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Scott Rudin (born July 14, 1958) is an American film producer and a theatrical producer. In 2012, Rudin became one of the few people who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award, the first producer to do so.

Early life and work[link]

Scott Rudin was born in New York City, NY, on July 14, 1958, and raised in a Jewish family^[1] in the town of Baldwin on Long Island. At the age of sixteen, he started working as an assistant to theatre producer Kermit Bloomgarden. Later, he worked for producers Robert Whitehead and Emanuel Azenberg. In lieu of attending college, Rudin took a job as a casting agent and ended up starting his own company. His newly minted firm cast numerous Broadway shows, including Annie (1977) for Mike Nichols. He also cast PBS's Verna: USO Girl (1978), starring Sissy Spacek and William Hurt, and the films King of the Gypsies (1978), The Wanderers (1979), Simon (1980) with Alan Arkin and Resurrection (1980).^[2] Rudin is openly homosexual.^[3]

Career[link]

Producer[link]

In 1980, Rudin moved to Los Angeles, taking up employment at Edgar J. Scherick Associates, where he served as producer on a variety of films including I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can (1981), the NBC miniseries Little Gloria... Happy at Last (1982) and the Oscar-winning documentary He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin' (1983).^[2]

After his stint at Edgar J. Sherick Associates, Rudin formed his own outfit, Scott Rudin Productions. His first film under that banner was Gillian Armstrong's Mrs. Soffel (1984). But, not long after, Rudin placed his production shingle in dormancy and joined 20th Century-Fox as an executive producer. At Fox, he met Jonathan Dolgen, a higher-level executive, with whom he would be working once again at Paramount Pictures years later. Rudin swiftly rose through the ranks at Fox and became president of production by 1986 at the age of 29.^[2] His stint at the top of Fox was short lived though, and he soon left and entered into a producing deal with Paramount.

Paramount and Tri-Star[link]

On August 1, 1992, at the age of 34, Rudin signed a deal with Tri-Star Pictures but soon moved back to Paramount. Rudin's first look deal with Paramount Pictures lasted nearly fifteen years, ending in 2005.

After the resignation of Paramount's chairwoman, Sherry Lansing in 2004, and nearly simultaneous departure of Jonathan Dolgen (then president of the company), Rudin left the studio and set a five-year first-look pact with Disney that allowed him to make movies under their labels Touchstone Pictures, Walt Disney Pictures, Hollywood Pictures and Miramax Films. Since Harvey and Bob Weinstein had left Miramax, the company they founded in 1979, Rudin felt he would be free at Disney to utilize its resources. Laura M. Holson of The New York Times wrote on April 21, 2005: "Rudin is likely to fill the gap [left by the departure of Harvey and Bob Weinstein] by providing the sort of high-quality, offbeat art films that Disney has struggled to create on its own."^[4]

When the Weinsteins were running Miramax and its sister label Dimension Films, however, Harvey Weinstein and Rudin, two of the hottest heads on Hollywood, had public confrontations during the production of The Hours (2002), which Rudin produced for Miramax Films after it became a "mini-major" studio subsidiary under Disney.

Rudin said, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, "There is one shop in town [Miramax] that is making challenging movies. I think it's incredible that he [Weinstein] has found a way to run a business making these kind of movies." However, "we are both control freaks. We both want to run our own shows. When I'm doing a Miramax movie, I work for him. And I don't like that feeling. I chafe under that. I especially chafe under it when I feel that I'm on a leash."^[5]

Filmography[link]

Over the years, Rudin has produced a diverse array of films, ranging from widely distributed arthouse fare to mainstream Hollywood features. He has been responsible for films by Jack Hofsiss (I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can starring Jill Clayburgh); John Schlesinger (Pacific Heights starring Melanie Griffith, Michael Keaton and Matthew Modine); Mike Nichols (Regarding Henry starring Harrison Ford and Annette Bening); and first-time directors Jodie Foster (Little Man Tate starring Foster, Diane Wiest and Adam Hann-Byrd); and Barry Sonnenfeld (The Addams Family starring Raúl Juliá, Anjelica Huston, Christopher Lloyd and Christina Ricci). Sonnenfeld's The Addams Family became a major franchise, and Emile Ardolino's hit Sister Act with Whoopi Goldberg and Maggie Smith spawned a sequel.

