Rise to Fame
The crippled con man Roger 'Verbal' Kint was the trick. Nobody forgets the end of The Usual Suspects, and playing the guy who pulled it off earned Spacey his first Oscar in 1995. He refused billing on Se7en that same year because putting his name in the credits would've spoiled the ending, which told you everything about how he approached the work. American Beauty delivered the second Oscar four years later. He was one of ten performers ever to win in both lead and supporting categories.
In the Spotlight
Two Oscars and a Netflix drama couldn't survive 2017. When Anthony Rapp alleged Spacey had made a sexual advance on him at 14, the industry moved fast. Netflix fired him from House of Cards mid-production. Ridley Scott reshot his entire role in All the Money in the World and replaced him with Christopher Plummer in nine days. A judge ordered Spacey and his companies to pay the show's producers nearly $31 million. A UK criminal trial in 2023 acquitted him on all nine counts. He's now doing small Italian TV roles and cabaret shows in Cyprus, living in hotels. The Hollywood comeback remains theoretical.
Side Notes
His real surname is Fowler. 'Spacey' came from his paternal grandmother's last name, which he borrowed because it sounded better. Val Kilmer was his high school classmate and talked him into attending Juilliard, which he left after two years for the New York Shakespeare Festival. A co-valedictorian who made it to two Oscars and then to cabaret shows in Cyprus is a particular kind of American story.