Kevin Spacey was born to parents Kathleen and Thomas Spacey on July 26, 1959. He was born in New Jersey and has two siblings. Kevin's birth name was not Kevin Spacey but Kevin Fowler. His mother's maiden name is Spacey, though the origins of the last name he currently uses are also considered a combination of "Spencer" and "Tracey" by some movie fans and analysts. While growing up, Kevin Spacey often got into trouble and caused a lot of headaches for his parents. One of his most notable childhood adventures consisted of burning down his sister's tree house. Since his father was a writer, the family moved around a lot before they finally settled in southern California and could call it home. Kevin would continue to be problematic and get in trouble all through his childhood and school career.
Since Kevin Spacey got into so much trouble, his father made the decision to send him away to Northridge Military Academy. He was only there a short time before being expelled. At this time in his life he was sent to Chatsworth High School in San Fernando, where he became interested in acting and started to participate in drama in high school. This seemed to calm him down a little as his interest in acting took up time he had previously used to be mischievious. Acting in high school was culminated by a performance in The Sound of Music. Kevin Spacey graduated high school as the class valedictorian. Next he attended Julliard but he did not graduate; he left Julliard in 1981 to go on to the New York Shakespeare Festival. Out of this grew his first official theatrical role, a role in Henry VI. He acted in Broadway in the production of Ghosts and subsequent roles in Hurly Burly and Long Day's Journey Into Night led to his first television roles. His first television role came in 1986 in Wiseguy after having had his first movie role in Heartburn. Other film credits include Working Girl, Henry & June, Consenting Adults, and Glengarry Glen Ross. In 1994 Swimming With Sharks won him an award. He won the New York Film Critics Circle Award. This was to be the beginning of a sensational movie career with roles that are timeless.
After receiving this award, in 1995 he began a number of enterprising roles that would make him a sensation. Roles in Outbreak, Se7en, and The Usual Suspects would bring attention, an Academy Award, and numerous other awards for outstanding acting. Film after film piled in on Kevin Spacey and he worked nonstop, completing films A Time to Kill, Looking for Richard, LA Confidential, and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil all between 1995 and 1997. More awards came with these roles and he became one of the hottest and highest paid movie actors during that time. He also proved, with these films and in roles following, that his capacities to perform any type of role were exceptional. In spite of his proliferance of dramatic roles, he also took on other types of roles. The Negotiator, voiceover of a cartoon character in A Bug's Life, and sensational award-winning film American Beauty were to follow in the late 1990s. Other films and small roles are among his resume; to date Kevin Spacey has acted in more movies in a twenty year time period than most people do in twice that amount of time. He is truly a talented man.