Rudin had a string of box-office failures in the early nineties, highlighted by White Sands (1992, with Willem Dafoe and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), Jennifer 8 (1992, with Andy García and Uma Thurman) and Life with Mikey (1993). All three movies struggled among that year's competitive summer slate. However, Rudin was soon redeemed by the star-studded legal thriller The Firm (1993), which was his most profitable movie to date with a $270,248,367 worldwide gross, and Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993), which garnered critical acclaim. Surprisingly, shortly before Bobby Fischer was released, Fischer himself, the renowned young chess prodigy, popped out of hiding in Yugoslavia after 20 years in seclusion. At the time, Rudin was quoted by Army Archerd of Variety as saying, "I'm not concerned [about the reemergence of Fischer]. It can only be good, to help publicize the picture... He [Fischer] is never seen in the movie—he never appears."^[6]

Subsequently, Rudin oversaw production of the romantic comedy I.Q. (1994), starring Meg Ryan and Tim Robbins; the Paul Newman film Nobody's Fool (1994); the dark horse hit Clueless (1995), a breakout movie for Alicia Silverstone; and Sydney Pollack's remake, Sabrina (1995). In 1996, he produced The First Wives Club, a hit comedy starring Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton. Keaton was also in Albert Brooks' Mother (1996, with Debbie Reynolds) and alongside Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro in Marvin's Room (1996), a film that also featured a young Leonardo DiCaprio playing an emotionally disturbed boy. Both were produced by Rudin. Later in '96, Rudin teamed with producer Brian Grazer on Ron Howard's Ransom, which starred Mel Gibson, Rene Russo and Gary Sinise.^[2] Grazer had to get an exemption from his deal at Universal Pictures to join Rudin on that project, which has been the only movie the two powerhouse producers have worked on together.^[7]

Along with Robert Redford, Rudin also co-produced Steven Zaillian's adaptation of Jonathan Harr's non-fiction book A Civil Action (1998), starring John Travolta and Robert Duvall. In the movie, the two stars play opposing lawyers, who represent the residents of Woburn, Mass., on the one hand, and the multi-million dollar corporations, Beatrice Foods and Grace Industries, on the other. The film dramatizes events of the lawsuit, which produced the largest environmental out-of-court settlement in Massachusetts history, at a total of $69.4 million.

Through the nineties, Rudin was a prolific producer, putting together movies that include the following: In & Out (1997), starring Kevin Kline; the hit movie, The Truman Show (1998), with Jim Carrey; the Matt Stone and Trey Parker-developed movies, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999) and Team America: World Police (2004); Martin Scorsese's Bringing Out the Dead (1999); Sleepy Hollow (1999), with Johnny Depp; Wonder Boys (2000), starring Michael Douglas and Tobey Maguire, based on the award-winning novel by Michael Chabon; Shaft (2000), the remake with Samuel L. Jackson; the hit comedy, Zoolander (2001), starring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson; three of Wes Anderson's arthouse, ensemble-cast hits The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), and The Darjeeling Limited (2007); the well-received Jack Black starrer School of Rock (2003); Orange County (2002) written by School of Rock writer, Mike White; The Manchurian Candidate (2004) with Meryl Streep, Denzel Washington and Liev Schreiber; Richard Eyre's Iris (2001), starring Judi Dench and Jim Broadbent, the latter of whom won an Oscar for his supporting role in the film; The Stepford Wives (2004), starring Nicole Kidman, Matthew Broderick, Glenn Close, Christopher Walken and Bette Middler; M. Night Shyamalan's The Village (2004), with Bryce Dallas Howard, Joaquin Phoenix, Adrien Brody, William Hurt and Sigourney Weaver; David O. Russell's I Heart Huckabees (2004), with Jason Schwartzman, Jude Law, Dustin Hoffman, Mark Wahlberg and Naomi Watts ; Mike Nichols' Closer (2004), starring Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Clive Owen and Julia Roberts; Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004), starring Jim Carey, Jude Law and Meryl Streep (2004); Freedomland (2006), with Samuel L. Jackson; and Failure to Launch (2006), starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew McConaughey; among many others.

