Kevin Spacey

Early life, family and education

Kevin Spacey Fowler was born in South Orange, New Jersey, to Kathleen Ann (née Knutson), a secretary, and Thomas Geoffrey Fowler, a technical writer and data consultant. His family relocated to Southern California when he was four years old. Spacey has a sister and an older brother, Randy Fowler, from whom Spacey is estranged. His brother has stated that their father, whom he described as a racist "Nazi supporter", was sexually and physically abusive, and that Spacey shut down emotionally and became "very sly and smart" to avoid beatings. Spacey first addressed the matter in October 2022, saying that his father was "a white supremacist and a neo-Nazi" who would call him "an F-word that is very derogatory to the gay community". He stated...

1981–1989: Early roles and breakthrough

Spacey's first professional stage appearance was as a spear carrier in a New York Shakespeare Festival performance of Henry VI, Part 1 in 1981. The following year, he made his first Broadway appearance, as Oswald in a production of Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts, starring Liv Ullmann and director John Neville, which opened at the Eisenhower Theater in Washington's Kennedy Center. He then portrayed Philinte in Molière's The Misanthrope. In 1984, Spacey appeared in a production of David Rabe's Hurlyburly, in which he rotated through each of the male parts (he would later play Mickey in the film version). Next came Anton Chekhov's The Seagull alongside David Strathairn and Colleen Dewhurst. In 1986, Spacey appeared in a production of Sleuth in a New...

2017–present: Career controversy and comeback attempts

In March 2017, it was announced that Spacey would portray J. Paul Getty in Ridley Scott's All the Money in the World. He shot his role in the film in ten days over the summer of 2017. But because of the sexual assault allegations against Spacey, it was announced on November 8, 2017, that all of his footage would be excised, and that Christopher Plummer would replace him in reshoots. Despite the very tight schedule, TriStar Pictures completed the new version of the film in time for a December 25 release. Spacey appeared in the film Billionaire Boys Club, which had a limited release on August 17, 2018. Vertical Entertainment stated that it would take no action to remove Spacey from the film, as it had been completed in late 2016, before the...

Beyond the Sea

Beyond the Sea is a 2004 American biographical film based on the life of singer-actor Bobby Darin. Starring in the lead role and using his own singing voice for the musical numbers, Kevin Spacey co-wrote, directed, and co-produced the film, which takes its title from Darin's song of the same title.

Production

In February 2003, it was announced that production for Beyond the Sea was becoming fast tracked with Spacey as lead actor, co-writer, producer and director, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) agreed to cover distribution duties in North America. In August, with principal photography to begin in just weeks, MGM dropped out as distributor and main financier over scheduling conflicts. To accumulate financing of the film's $25 million budget, which came from foreign production companies, Spacey performed six songs at the November 2003 American Film Market. Lions Gate Entertainment quickly picked up the distribution duties, and Spacey found enough investors from England and Germany to continue moving forward on production.