Advanced search

Kevin Spacey Fowler, better known by his stage name Kevin Spacey, is an American actor of screen and stage, film director, producer, screenwriter and singer. He began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s before obtaining supporting roles in film and television. He gained critical acclaim in the early 1990s that culminated in his first Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the neo-noir crime thriller The Usual Suspects (1995), and an Academy Award for Best Actor for midlife crisis-themed drama American Beauty (1999).

His other starring roles have included the comedy-drama film Swimming with Sharks (1994), psychological thriller Seven (1995), the neo-noir crime film L.A. Confidential (1997), the drama Pay It Forward (2000), the science fiction-mystery film K-PAX (2001)

In Broadway theatre, Spacey won a Tony Award for his role in Lost in Yonkers. He was the artistic director of the Old Vic theatre in London from 2004 until stepping down in mid-2015. Since 2013, Spacey has played Frank Underwood in the Netflix political drama series House of Cards. His work in House of Cards earned him Golden Globe Award and Emmy Award nominations for Best Actor.

As enigmatic as he is talented, Kevin Spacey for years kept the details of his private life closely guarded. As he explained in a 1998 interview with the London Evening Standard, "the less you know about me, the easier it is to convince you that I am that character on screen. It allows an audience to come into a movie theatre and believe I am that person". In October 2017, he ended many years of media speculation about his personal life by confirming that he had had sexual relations with both men and women but now identified as gay.

There are, however, certain biographical facts to be had - for starters, Kevin Spacey Fowler was the youngest of three children born to Kathleen Ann (Knutson) and Thomas Geoffrey Fowler, in South Orange, New Jersey. His ancestry includes Swedish (from his maternal grandfather) and English. His middle name, "Spacey," which he uses as his stage name, is from his paternal grandmother. His mother was a personal secretary, his father a technical writer whose irregular job prospects led the family all over the country. The family eventually settled in southern California, where young Kevin developed into quite a little hellion - after he set his sister's tree house on fire, he was shipped off to the Northridge Military Academy, only to be thrown out a few months later for pinging a classmate on the head with a tire. Spacey then found his way to Chatsworth High School in the San Fernando Valley, where he managed to channel his dramatic tendencies into a successful amateur acting career. In his senior year, he played "Captain von Trapp" opposite classmate Mare Winningham's "Maria" in "The Sound of Music" (the pair later graduated as co-valedictorians). Spacey claims that his interest in acting - and his nearly encyclopedic accumulation of film knowledge - began at an early age, when he would sneak downstairs to watch the late late show on TV. Later, in high school, he and his friends cut class to catch revival films at the NuArt Theater. The adolescent Spacey worked up celebrity impersonations (James Stewart and Johnny Carson were two of his favorites) to try out on the amateur comedy club circuit.

He briefly attended Los Angeles Valley College, then left (on the advice of another Chatsworth classmate, Val Kilmer) to join the drama program at Juilliard. After two years of training he was anxious to work, so he quit Juilliard sans diploma and signed up with the New York Shakespeare Festival. His first professional stage appearance was as a messenger in the 1981 production of "Henry VI".

Festival head Joseph Papp ushered the young actor out into the "real world" of theater, and the next year Spacey made his Broadway debut in Henrik Ibsen's "Ghosts". He quickly proved himself as an energetic and versatile performer (at one point, he rotated through all the parts in David Rabe's "Hurlyburly"). In 1986, he had the chance to work with his idol and future mentor, Jack Lemmon, on a production of Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey Into Night". While his interest soon turned to film, Spacey would remain active in the theater community - in 1991, he won a Tony Award for his turn as "Uncle Louie" in Neil Simon's Broadway hit "Lost in Yonkers" and, in 1999, he returned to the boards for a revival of O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh".

Spacey's film career began modestly, with a small part as a subway thief in Heartburn (1986). Deemed more of a "character actor" than a "leading man", he stayed on the periphery in his next few films, but attracted attention for his turn as beady-eyed 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 went on to play a sinister office manager in Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), a sadistic Hollywood exec in Swimming with Sharks (1994), and, most famously, creepy, smooth-talking eyewitness Verbal Kint in The Usual Suspects (1995).

