Kevin Spacey: Click Here For Kevin's Filmography

Kevin Spacey Fowler was born July 26, 1959 in South Orange, New Jersey, the youngest of three children born to Thomas and Kathleen Fowler. His mother was a personal secretary and his father, a technical writer whose job consistently uprooted the family over the years. When the family finally settled in southern California, Kevin developed into quite the little rebel, going as far as burning down his sister's treehouse. That was the breaking point and young Kevin was soon shipped off to the Northridge Military Academy.

That lasted a few months before he was tossed out for hitting a classmate on the head with a tire. So much for the controlled anger he shows off so well in his films of late. After the failure of Military school Spacey soon found himself attending Chatsworth High School in the San Fernando Valley. Finally he seemed to mesh with the crowd and he began exploring his theatrical side. In his senior year, he played Captain von Trapp opposite classmate Mare Winningham's Maria in 'The Sound of Music'. This well known duo eventually graduated as co-valedictorian's.

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After high school Spacey briefly attended Los Angeles Valley College then left to join the drama program. The amazing tie-in here was it was another of his ex-Chatsworth classmates that urged him to join Julliard, Val Kilmer.

Spacey, always seemed anxious to get to work and left Julliard after only two years and signed with the New York Shakespeare festival. His made his first professional stage appearance as a messenger in the 1981 production of Henry VI.

The next year was much brighter as Spacey made his Broadway debut in Henrik Ibsen's 'Ghosts'.

As time passed Spacey's stature in the theatre was growing and in 1986 he had the chance to work with his idol Jack Lemmon, on a production of Eugene O'Neill's 'Long Day's Journey Into Night'.

Anxious to hit the silver screen Spacey's film career began much like his theatre life, with a small part. He played a subway thief in Heartburn.

Spacey soon found himself pigeonholed though as a 'character actor' due to his less than conventional looks the studios just didn't seem his as a leading man. Oddly enough it was television that eventually began to turn the tide. Cast as the villain Mel Profitt on the TV series "Wiseguy" (1987). Profitt was the first in a long line of dark, manipulative characters that would eventually make Kevin Spacey a household name. He hit another nerve when he played an uncaring office manager in Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), and topped that performance with a brutally sadistic Hollywood exec in Swimming with Sharks (1994).

Keaton once said, 'I don't believe in God, but I'm afraid of him.' Well I believe in God, and the only thing that scares me is Keyser Soze. - As Verbal Kint in the Usual Suspects.

Then came The Usual Suspects. As Verbal Kint Kevin Spacey turned the whole rules of Hollywood inside out and from then on he was considered one of the finest up and coming actors...when he had been up and coming for more than 10 years. His role as Verbal Kint earned Spacey an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and audiences were beginning to put two and two together that Spacey was 'that guy' in Seven that year as well.

Now, the scripts were pouring in. After appearing in Al Pacino's Looking for Richard (1996), Spacey made his directorial debut with Albino Alligator, an underseen little gem of a movie. For the film he picked out an all star cast with Gary Sinise, Faye Dunaway and Matt Dillon.

He turned out another great performance in L.A. Confidential playing Jack Vincennes, a celebrity detective who follows his own version of right and wrong. More accolades from critics and new fans with every movie, but that was still just another stepping stone.

"Remember those posters that said, 'Today is the first day of the rest of your life'? Well, that's true of every day but one... the day you die." - as Lester Brunham in American Beauty.

In October 1999 that movie would earn Kevin Spacey the Academy Award for Best Actor. Four days later he received a star on Hollywood's walk of Fame.

More recently starred in the surprisingly large hit K-Pax where he played an alien...or did he? For a film with a slow moving premise and adult oriented content it made a big splash with audiences and one could bet that this stems from his name being on the credit list. He also appeared in The Shipping News, based on the Pulitzer prize winning book by Annie Proulx also landed him a best actor nomination with the Golden Globes in 2001 and it looks like there are no signs of Spacey's star power waning anytime soon.

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Copyright© Staffwriter: Rob Paul