Auditioned for
"The Gong Show" (1976) in 1978 and was rejected.
Also attended
Chatsworth
High School with Val Kilmer.
His mother
was his date for the Oscars the night he won.
Was Co-Valedictorian
of his high school class at Chatsworth HS (1977).
Was paid
225 pounds per week for appearing in the play "The Iceman Cometh" at the Almeida Theatre in London (1998).
Ranked
#56 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]
Went to Chatsworth High School in Los Angeles with Mare Winningham. During their senior year, Kevin played von Trapp and Mare played Maria in a school
production of The Sound of Music. Upon hearing of their Oscar nominations in 1996, Winningham sent a telegram to Spacey saying:
"Captain von Trapp - congratulations on your nomination - Maria."
The use of the
name Spacey, while rumored as a combination of Spencer Tracy's names, is actually his mother's maiden name.
Voted greatest
actor of the decade by Empire Magazine. [May 1999]
Kevin burnt
his sister's tree house down when they were children. This caused his parents to opt for military school, which Kevin promptly
left for Chatsworth.
Was the first
choice to play the role of Lester Burnham in American Beauty (1999).
Appears twice
in Total Film's (U.K) '10 Greatest Villains of All Time' poll. His "John Doe", from Se7en (1995) came in at number 10, while his character in The Usual Suspects (1995) was voted fifth. [February 2001]
Listed
as one of Entertainment Weekly's 25 Best Actors [1998]
On People's
(USA) 'Best-Dressed' list. [September
2000]
Studied
drama at Juilliard School
for 2 years.
Was expelled
from Northridge Military Academy (in California) for throwing
a tire at a classmate.
Won Broadway's
1991 Tony Award as Best Actor (Featured Role - Play) for "Lost in Yonkers."
He was also nominated in 1999 as Best Actor (Play) for a revival of Eugene O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh."
His Labrador dog's name is Legacy. [2001]
Was the first
Academy Award winner to be on "The Daily Show" (1996).
During his appearance
on BBC TV's "Parkinson" (1971) in March 2002, he did impressions of Jack Lemmon, Bill Clinton, Judi Dench, Katharine Hepburn, Al Pacino, Ian McKellen, Peter O'Toole and James Stewart.
Supporter
of London's Old Vic Theater, co-hosting fund-raiser for it
in NYC, April 2002.
Owns a
Mini-Cooper.
Dedicated the
Oscar that he won for Best Actor in American Beauty (1999) (1999) to Jack Lemmon. Spacey has said in interviews that he based his performance of Lester Burnham on Lemmon's
C.C. Baxter in The Apartment (1960).
Kevin Spacey's
production company, TriggerStreet, is named after an actual street in the San Fernando Valley
where Spacey grew up and dreamed of building a theatre and making movies. The late cowboy star Roy Rogers once owned a ranch on the land and named the street for his horse Trigger.
Named as
Artistic Director of the Old Vic Theatre in London, England,
UK.
Attended the
UK Labor Party Conference with former US
President Bill Clinton. [2 October 2002]
Has an
older brother, Randall, and an older sister, Julie Ann. Has a nephew and a niece.
His father
was a technical writer.
He was awarded
the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 1999 (1998 season) for Best
Actor for
his performance in The Iceman Cometh.
Often appears
in films with a major twist at the end of movie, such as Se7en (1995) (1995), The Usual Suspects (1995) (1995), and The Life of David
Gale (2003) (2003).
When they were
both performing on Broadway in 1998, he would often meet Dame Judi Dench during intermission or between shows.
He was
awarded the 1998 London Critics Circle Theatre Award (Drama) for Best Actor for his performance in The Iceman Cometh at the
Almeida and at the Old Vic
Theatres.
He was
awarded the 1998 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Iceman Cometh.
17 April
2004, London - suffered a head injury after tripping over
his dog while pursuing a young man who stole his cell phone. Initially, he reported that the injury was the result of a mugging,
but later admitted the truth and stated that he was embarrassed by the situation.
His Oscar-winning
performance as Verbal Kint from his film The Usual Suspects (1995)
(1995)
was ranked #48 on the American Film Institute's Villains list in their compilation of the 100 years of The Greatest Screen
Heroes and Villains.
Has said that
working with Jack Lemmon on a stage production of "A Long Day's
Journey
into Night" changed his life. Previously possessive of a reckless ambition, he said he was amazed at how Lemmon was both a
great actor and generous to a fault as both a co-star and a human being, teaching him that being a good person and a good
actor were not mutually exclusive. He still considers Lemmon his role model.
Went to high
school with and briefly dated April Winchell
Shares a birthday
with Sandra Bullock, Kate Beckinsale Jeremy Piven, Stanley Kubrick and Mick Jagger.
Spencer Tracy, Henry Fonda, James Stewart, Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, and Jason Robards are his idols.
Included in AFI's
100 Greatest Heroes and Villains of All Time list: #48 on Villains list, "Verbal Kint" from The Usual Suspects (1995).
Father
Thomas Fowler died in 1992. Mother Kathleen died of a brain tumor in 2003.
His guest appearance
in "Crime Story" (1986) {The Senator, the Movie Star, and the Mob (#2.1)}_ was his first major television
appearance.
His performance
as "Verbal Kint" in The Usual Suspects (1995) is ranked #100 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All
Time.
Parodied a mad
bald man, "Dr. Evil", in Austin Powers in
Goldmember (2002) while portraying a sinister bald man, "Lex Luthor", in Superman Returns (2006).
Has twice shaved
his head completely bald to play the villain in movies. He did it to play "John Doe" in Se7en (1995) and "Lex Luthor" in Superman Returns (2006).
Character
Deadshot from Justice League voice and personality were based on Kevin Spacey.
As part of his
research for the role of 'Bobby Darin' in the film Beyond the Sea (2004), Spacey watched several of Michael Bublé's performances.
April 2000: The
Los Angeles Times reported that he was being considered for the role of for the role of Inspector Clouseau, in The Pink Panther (2006). The following month, Spacey denied he was in negotiations for the role
of Clouseau. He said he'd only had two conversations with MGM about the role, but that since the announcement, claiming he
was in the running for it, he'd had to answer 8000 Pink Panther questions.
In both
'The Usual Suspects' and 'American Beauty' Kevin Spacey narrates the final line of the film. 'The Usual Suspects' concludes
with the line "And like that...he is gone" and 'American Beauty' finishes with "Don't worry...you will some day." In both
cases the screen cuts to black before the second half of the sentence is spoken.