The "Suspects" role earned Spacey an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and catapulted him into the limelight. That same year, he turned in another complex, eerie performance in David Fincher's thriller Se7en (1995) (Spacey refused billing on the film, fearing that it might compromise the ending if audiences were waiting for him to appear). By now, the scripts were pouring in. After appearing in Al Pacino's Looking for Richard (1996), Spacey made his own directorial debut with Albino Alligator (1996), a low-key but well received hostage drama. He then jumped back into acting, winning critical accolades for his turns as flashy detective Jack Vincennes in L.A. Confidential (1997) and genteel, closeted murder suspect Jim Williams in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997). In October 1999, just four days after the dark suburban comedy American Beauty (1999) opened in US theaters, Spacey received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Little did organizers know that his role in Beauty would turn out to be his biggest success yet - as Lester Burnham, a middle-aged corporate cog on the brink of psychological meltdown, he tapped into a funny, savage character that captured audiences' imaginations and earned him a Best Actor Oscar.

No longer relegated to offbeat supporting parts, Spacey seems poised to redefine himself as a Hollywood headliner. He says he's finished exploring the dark side - but, given his attraction to complex characters, that mischievous twinkle will never be too far from his eyes.

In February 2003 Spacey made a major move back to the theatre. He was appointed Artistic Director of the new company set up to save the famous Old Vic theatre, The Old Vic Theatre Company. Although he did not undertake to stop appearing in movies altogether, he undertook to remain in this leading post for ten years, and to act in as well as to direct plays during that time. His first production, of which he was the director, was the September 2004 British premiere of the play Cloaca by Maria Goos (made into a film, Cloaca (2003)). Spacey made his UK Shakespearean debut in the title role in Richard II in 2005. In 2006 he got movie director Robert Altman to direct for the stage the little-known Arthur Miller play Resurrection Blues, but that was a dismal failure. However Spacey remained optimistic, and insisted that a few mistakes are part of the learning process. He starred thereafter with great success in Eugene O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten along with Colm Meaney and Eve Best, and in 2007 that show transferred to Broadway. In February 2008 Spacey put on a revival of the David Mamet 1988 play Speed-the-Plow in which he took one of the three roles, the others being taken by Jeff Goldblum and Laura Michelle Kelly.

In 2013, Spacey took on the lead role in an original Netflix series, House of Cards (2013). Based upon a British show of the same name, House of Cards is an American political drama. The show's first season received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination to include Outstanding lead actor in a drama series. In 2017, he played a memorable role as a villain in the action thriller Baby Driver (2017).

Zach Braff was born and raised in South Orange, New Jersey, to Anne Hutchinson (Maynard), a clinical psychologist, and Harold Irwin Braff, a trial attorney. His father is from Russia and Austria, while Zach's mother is from a family with deep roots in New England. Zach attended Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey, and also graduated from Northwestern University with a BA in film. Zach is known for playing Dr. John 'J.D.' Dorian on the television series Scrubs (2001), for writing, directing, and starring in the films Garden State (2004) and Wish I Was Here (2014), and for starring in the movies Chicken Little (2005), The Last Kiss (2006), and The Ex (1996).

He just completed directing the New Line/ Warner Bros. feature "Going In Style" starring Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Alan Arkin.

Andrew Shue was born on 20 February 1967 in South Orange, New Jersey, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for The Rainmaker (1997), Melrose Place (1992) and Gracie (2007). He was previously married to Amy Robach and Jennifer Hageney.

