American actor and director Kevin Spacey was BOTD in 1959. Born in South Orange, New Jersey, he had a nomadic childhood, eventually settling in southern California. He studied acting at the Juilliard School in New City, making his Broadway debut in 1982. After turning heads in David Rabe’s Hurlyburly and a 1985 revival of Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night, filmmaker Mike Nichols cast him in small roles in the comedy films Heartburn and Working Girl. Progressing to leading man roles, he won a Tony Award in 1991 for the play Lost in Yonkers. He rose to wider public attention with scene-stealing roles as charismatic villains in 1990s cult films Glengarry Glen Ross, Swimming with Sharks and Se7en, and won an Oscar for his role as a virtuoso con artist in the 1995 noir thriller The Usual Suspects. He won a second Oscar in 2000 as the sardonic anti-hero of the angst-in-suburbia comedy American Beauty. A critical and commercial success, the film also won Oscars for best picture, director and for Alan Ball‘s screenplay. Spacey’s skill at playing charismatic, morally ambiguous characters was matched by his refusal to discuss his personal life or respond to rumours that he was gay. In 2003, he relocated to London to become artistic director of the Old Vic Theatre, attempting to become an actor-manager in the footsteps of the theatre’s co-founder Laurence Olivier. Applauded for his acting appearances, including Shakespeare‘s Richard II and Richard III and O’Neill’s A Moon for the Misbegotten, he was less successful at nurturing productions not featuring him as the star. A much-vaunted 2006 production of Arthur Miller’s play Resurrection Blues, directed by filmmaker Robert Altman and with a star-studded cast, attracted savage reviews and closed early, resulting in the theatre going dark for three months. Rumours about his sexuality circulated for most of his tenure in London, exacerbated by a bizarre incident in 2004 where Spacey reported being mugged while walking his dog late at night, only to withdraw the complaint the following day. Spacey stepped down from the Old Vic in 2015, receiving an honorary Olivier Award and an honorary knighthood. He had a major career revival as a devious politician in Netflix’s 2017 political drama House of Cards, winning him multiple Emmy and Golden Globe awards. His career imploded spectacularly in 2017 when English actor Anthony Rapp accused Spacey of molesting him when he was 14. Spacey made a public apology, announcing in the same breath that he was gay, drawing widespread criticism for using coming out as a smokescreen for sexual abuse accusations. He was promptly dropped from the fourth season of House of Cards, and his role in the film All the Money in the World was reshot with Christopher Plummer. Following Rapp’s statement, fifteen other complaints of sexual abuse were made against Spacey. In 2022, a US court dismissed a sexual assault lawsuit against him, though he returned to London in 2023 for a criminal trial for four charges of assault. Acquitted on all charges, he attempted to revive his career with roles in low-budget independent films Control and Once Upon a Time in Croatia. In 2024, he sold his £3 million apartment in London, citing financial difficulties, and fought an extended battle to avoid eviction from his Baltimore home. Still a persona non grata in the film industry, his current relationship status is unknown.