The Twisted Genius Of Kevin Spacey

Added: 10/15/2007

Two time Oscar winner Kevin Spacey is quite an interesting story and since much of his personal life is a mystery we can only follow his fascinating career. He began on the stage where his success took him to bit parts in movies and more success on television. It was not long before he was landing bigger movie roles and eventually an Oscar win helped to elevate him to superstar status.

Kevin Spacey was born as Kevin Spacey Fowler in South Orange, New Jersey on July 26, 1959. His father’s job of being a technical writer caused the family to have to move around a lot and by the time they settled in California little Kevin was full of energy and mischief. He was hard to tame and when he was a young teen he burned his sister’s tree house to the ground. This little move did not impress his parents at all and they sent him to a military school. Kevin left the military school and began a list of schools that he would start and then leave long before finishing. He took the name Spacey because it is his mother’s maiden name and began working in stage productions all over the world. His stage work included stints in the United States and England where he appeared regularly in the production The Iceman Cometh later in his career.

Not much of his personal life after high school is known because Spacey prefers that people look at him as an empty slate where he can be the character in the movie and people will believe he is the character and not Kevin Spacey playing the character. This notion of sacrificing his own publicity for the sake of the movies he makes is on display in the 1995 movie Se7en where he received no on screen credit because he was afraid that if people knew he was in the movie they would be anticipating the ending and could ruin the story. He is truly committed to his craft and very soon his commitment would begin to pay large dividends for the talented actor.

In 1992 Kevin Spacey played the office manager in the stage comedy turned movie Glengarry Glen Ross. The movie was much anticipated because of the phenomenal success of the stage production and the movie did not disappoint. It was a fast paced movie and Spacey played his role perfectly. Financially the movie did not do well at all but critically it was hailed as a fine movie and even earned Al Pacino an Oscar nomination. Spacey used his critical acclaim from that role to attract more work and soon the offers came rolling in. His biggest break came with his Oscar winning performance as the devious Kaiser Soeze in the 1995 hit movie The Usual Suspect. Spacey’s performance was brilliant and intense and he truly earned his best supporting actor Oscar as he carried The Usual Suspects to critical acclaim and cult status as an underground hit movie. But Spacey’s Oscar days were not over.

In 1999 Kevin Spacey starred in the bizarre movie American Beauty as middle aged businessman Lester Burnham who was on the verge of a psychotic episode. This time Spacey’s performance not only brought him his second Oscar win, first as a leading man, but also made American Beauty a huge box office success. Since American Beauty Spacey has done comedy, drama, and animated movies but all of them are a labor of love for this successful actor. He has earned his spot in the elite actor’s club and has several new productions coming out in the next year which include the Christmas comedy Fred Claus. Kevin Spacey is a versatile actor who loves what he does and is very good at it.

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