As flamboyant as any character in his movies, Joel Silver can be credited along with Jerry Bruckheimer as practically reinventing the action film genre in the 1980s. Born in New Jersey, he attended the New York University Film School. After college, he worked at Lawrence Gordon Pictures, earning his first onscreen credit as associate producer of The Warriors (1979). He eventually became president of the motion picture division of Gordon Pictures. Together with Gordon, Silver produced 48 Hrs. (1982) and Streets of Fire (1984). In 1983 he formed Silver Pictures and initially set up shop at Universal Pictures to produce Brewster's Millions (1985) before going to Fox and continued producing hit action films such as Commando (1985), the "Lethal Weapon" franchise, the first two films of the "Die Hard" franchise and the three films of "Matrix" franchise of action films. He had then subsequently joined Warner Bros. in 1987 after leaving Fox. Despite these successes, he has hit some rough spots and has been banned from working on several studio lots. He was unable to produce the "48 Hrs" sequel Another 48 Hrs. (1990), the third "Die Hard" film, Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995) and the fourth "Matrix" installment The Matrix Resurrections (2021) because of past run-ins with studio executives. Because of his habit of wearing sport shirts and talking loudly and quickly, he has been parodied in several films, even spoofing himself in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) by playing the frustrated cartoon director in the film's opening sequence. In order to perform in that role, he had to use an alias to get onto the Walt Disney lot, and his onscreen credit was not revealed to Disney executives until the very last minute. He had worked in television, setting up his own television branch with his first project Parker Kane (1990), a project that would eventually never made to series, and then worked at HBO for many years, until he found a home at Warner Bros. Television in 1998, where he had developed two UPN shows The Strip (1999) and Freedom (2000) before finding commercial success with the hit Veronica Mars (2004). In 1999, Silver Pictures had teamed up with film director/producer Robert Zemeckis to set up Dark Castle Entertainment to produce genre and horror films with the first film under Dark Castle being House on Haunted Hill (1999). Joel Silver pioneered the practice of shooting action movies in Australia with the "Matrix" films, and has been credited with either inventing or reinventing the careers of Eddie Murphy, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Steven Seagal. He was mentioned in Halle Berry's Academy Award acceptance speech. Other credits include non-action pictures, ranging from Xanadu (1980), Weird Science (1985) and Fred Claus (2007) to HBO's long-running TV series, Tales from the Crypt (1989). He had resigned from his founding production company in 2019.

Lauryn Hill, a native of South Orange, New Jersey, first came to attention with the multi-talented Fugees. Their first album, "Blunted On Reality", went virtually unnoticed by the public; their real breakthrough came with the sophomore album, "The Score", which featured "Killing Me Softly". That album stills remains the worldwide top-selling rap album of all time (17 million units shipped). She earned two Grammys (Best Rap Album and Best R&B Performance by a duo or group) in 1996 and gave birth to Zion (alleged father is Bob Marley's son) before releasing her self-written and self-produced solo album, "The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill", which topped Billboard charts the moment it came out.

English writer, scholar and philologist, Tolkien's father was a bank manager in South Africa. Shortly before his father died (1896) his mother took him and his younger brother to his father's native village of Sarehole, near Birmingham, England. The landscapes and Nordic mythology of the Midlands may have been the source for Tolkien's fertile imagination to write about 'the Shire' and 'hobbits' in his later book the Hobbit (1937). After his mother's death in 1904 he was looked after by Father Francis Xavier Morgan a RC priest of the Congregation of the Oratory. Tolkien was educated at King Edward VI school in Birmingham. He studied linguistics at Exeter College, Oxford, and took his B.A. in 1915. In 1916 he fought in World War I with the Lancashire Fusiliers. It is believed that his experiences during the Battle of the Somne may have been fueled the darker side of his subsequent novels. Upon his return he worked as an assistant on the Oxford English Dictionary (1918-20) and took his M.A. in 1919. In 1920 he became a teacher in English at the University of Leeds. He then went on to Merton College in Oxford, where he became Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon (1925-45) and Merton professor of English Language and Literature (1945-59). His first scholarly publication was an edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1925). He also wrote books on Chaucer (1934) and Beowulf (1937). In 1939 Tolkien gave the Andrew Lang Lecture at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland titled: "On Fairy-Stories". Tolkien will however be remembered most for his books the Hobbit (1937) and the Lord of the Rings (1954-55). The Hobbit began as a bedtime story for his children". He wrote Lord of the Rings over a period of about 14 years.

