Real name: Kevin Spacey Fowler
Born: July 26th 1959 in South Orange, New Jersey
Family: KS's father passed away in 1994, around Christmas time. His mother, Kathleen, was his date for the 1996 Academy Awards. Kevin has a brother and a sister. Kevin's brother is a musician, though he does other things as well. His sister is a paralegal, and she has worked as a model. She is married to a Scotsman.
Kevin is reportedly in a relationship with Dianne Dryer, who works also in the movie business (as a script supervisor etc.). He has two dogs, Mini and Legacy.
The Early Years: Kevin was born in South Orange, New Jersey. He grew up in the San Fernando Valley area of California. His father worked mainly as a technical writer, but he job-shopped a lot so the family moved quite often. His mother worked as a private secretary for a while. Kevin remembers watching a lot of late night tv shows and great black and white films as a kid. His favorite actors even then included Spencer Tracy, Henry Fonda, Humphrey Bogart etc..
His father was a strict disciplinarian, and Kevin rebelled against that strict upbringing. In his early teens he happened to set fire to a little shed in the back yard of their Malibu house, where his sister kept her toys. Kevin's father tried to knock some sense into Kevin by sending him to Northridge Military Academy. He then was kicked out after getting into a fight with a fellow student while they were watching other students box in a ring of tires. Kevin was defending himself, and threw a tire at the other guy. Unfortunately, the other guy broke something in his shoulder and they kicked Kevin out.
Kevin, however, was thrilled to be back at a public school, where he also discovered acting. He was cast in his high school's production of Arthur Miller's All My Sons. That production was then chosen one of the three best productions for Southern California high school theater. They performed the play over a weekend at a local college, where Kevin also happened to catch Chatsworth High School's play, in which Val Kilmer and Mare Winningham were performing. He felt that he would love to be part of that ensemble, so when he was asked if he would be interested in attending Chatsworth, he agreed happily. He switched for his last year in high school.
Kevin starred with Mare Winningham in a series of sold-out plays, like The Sound of Music. He was chosen co-valedictorian with her. After high school MW went on to build herself a career in TV and movies, and Val Kilmer got into Juilliard. At that time Kevin tried out stand-up comedy, and he even hosted a pilot of a potential ABC stand-up show. However, the pilot was never aired. From the comedy clubs he remembers seeing Jay Leno, Robin Williams and Andy Kaufman around. He doesn't think he did so well as a stand-up comedian, but admits being good at impressions, especially at Johnny Carson. He used to visit the Tonight Show regularly, sometimes getting tickets for himself pretending to be Carson. During that time he also worked at a shoe store.
After two years since graduating from high school, encouraged by Val Kilmer, Kevin tried out for Juilliard's four-year drama program, and was accepted. They spent Kevin's first two and Val's last two years there together. At 23, Kevin felt that somehow he'd already learned whatever he had come there to learn, and dropped out after his two years. The following summer, 1981, he got into Joe Papp's Shakespeare in the Park Festival. He made his stage debut there, as a spear toting messenger and a rock in Henry VI, Part I. Val Kilmer, John Goodman and Mandy Patinkin were also in the chorus.
Later on he got a job in Papp's office, making coffee and xeroxing. Eventually he became a production assistant for Papp. After a while, though, as Papp happened to see Kevin perform in an "off off off Broadway" play, he fired Kevin. Papp realized that Kevin should be out there auditioning, not getting comfortable making coffee. Kevin was terrified. He had no job, no money, he worked as a super in his apartment building so that they would cut his rent. Finally he got his first Broadway play (Ibsen's Ghosts), but wasn't very happy with his life at that time. He then did some regional stuff for a couple of years, in Williamstown, in Virginia, wherever he could get a job.
In 1984 he felt it was time to go back to New York again. He auditioned for Mike Nichols for a national tour of The Real Thing. Nichols then asked if Kevin was interested in his other play, Hurlyburly, for which he was getting new understudies. He gave Kevin a choice: he could either stay in town and do Hurlyburly, or get on the national tour for The Real Thing. Kevin chose to stay in town, and wound up studying all the male leads in Hurlyburly.
1986 was a big year for Kevin; he got a part in O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night and also did his first movie role in Heartburn. Kevin played the part of Jamie Tyrone in LDJIN, in which Jack Lemmon had the lead as the family's father. They even performed the play in London. That year Nichols also cast him in Heartburn as a subway thief who was to rob Meryl Streep's therapy group.
The following year Kevin got a role in the CBS series Wiseguy as a drug dealer called Mel Profitt. For the next couple of years, he did quite a few movies and a couple of visits back to television series. In 1991 he won a Tony award for his performance in Neil Simon's Lost in Yonkers. In 1992 Alan Pakula cast him Consenting Adults, which led to roles in films like The Ref, Iron Will and Swimming with Sharks.
And the rest, as they say, is movie history...
Kevin is a trustee of the Old Vic Theatre's Board of Directors. Kevin has helped to raise hundreds of thousands of pounds to keep the Old Vic Theatre in London up and running.
In the United Kingdom, one should address him as Sir Kevin Spacey, since Kevin got himself a title of Lord during his stay in London in 1998.
Kevin is friends with Dean Devlin. They know each other since high school times. In the early 80s Kevin used to get himself and Dean in to Studio 54 by pretending to be Johnny Carson's son.
In fact, he used to frequently visit Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, getting tickets for himself and friends while impersonating Carson.
Other KS impressions include Jack Lemmon, Christopher Walken and James Stewart.
Kevin has appeared in one music video to date: Dave Stewart's Jealousy. Isabella Rosselini also made a guest appearance.
As a young man, Kevin worked in a kibbutz in Israel. (Thanks to Yael for this information.)
Kevin was paid Equity minimums for both runs for the Iceman Cometh. However, he doesn't seem to be short of cash - in 2000 he was the first celebrity to donate $100 000 to SAG's (Screen Actor's Guild) strike fund. Later on Harrison Ford, Nicolas Cage and Helen Hunt, among others, matched his donation.
Kevin has a habit of moving furniture around at 3 am in the morning. He claims that he can't stop doing it.
KS is known to be active in politics, and he is good friends with ex-president Bill Clinton. In fact, according to the New York Daily News, one time Clinton made a surprise call to Kevin's mom from Air Force One. In 1997 Kevin hosted President Clinton's Inaugural Ball in Tennessee (he was requested by Al Gore).
KS has worked on several presidential campaigns for the likes of Bill Clinton, Senator Ted Kennedy, Jimmy Carter in 1976 and Congressman John Anderson in 1980. He also has done "some things for congressmen or senators in the state I live in [New York], or New Jersey".
According to the New York Post, KS played an April Fool -prank on Frank Whaley during the production of Swimming with Sharks. When Whaley showed up at the set, he was told the production had been halted. A teary-eyed Whaley realized he'd been had only after he got into a waiting cab for the airport with his bags and discovered the driver laughing in the front was co-star Kevin Spacey, who'd hired impostors to play the prank.
Whaley got even, though, putting half-a-dozen Ex-Lax pills in Spacey's
coffee, a prank that sent his co-star to his trailer for the next 24
hours.
Academy Awards:
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Antoinette Perry (Tony) Awards:
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