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Trivia
Birth name: Kevin Matthew Fowler
Date of birth: 26 July 1959
Place of birth: South Orange, New Jersey, USA
Nickname: Kevin Spacey
Height: 5' 11" (1.80 m)
Auditioned for The Gong Show 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.
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.
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 Labour 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.
Father Thomas Fowler died in 1992. Mother Kathleen died of a brain tumor
in 2003.
Robert Altman made his London theatrical debut in early 2006 for
Spacey's Old Vic company directing Arthur Miller's play
"Resurrection Blues", Spacey is the Artistic Directory of the
venerable London company and also acts in some of its productions, most
famously in Shakespeare's "Richard II.". Altman chose an
eclectic cast for he Miller play, including 'Maxmillian Schell' (qc),
'James Fox' (who replaced John Wood before previews), and American movie
actors Matthew Modine and Jane Adams.
The English critics panned "Resurrection Blues", partly due to
the clash in acting styles of the disparate cast. Adams walked out after
a matinée on April 5, 2006, and was replaced by her understudy for
subsequent performances. No explanation was given for her departure from
the production. The play was scheduled to close a week early in
mid-April due to poor ticket sales.
Altman claimed after the poor debut of the play that he was not very
familiar with the script, and didn't really understand the play. Critics
said that his confusion obviously affected the cast, many of whom seemed
not to understand the play, and some of whom seemed to have trouble
remembering lines. While not an outright debacle, the play is another
relative failure characterizing Spacey's troubled tenure as Old Vic
chief.
His guest appearance in "Crime Story: The Senator, the Movie Star,
and the Mob (#2.1)" (1987) 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.
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