His most recent films include 2006's Notes on a Scandal, starring Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench and based on the best-selling book What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal; Venus, starring Peter O'Toole; and The Queen, starring Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II, a role that won her an Oscar for Best Actress. O'Toole and Dench were also nominated for Oscars in the 2006–2007 season for their leading roles in their respective films. Only Mirren won. Notes on a Scandal received three other Oscar nominations: Blanchett for supporting role, Patrick Marber for Best Adapted Screenplay and Philip Glass Academy Award for Best Original Score. Most notably, The Queen was nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, along with Stephen Frears for Best Director, and Peter Morgan for Best Original Screenplay. He will possibly take part in Paramount Pictures' 2009 musical remake of Footloose starring Kenny Wormaid, Julianne Hough, and Dennis Quaid.

In 2007, Rudin produced Margot at the Wedding, a tragicomedy about a dysfunctional family starring Nicole Kidman, Jack Black and Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited.

Rudin developed adaptations of the novels The Corrections, Special Topics in Calamity Physics, the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, and Blood Meridian. He recently produced the following projects, among many others: The Other Boleyn Girl, based on the best-selling novel of the same name and starring Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson and Eric Bana; Kenneth Lonergan's Margaret, with Anna Paquin; Wes Anderson's picture, Fantastic Mr. Fox based on the Roald Dahl book of the same name and starring George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, and Jason Schwartzman; The David Fincher-directed screenplay by Aaron Sorkin about the formation of Facebook, The Social Network, and in development is David Gordon Green's The Goat; an untitled Alan Ball project.

Rudin is also currently in the early production stages of an adaptation of the upcoming Ben Mezrich book Sex on the Moon, which follows the true story of NASA interns Thad Roberts and Tiffany Fowler as they scheme to steal and make love among a collection of lunar rocks locked away in the Houston Space Center in 2002. The book is set for publishing in February 2011.^[8]

Honors[link]

In January 2008, two of Rudin's productions—the Coen brothers' No Country for Old Men, which they adapted from the Cormac McCarthy book of the same name, and Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood, which was adapted from the Upton Sinclair novel, Oil! – were nominated for eight Oscars apiece at the 2008 Academy Awards, including a Best Picture nod for each of them. The two films shared the distinction of being the most nominated movie at that years' Oscar ceremony. Ultimately, No Country for Old Men won the Best Picture prize.

At the 2011 Producers Guild of America (PGA) Awards, Scott Rudin became the only person ever to be nominated twice in one year.^[9] He was nominated (along with Dana Brunetti, Ceán Chaffin and Michael De Luca) for producing the Facebook biopic The Social Network and was also nominated (along with Joel and Ethan Coen) for their remake of the classic western True Grit (2010). That same year, the PGA also awarded Rudin the David O. Selznick Achievement Award in Motion Pictures which recognizes an individual's outstanding body of work in the field of motion picture production.^[10]

Theatre[link]

Rudin also continues to produce for the theatre. He co-produced the unsuccessful staging of David Henry Hwang's Face Value with Stuart Ostrow and Jujamcyn Theaters. He started a deal with Jujamcyn to develop and produce new plays for the theater chain. In 1994, Rudin won Best Musical Tony Award for his production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Passion. The following year, he, along with others, produced Kathleen Turner's Broadway comeback, Indiscretions, and Ralph Fiennes New York theatre debut in Hamlet. In 1996, Rudin produced the revival of the Stephen Sondheim and Larry Gelbart musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, which starred Nathan Lane, Ernie Sabella and Mark Linn-Baker.

