual misconduct allegations beginning in 2017.

Spacey studied at the Juilliard School in New York and began his professional career on stage. He made his Broadway debut in a 1982 production of Henrik Ibsen's *Ghosts*, followed by appearances in plays including *Hurlyburly*, *Long Day's Journey into Night*, and *The Iceman Cometh*. His performance in Neil Simon's *Lost in Yonkers* earned him the 1991 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. Theater remained central to his career, and from 2004 through 2015 he served as artistic director of London's Old Vic Theatre, where he acted in and directed several productions.

His early film work included supporting roles in *Heartburn* (1986), *Working Girl* (1988), and *Glengarry Glen Ross* (1992). Spacey gained wider attention with *Swimming with Sharks* (1994), in which he played a ruthless Hollywood executive. His breakthrough came in 1995 with two sharply contrasting thrillers. In Bryan Singer's *The Usual Suspects*, he played Roger "Verbal" Kint, a seemingly unassuming criminal whose elaborate account drives the film's mystery. The role earned him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. That same year, he appeared as a serial killer in David Fincher's *Se7en*, reinforcing his screen image as an unsettling and highly controlled performer.

Spacey won his second Academy Award for Best Actor for *American Beauty* (1999), playing Lester Burnham, a disaffected suburban husband undergoing a late midlife crisis. The film's success established him as a leading man and brought further acclaimed performances in *L.A. Confidential* (1997), *The Negotiator* (1998), *Pay It Forward* (2000), *K-PAX* (2001), and *The Shipping News* (2001). He also directed the feature films *Albino Alligator* (1996) and *Beyond the Sea* (2004), the latter a musical biography of singer Bobby Darin in which Spacey starred, directed, co-wrote, and produced.

A major later achievement was *House of Cards*, the Netflix political drama that premiered in 2013. As Democratic politician Frank Underwood, Spacey combined charm, menace, and direct-to-camera narration in a performance that became closely associated with the rise of prestige streaming television. He served as an executive producer and received multiple Emmy nominations, while winning a Golden Globe for the role.

In 2017, allegations of sexual misconduct led Netflix to end its professional relationship with Spacey. He was removed from the final season of *House of Cards*, and his completed scenes in *All the Money in the World* were reshot with Christopher Plummer. Spacey has denied criminal wrongdoing. In 2022, a New York jury found him not liable in a civil case brought by actor Anthony Rapp. In July 2023, a London jury acquitted him of all nine sexual offense charges brought by prosecutors. In March 2026, he reached a confidential settlement with three men who had filed civil claims in the United Kingdom.

Spacey later returned to screen work in independent productions including the voice thriller *Control* (2023) and the neo-noir film *Peter Five Eight* (2024). His legacy therefore remains divided: his acting achievements and stage credentials are substantial, but his public standing and place in contemporary film culture continue to be shaped by the allegations, legal proceedings, and professional consequences that followed.