Kevin Spacey

Kevin Spacey Fowler (July 26th, 1959 - ) is an Academy Award-winning actor who has been accused of sexually harassing and assaulting several men and boys, some as young as 14.

Spacey was born and raised in South Orange, New Jersey, the son of Thomas and Kathleen Fowler. He started using his grandmother's maiden name, Spacey, when he became an actor. According to his older brother, Randy Fowler, their father was physically and sexually abusive, and Spacey shut down emotionally to avoid whippings.

Spacey began acting in high school, and briefly studied theater at Juilliard. He began a successful career on Broadway in 1981, and won a Tony in 1991 for his performance in Lost in Yonkers. He then branched out to TV and film, specializing (ironically) in playing villains and psychopaths. He won a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award in 1996 for his performance as enigmatic criminal Verbal Kint in The Usual Suspects, and a Best Actor Academy Award in 2000 for his performance as Lester Burnham, a depressed suburban father who lusts after his teenage daughter's best friend, in American Beauty. From 2013-2017, he played corrupt politician Frank Underwood in the Netflix series House of Cards, for which he was critically acclaimed.

In October 2017, actor Anthony Rapp accused Spacey of sexually assaulting him in 1986, when he was 14. Spacey apologized on Twitter for "deeply inappropriate drunken behavior", and officially came out of the closet as a gay man after years of speculation and rumors about his sexuality. His statement was widely condemned as a cynical attempt to blame his behavior on alcohol, to use coming out of the closet as a way to change the subject from what he had allegedly done, and to draw an association between homosexuality and pedophilia.

In the following weeks, dozens of other men came forward accusing Spacey of sexually harassing and assaulting them, including one anonymous man who claimed that Spacey had molested and attempted to rape him in 1984, when the man was 14. The allegations of abuse reach back for more than 30 years. He was also accused of racism by the owner of a security company who worked on the set of House of Cards, who claimed that Spacey had gotten him fired because most of his employees were African-American. Spacey was fired from House of Cards, his upcoming movie Gore was shelved, he was removed from All the Money in the World and replaced by Christopher Plummer, and he was let go by his agent and talent agency. Spacey announced that was going to seek "evaluation and treatment" for his behavior.