Kevin Spacey
Since childhood, the theatre has been KEVIN SPACEY's primary allegiance, with roles beginning in junior high school and leading to Broadway. He trained at the Juilliard School of Drama and made his NY stage debut in Joseph Papp's Central Park production of Henry IV, Part I. His breakthrough came when director Jonathan Miller cast Spacey as the ne'er-do-well son, Jamie Tyrone in the 1986 Broadway production of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night, starring Jack Lemmon, which also played the Haymarket Theatre in London. Other favorite roles include Treplov in The Seagull with Colleen Dewhurst (Kennedy Center); Ben in National Anthems (Long Wharf); Paul in Barrie Keefe's Barbarians (SoHo Rep); and Athol Fugard's Playland (Manhattan Theatre Club). For his performance as Uncle Louie in Neil Simon's Lost in Yonkers, he won the Tony Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1991. His close association with Jack Lemmon continued as they shared the screen in George Steven's Jr.'s The Murder of Mary Phagan for NBC, Gary David Goldberg's Dad for Paramount and David Mamet's screen adaptation of Glengarry Glen Ross, co-starring Al Pacino, Ed Harris and Alec Baldwin. In 1995, cinema audiences discovered Spacey in three distinct performances: as Buddy Ackerman in George Huang's Swimming With Sharks; Verbal Kint in Bryan Singer's The Usual Suspects; and John Doe in David Fincher's Se7en. He has continued to build an impressive body of work with such films as L.A. Confidential, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, The Negotiator, Hurlyburly, Looking for Richard, The Big Kahuna, K-Pax, The Shipping News, The Life of David Gale, Superman Returns and American Beauty. Many of these performances have won him nominations and awards, including two Academy Awards® for Best Supporting Actor for The Usual Suspects and Best Actor for American Beauty, for which he also received the Screen Actors Guild and British Academy's BAFTA Award for Best Actor. In 1998, he returned to the stage in Eugene O'Neill's classic The Iceman Cometh, directed by Howard Davis. The production originated at London's Almeida Theatre and later transferred to the Old Vic Theatre and onto Broadway. For his performance as Hickey, he won the Evening Standard and the Laurence Olivier Awards for Best Actor. His work on television has included seven episodes of the CBS series Wiseguy and the role of Clarence Darrow in the PBS/American Playhouse film Darrow. He made his directorial debut with the Miramax film Albino Alligator starring Matt Dillon, Gary Sinise, Faye Dunaway and Viggo Mortensen, and most recently directed, as well as starred, as Bobby Darin in the film Beyond the Sea, for Lions Gate opposite Kate Bosworth. This performance earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor. He was also nominated for a Grammy Award for the soundtrack. Spacey formed Trigger Street Productions in 1997, which produced The Iceman Cometh. Trigger Street's feature films include The Big Kahuna starring Danny DeVito, The United States of Leland, starring Don Cheadle and Ryan Gosling, and The Sasquatch Dumpling Gang, which won the Slamdance Film Festival and Best Actor and Best Director at the Aspen Comedy Festival. This year will see the release of Trigger Street's Fanboys produced with the Weinstein Company and distributed by MGM. A new arm of the company, Trigger Street Independent, produced Bernard and Doris starring Susan Sarandon and Ralph Fiennes, directed by Bob Balaban, which will be released this year by HBO/Picture House. In November 2002, Spacey and business partner Dana Brunetti launched TriggerStreet.com, a web-based filmmaker and screenwriter' community; an interactive site for the purpose of discovering and showcasing new and unique talent. Budweiser Select sponsors the site with Real Networks, and in just four years the site has achieved over 150,000 active members from around the world. Spacey is now serving as the artistic director of The Old Vic Theatre in London, which is enjoying its 3rd season of work with its smash hit production of A Moon For The Misbegotten, directed by Howard Davis transferring to Broadway in March of '07. Since the start of this new theatre company, the Old Vic has presented Cloaca, which Spacey directed; Ian McKellen starring in the hit panto Aladdin; Dennis McIntyre's National Anthems with Mary Stuart Masterson and Steven Webber, directed by David Grindley; The Philadelphia Story, with Jennifer Ehle, directed by Jerry Zaks; Richard II, directed by Trevor Nunn; Arthur Miller's Resurrection Blues, directed by Robert Altman; Twelfth Night and Taming of the Shrew, directed by Ed Hall; and Robert Lindsey in the 50th Anniversary production of John Osborne's The Entertainer, directed by Sean Holmes, which will open in March. Kevin is currently shooting a role in 21, based on Ben Mesrich's book Bringing Down The House, The True Story of the MIT Students Who Took Vegas For Millions, directed by Robert Luketic and starring Laurence Fishbourne and Kate Bosworth. Trigger Street is producing along with Sony Pictures. He will next be seen co-starring opposite Vince Vaughn and Paul Giamatti in the Warner Brothers comedy Fred Claus, which will be released in November. Bio as of May, 2007. American Theatre Wing programs, interviews and/or credits include: Working in the Theatre (video) Leading Men - May, 2007 - Watch now. Internet Broadway Database Listing (IBDB.com)