Beginning his career as a stage actor in the 1980s, Kevin Spacey obtained a stronghold in the entertainment industry and has added several careers in his resume, including actor, producer, and singer. His first roles in the film were in Mike Nichols’ Heartburn (1986) and Working Girl (1988). His other starring roles have included the comedy-drama film Swimming with Sharks (1994), psychological thriller Seven (1995), and more.
Kevin was born on 26 July 1959 in South Orange, New Jersey, as Kevin Spacey Fowler to Kathleen Ann (nee Knutson) and Thomas Geoffrey Fowler. He has two siblings; Randall Fowler and Julie Ann Fowler. He was named honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2010 and honorary Knight Commander (KBE) in 2015.
Accuser Dropped Sexual Assault Lawsuit Against Kevin Spacey
Kevin is set to have a $40 million civil lawsuit dismissed after his accuser, who alleged that the actor sexually assaulted him when he was 14 years old in the 1980s, refused to identify himself, according to the news that surfaced recently in May 2021.
During the first week of May 2021, a federal judge named Lewis A. Kaplan determined that the man, identified as C.D. in the court documents while alleging Spacey of sexual assault, was to reveal his identity publicly. The judge decided this since the public has a legitimate interest in knowing the identity of the man, noting in this case “that interest is magnified because C.D. has made his allegations against a public figure.”
However, the attorneys, Richard M. Steigman and Peter J. Saghir filed a letter to the Court in response to that matter in New York court informing the judge of the decision and agreed to dismiss the case as it pertains to C.D. The accuser’s attorneys said in this response that it only puts “sudden unwanted attention that revelation of his identity will cause is simply too much for him to bear.” They also agreed to the case as it pertains to their client being dismissed.
Timeline Of Sexual Assualt Allegations Over Kevin Spacey
According to the lawsuit, actor Anthony Rapp, who joined C.D. in the civil lawsuit against Spacey, alleged that Kevin made unwanted sexual advances on him when he was 14. The incident allegedly happened at the actor’s home in 1986. Rapp first made the allegations in 2017, prompting Spacey to apologize for what he admitted: “would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior.” Spacey added that he “honestly” did not “remember the encounter.”
But with the second half of his statement, Spacey made controversy when he came out to be a gay man. However, he prompted a torrent of accusations from the LGBTQ community for conflating alleged pedophilia with homosexuality.
Around the same time, actor Roberto Cavazos claims in his Facebook post that he had a “couple of unpleasant encounters” with Spacey when the two were both performing at the Old Vic, including allegedly being squeezed by Spacey in the Old Vic bar. Then, the theatre’s official set up a confidential reporting process for complaints about Spacey.
Kevin Spacey in Netflix Show House of Cards (©: Instagram/Kevin Spacey)
Beau Willimon, the creator of the hit Netflix show House of Cards in which Spacey worked, reacted to the statement with a tweet and suspended the production of the show’s season six and eventually threw him out of the show.
Moreover, the actor’s longtime talent agency, Creative Artists Agency also severed ties with Spacey. The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences also spoke out against Spacey at that time and canceled its plans to award the actor with the 2017 International Emmy Founders Award.
On 13 October 2017, former ABC Boston affiliate WCVB anchor Heather Unruh hinted at her allegations in a tweet and later held a conference on 8 November that year. She accused Spacey of groping her son at a Nantucket bar in 2016. Later, on January 7, 2019, Kevin was arraigned in a Nantucket courtroom on a sex assault charge for the alleged incident with Unruh’s son, in which he was pleaded not guilty to the charge through an attorney.
Following these allegations, Spacey was accused time and again by several other people. In an interview with ABC News’ Nightline, filmmaker Tony Montana accused Spacey of groping him in 2003 but never filed a police report.
On 16 November 2017, at least 20 young men over the age of 18 came forward at the London theater the Old Vic to report allegations of sexual misconduct by Spacey. The alleged incidents were reported for an investigation and revealed to have occurred between 1995 and 2013, with all but two occurring before 2009. The allegations include “a range of inappropriate behavior,” from actions that made people feel uncomfortable to “sexually inappropriate” touching. But Spacey is said to have not responded while being inquired in this investigation.
On 11 April 2018, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office announced that it was investigating a sexual assault allegation against Spacey from 1992. He was to face no charges citing the statute of limitations for the allegation on 4 September 2018.
On 22 August that same year, the office announced that its prosecutors were investigating a second sexual assault allegation against Spacey from 2016 in Malibu. He was sued civilly by a masseuse claiming to be assaulted.
On 24 December 2018, Spacey was charged with incident assault stemming from an alleged incident with a teenager on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, during the summer of 2016. During the case, Nantucket District Court Judge Thomas Barrett granted access by Spacey’s attorneys to six months of the alleged victim’s text messages following the alleged incident, and the surveillance video from the Club Car from 5 p.m. 7 July 2016, to 3 a.m.8 July according to the court records.
