Spacey, Kevin (1959– )

US film and stage actor. An award-winning character actor and prolific stage performer, he cemented his status as one of the most accomplished performers of 1990s cinema in two chilling roles: a con man in The Usual Suspects (1995), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and as a serial killer in Seven (1995). In 2000 he won an Academy Award for best actor for his leading role in the drama American Beauty (1999). He became artistic director of the Old Vic theatre in London, England, in 2004.

Spacey first appeared on the New York stage in 1981, making his Broadway debut the following year opposite the Norwegian actor Liv Ullmann in a production of Ibsen's Ghosts. He broke into films in the mid-1980s in a series of supporting roles. In 1996 he made his directorial debut with the film Albino Alligator.

He showed promise in such low-budget independent films as Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) and Swimming with Sharks (1994). Among his other acting film credits are LA Confidential (1997), The Negotiator (1998), Pay It Forward (2000), K-Pax (2001), and The Life of David Gale (2003). In addition to his numerous roles on the US stage, in such productions as Hurlyburly and The Seagull, Spacey also has enjoyed well-received runs in London, England, in Long Day's Journey Into Night and The Iceman Cometh. In 1991 he won a Tony award for his performance as Uncle Louie in Neil Simon's play Lost in Yonkers.