Tolkien also discussed parts of his novels with fellow Oxfordian and fantasy writer CS Lewis during their 'meetings'. He was trying to create a fantasy world so that he could explain how he had invented certain languages, and in doing so created 'Middle-earth'. However among his peers at Oxford his works were not well received as they were not considered 'scholarly'. It was after LOTR was published in paperback in the United States in 1965 that he developed his legendary cult following and also imitators. Tolkien was W. P. Ker lecturer at Glasgow University in 1953. In 1954 both the University of Liege and University College, Dublin, awarded him honorary doctorates. He received the CBE in 1972. He served as vice-president of the Philological Society and was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He was made an honorary fellow of Exeter College. Despite the immense popularity of his books today Tolkien did not greatly benefit from their sales. His son Christopher Tolkien was able to publish some of his works posthumously after his manuscripts were found.

After leaving his band "The Young And The Useless", Adam Horovitz joined Mike D and Adam Yauch in the Beastie Boys, opening for Madonna on her famous "Like a Virgin" tour.

Adam has also appeared in films such as Lost Angels (1989) with Donald Sutherland and Roadside Prophets (1992) with John Doe. He is the son of actor/director/producer/writer Israel Horovitz and Doris O'Keefe, an artist/painter. His brother is actor Matthew Horovitz and his sister is film producer Rachael Horovitz.

Adam was involved in releasing experimental music with Amery Smith as a member of the "BS2000" project.

Billy Bevan's show-business career began in his native Australia, with the Pollard theatrical organization. The company had two theater troupes, one which toured Asia and the other traveling to North America. Bevan wound up in the latter, performing in skits and plays all over Canada and Alaska then down into the continental US. While in a road company of the play "A Knight for a Day", Bevan was noticed by comedy pioneer Mack Sennett, who hired him on the spot. Bevan made many one- and two-reel shorts for Sennett over a ten-year period, and then transitioned into a reliable comic actor in many Hollywood comedies over the next 20 years or so (even doing voice-overs for cartoons). He made his last film in 1950, then retired. He died in Escondido, CA, in 1957.

Max Weinberg is the drummer of E Street Band, Bruce Springsteen's major band. His snare drum from the "Born In The USA" tour, "The Big Beat", is on display at the Hard Rock Cafe in NYC. Max started up his own record label and production company in 1990 called Hard Ticket Entertainment. He produced the albums by Killer Joe on this label. He recently released an album called "Let There Be Drums", a 3-CD collection of Max's favorite drum tracks from the 50s to the 70s. Max is the band leader for The Max Weinberg 7, on Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1993). He took a 5-month break from late night to tour with Bruce Springsteen & E Street Band. Max now resides in Middletown, New Jersey with his two kids and wife Becky.

Bradford English was born on 16 January 1942 in South Orange, New Jersey. He was an actor, known for Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995), Basic Instinct (1992) and Wolf (1994). He died on 25 October 2024 in Pasadena, California, USA.

Craig Kingsbury was born on 10 October 1912 in South Orange, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor, known for Jaws (1975), E! True Hollywood Story (1996) and Jaws: The 25th Anniversary Documentary (2015). He died on 30 August 2002 in Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts, USA.

Mark Furze was born on 7 May 1986 in Orange, New South Wales, Australia. He is an actor and writer, known for Home and Away (1988), Underbelly (2008) and Rebel (2012).

After graduating from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, Ben got his start in television production on such shows as Comedy Central's Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist, NBC's Saturday Night Live and Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and CBS' Late Show with David Letterman where, as Stupid Pet Trick Coordinator, Ben contributed a segment to the show's 1998 Emmy win (Dalmatian riding a tricycle via satellite from the Nagano Winter Olympics).

A long time sketch comedy performer and improvisor, Ben has studied with such accomplished performers as Upright Citizens Brigade founding members Amy Poehler and Matt Besser, Kids in the Hall founding member Kevin McDonald, and Patty Guggenheim, Roy Jenkins, and Lisa Schurga of The Groundlings, where he advanced to the level of Writing Lab.

In 2015, Ben created the web series Bad Shorts, which was nominated for a Writers Guild Award and featured as part of iO West's Annual Los Angeles Scripted Comedy Festival.

Ben has also written comedy for the likes of Martin Short, Robin Williams, Laraine Newman, Andrea Martin, Patton Oswalt, Marc Maron, Paul F. Tompkins and many more.