On 31 May 2019, defense attorneys for Spacey charged in a new court filing that the accuser deleted exculpatory text messages from the time surrounding his encounter with Spacey before turning over screenshots of text exchanges to the police along with charging the district attorney’s office of it. And the court notified that the accuser’s cell phone has gone missing, in which case, the judge ordered, should it not be located by 8 July 2019, the accuser and his family appear in court on 8 July to testify about its whereabouts.
On 27 June 2019, the key witness in the criminal sexual assault case against Spacey filed a civil lawsuit against the actor, claiming that because of the alleged groping at the Club Car, he has “suffered, and will continue to suffer in the future severe mental distress and emotional injuries.” On 5 July 2019, the accuser drops his civil lawsuit against the actor.
On 8 July 2019, testifying from the witness stand for the allegations in the Nantucket Island, the accuser acknowledged that he did not report the alleged assault to police for 15 months, in October 2017, rather than the three months prosecutors had been contending since filing charges against the actor in January. Spacey’s lead defense attorney demanded the judge dismiss the case, but the judge agreed to give the assistant district attorney on the case time to confer with his office.
And later, on 17 July 2019, Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe announced in a statement that his office was dropping the charge against Spacey, ending the criminal case against the actor.
Kevin Spacey Is A Gay
On the advancement of the allegation case by actor Anthony Rapp, Kevin tweeted that he is a gay man. He tweeted after Rapp’s accusation saying that he was “horrified” to hear this story and apologized, and went on to say that the situation “encouraged me to address other things about my life. As those closest to me know, I have had relationships with both men and women. I have loved and had romantic encounters with men throughout my life, and I choose now to live as a gay man.”
This statement was made as a criticism by the LGBTQ community for not being a valid reason to assault a minor sexually. “Kevin Spacey really tried to throw the entire LGBT community under a bus and call it solidarity in an effort to mask his personal failings,” wrote civil rights activist DeRay Mckesson on Twitter. And he was continuously slammed with lots of hatred by the community for his activity done against Rapp.
After receiving such backlashes against himself even though he stated himself as a gay man, several articles were released in response to this matter. Spacey was trying to hide “behind gayness” for saving himself from the accusations of sexual assault.
After facing a series of accusations for a span of months, he was not spotted in public until he was reported to be seen first time in months as he cycled around London wearing a wedding ring.
Spacey is not known to be in a relationship, having remained cagey about his sexual orientation for years, until allegations from Rapp forced him to come out as gay in 2017. Though he was spotted wearing a ring on his finger, he has never been married and is known for his lack of a romantic partner throughout his years in the limelight.
Spacey starred in the Netflix series House of Cards as a devious politician Frank Underwood and Robin Wright as his wife, Claire Underwood.
In a July 2018’s interview with Wright in CNN, she broke the silence, saying that they were more co-workers than friends. During the time of the outbreak of the accusation news, the whole cast and crews of House of Cards “were all surprised, of course, and ultimately saddened.” Wright said that she and Spacey were “respectful” and “professional” with each other, but she added that she has not spoken with him since the scandal broke and wouldn’t even know how to reach him. However, any news of contact between Spacey and Wright after this statement was not heard of.
Net Worth Of Kevin Spacey, And His Career
Though Kevin remains a sexual assaulter and has drawn much attention by being accused of sexual assaults several times, he still has put his efforts in his professional career to garner a very high sum of wealth. Kevin Spacey has an estimated net worth of $100 million as of 2021.
Spacey earned about $500k per House of Cards episode while playing his role as Frank Underwood in the show. He also earned about $100k in his gig acting for MasterClass. Other earnings include his typical $2 million salaries for mid-range films and $5 million for higher-profile movies.
During his time in House of Cards, the streaming giant Netflix spent $39 million on the content that included Spacey until the ending of the show, plus money spent on the Gore, which was the Gore Vidal project. However, the pre-determined plan was disrupted when Spacey was accused of sexual assault, which made him be thrown out of the show, and Gore was no longer to be released. And most of his endorsement deals are found to be dead.
Kevin began his career as an actor when he had his first professional stage appearance in Henry VI, Part 1, in 1981. Over the next few years, he grew in prominence as a stage actor and was very popular for his acting skills, and finally went on to venture into film and television.
61 years old actor got his first breakthrough playing a robber in the Nora Ephron-inspired film, Heartburn. He also made a creepy appearance as an overly handsy Wall Street executive in Working Girl.
He continued to grow his fame around Hollywood and went on to play his role in American Beauty, which thrust him into the mainstream. His portrayal as misguided father and husband Lester Burnham earned the actor an Academy Award for Best Actor. And while Spacey continued to work in both film and television steadily, it was his groundbreaking role as Frank Underwood in Netflix’s House of Cards that solidified him a megastar.
He has a trademark for often playing cold-blooded and sadistic characters in his work.
For his overall performances throughout his career, he has won 57 awards and earned 97 nominations for his work in his professional career. Two of the wins among the 57 awards include Oscars; an Oscar in 2000 for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his role in American Beauty (1999), and Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his role in The Usual Suspects (1995).