He also produced The Goat or Who Is Sylvia?, Seven Guitars, The Ride Down Mt. Morgan, Copenhagen, Deuce, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The History Boys, Beckett/Albee, Closer, The Blue Room, and Doubt. In 2010, he co-produced, along with Carole Shorenstein Hays, the Broadway revival of August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Fences, starring Denzel Washington and Viola Davis, which garnered ten Tony Award nominations and three wins, including Best Revival of a Play. He has won five Tonys and five Drama Desk Awards for his productions.

Rudin is currently the lead producer for the Broadway musical The Book of Mormon, which opened in March 2011 at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre and won nine Tony Awards including best musical.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Scott Rudin at the Internet Movie Database
• Scott Rudin Productions at the Internet Movie Database
• Scott Rudin at the Internet Broadway Database
• More Out Power Brokers, The Advocate, Sept. 30, 2003

Kevin Spacey
Spacey in April 2009
Born	Kevin Spacey Fowler (1959-07-26) July 26, 1959 (age 52) South Orange, New Jersey, United States
Occupation	Actor, director, producer, screenwriter
Years active	1981–present

Kevin Spacey, CBE (born Kevin Spacey Fowler; July 26, 1959) is an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and crooner. He grew up in California, and began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s, before being cast in supporting roles in film and television. He gained critical acclaim in the early 1990s, culminating in his first Academy Award for The Usual Suspects (Best Supporting Actor), followed by a Best Actor Academy Award win for American Beauty (1999). His other starring roles in Hollywood include Seven, L.A. Confidential, Pay It Forward, K-PAX, and Superman Returns in a career which has earned him several Emmy and Golden Globe nominations. Since 2003, he has been artistic director of the Old Vic theatre in London.

Early life[link]

Spacey was born in South Orange, New Jersey, the son of Kathleen Ann (née Knutson; December 5, 1931 – March 19, 2003), a secretary, and Thomas Geoffrey Fowler (June 4, 1924 – December 24, 1992), a technical writer and data consultant.^[1][2][3] He has two older siblings: a sister, Julie, and a brother, Randy. He attended Northridge Military Academy, Canoga Park High School (in tenth and eleventh grades), and then Chatsworth High School in Chatsworth, Los Angeles, where he graduated valedictorian of his class.^[4][5] At Chatsworth High, he starred in the school's senior production of The Sound of Music, playing the part of Captain Georg von Trapp, opposite Mare Winningham's character, Maria.

While in high school, he took on his paternal grandmother's maiden name, "Spacey", originally a Yorkshire name, as his acting surname.^[3][6] Several reports have incorrectly suggested that he took his name in tribute to actor Spencer Tracy, combining Tracy's first and last names.^[6] He had tried to succeed as a comedian for several years, before attending the Juilliard School in New York City, where he studied drama,^[7] between 1979 and 1981. During this time period, Spacey performed stand-up comedy in bowling alley talent contests.^[8]

Career[link]

Spacey's first professional stage appearance was as a spear-carrier in a New York Shakespeare Festival performance of Henry VI, part 1 in 1981. The following year, he made his first Broadway appearance, as Oswald in a production of Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts, starring Liv Ullmann. Then he portrayed Philinte in Molière's The Misanthrope. In 1984, it was David Rabe's Hurlyburly, where he rotated through each of the male parts (he would later play Mickey in the film version). Next came Anton Chekhov's The Seagull and a period, in 1986, performing Sleuth in a New Jersey dinner theatre.