Scott McGregor was born on 22 October 1957 in Orange, New South Wales, Australia. He is an actor and producer, known for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (1995), Home and Away (1988) and 1915 (1982).

Molly Kazan was born on 16 December 1906 in South Orange, New Jersey, USA. She was a writer and actress, known for Drama 61-67 (1961), New York Television Theatre (1965) and Pie in the Sky (1935). She was married to Elia Kazan. She died on 14 December 1963 in Kips Bay, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.

Alan Cinis was born on 10 August 1960 in Orange, New South Wales, Australia. He is an actor, known for Peter Pan (2003), Dark City (1998) and A Few Best Men (2011).

Herbert Kretzmer was born on 5 October 1925 in Kroonstad, Orange Free State, South Africa. He was a writer, known for Les Misérables (2012), Les Misérables in Concert: The 25th Anniversary (2010) and Notting Hill (1999). He was married to Sybil Sever and Elisabeth Wilson. He died on 14 October 2020 in London, England, UK.

David Sikhosana was born 16 November 1990. He is a filmmaker, known for Total Recall (2010), Malach (2013), Inclination (2018), Alchemist (2016) & Contrivance (2019). He is a South African Business Magnet, Filmmaker, Musician and Philanthropist. Founder & CEO of two holding companies in entertainment and finance. He was born in Kroonstad, Free State South Africa to mother Lydia Munthali.

Rosamund Carr (nee Halsey) was born in South Orange, New Jersey in 1912. She married the explorer & film maker Kenneth Carr in 1942. They went to Belgian Congo in 1949 and after their divorce Rosamund settled in Mugongo, Rwanda to run a Plantation, growing flowers. In 1967 she first met Dian Fossey who became her close friend & confidant. In 1994 she was evacuated from Mugongo by Belgian Marines but returned a few days after the Genocide ended. She set up the Imbabazi Orphanage on the 17th December 1994. Since 1997, for security reasons, both Rosamund and the Imbabazi Orphanage relocated to Gisyeni. At the age of 92, she still looks after the day to day running of the Imbabazi Orphanage which looks after over 100 children. In December 2005 She returned to her home at Mugongo and the children of the Orphanage have also moved to a new building there. A documentary about her, "A Mother's Love: Rosamond Carr & a Lifetime in Rwanda" made by Standfast Productions Ltd., Directed by Eamonn Gearon and Photographed by Noel Donnellon is currently in production as of June 2005.

Stacey Kent was born on 27 March 1968 in South Orange, New Jersey, USA. She is an actress, known for Prime (2005), Richard III (1995) and Scene Stealers (2004). She has been married to Jim Tomlinson since 9 August 1991.

Shannon Noll was born on 16 September 1975 in Orange, New South Wales, Australia. He is an actor, known for Australian Idol (2003), Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj (2006) and Footy Legends (2006). He has been married to Rochelle Ogston since 2 October 2004. They have three children.

Zola Budd was born on 26 May 1966 in Bloemfontein, Orange Free State, South Africa. She has been married to Mike Pieterse since 15 April 1989. They have three children.

Jay Binder was born on 11 March 1951 in South Orange, New Jersey, USA. He was a casting director and writer, known for Dreamgirls (2006), I'll Fly Away (1991) and Chicago (2002). He died on 15 April 2022 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.

Hansie Cronje was born on 25 September 1969 in Bloemfontein, Orange Free State, South Africa. He died on 1 June 2002 in Craddock Peak, Western Cape, South Africa.

Described in his obituary in The Guardian as "one of the most evil men of the 20th century", P.W. Botha was Prime Minister of South Africa from 1978 until 1984 and State President from 1984 until 1989. Under his rule, South Africa was a pariah in the world, Botha continuing to defend the white rule system of apartheid in spite of international pressure and increasingly damaging sanctions imposed on the country. While he did make some concessions to reform of apartheid, such as legalizing mixed race sex and marriages in 1985, he proved a consistent obstacle to the release of Nelson Mandela, the world's most famous prisoner. In 1989, Botha was forced out of office and replaced by the more moderate F.W. de Klerk, who within a few months had released Mandela and begun negotiations to remove apartheid and give black people full political representation, which would ultimately lead to the first multi-racial elections in 1994.