His prominence as a stage actor began in 1986, when he was cast opposite Jack Lemmon, Peter Gallagher and Bethel Leslie as Jamie, the eldest Tyrone son in Jonathan Miller's lauded production of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night. Lemmon in particular would become a mentor to Spacey.^[9] He made his first major television appearance in the second season premiere of Crime Story, playing a Kennedy-esque American senator. Although his interest soon turned to film, Spacey remained actively involved in the live theater community. In 1991, he won a Tony Award for his portrayal of "Uncle Louie" in Neil Simon's Broadway hit Lost in Yonkers. Spacey's father was unconvinced that Spacey could make a career for himself as an actor, and did not change his mind until Spacey became well-known.^[8]

Some of Spacey's early roles include a widowed eccentric millionaire on L.A. Law, the made-for-television film The Murder of Mary Phagan (1988), opposite Lemmon, and the Richard Pryor/Gene Wilder–starring comedy See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989). Spacey earned a fan base following after playing the criminally insane arms dealer Mel Profitt on the television series Wiseguy. He quickly developed a reputation as a character actor, and was cast in bigger roles, including one-half of the bickering Connecticut couple in the dark comedy The Ref (1994), a malicious Hollywood studio boss in the satire Swimming with Sharks, and the malevolent office manager in the all-star ensemble film Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), gaining him positive notices by critics. His performance as the enigmatic criminal Verbal Kint in The Usual Suspects won him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.^[7]

Spacey appeared in the 1995 thriller film Seven, with Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman, making a sudden entrance late in the film as the serial killer John Doe, after going unmentioned in the film's advertisements and opening credits. His work in Seven, The Usual Suspects, and Outbreak earned him Best Supporting Actor honors at the 1995 Society of Texas Film Critics Awards.^[10][11]

Spacey played an egomaniacal district attorney in A Time to Kill (1996), and founded Trigger Street Productions in 1997, with the purpose of producing and developing entertainment across various media. He made his directorial debut with the film Albino Alligator (1996). The film was a failure at the box office, grossing $339,379 with a budget of $6 million, but critics praised Spacey's direction. He also did voice work in Pixar's A Bug's Life (1998) voicing the main antagonist Hopper, the leader of a vicious gang of grasshoppers.

Spacey won universal praise and a Best Actor Oscar for his role as a depressed suburban father who re-evaluates his life in 1999's American Beauty;^[7] the same year, he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Spacey also earned another Tony nomination the same year, for his work in a Broadway production of The Iceman Cometh. During the several years following American Beauty's release, Spacey appeared in films that he believes^{[citation needed]} hadn't done as well critically or in terms of box office. In 2001, Spacey co-hosted, with Judi Dench, the Unite for the Future Gala, a UK fundraiser for the British Victims of 9/11 and Médecins Sans Frontières at London's Old Vic Theatre, produced by Harvey Goldsmith and Dominic Madden.

He played a physically and emotionally scarred grade school teacher in Pay It Forward (2000), a patient in a mental institution who may or may not be an alien in K-Pax (2001), and singer Bobby Darin in Beyond the Sea (2004). Beyond The Sea was a lifelong dream project for Spacey, who took on co-writing, directing, co-producing and starring duties in the biography/musical about Darin's life, career, and relationship with actress Sandra Dee. Facing little interest for backing in the States, Spacey went to the UK and Germany for funding. Almost all of the movie was filmed in Berlin.^[9] Spacey provided his own vocals on the Beyond the Sea soundtrack and appeared in several tribute concerts around the time of the film's release. He received mostly positive reviews for his singing, as well as a Golden Globe nomination for his performance. However, reviewers criticized the age disparity between Spacey and Darin, noting that Spacey was too old to convincingly portray Darin, particularly during the early stages of the singer's life depicted in the film.

Spacey hosted Saturday Night Live twice: first in 1997 with musical guest Beck and special guests Michael Palin and John Cleese from Monty Python's Flying Circus; and again in the last episode of season 31 with musical guest Nelly Furtado.

Spacey at HBO Post Emmys Party, 2008

In 2006, Spacey played Lex Luthor in the Bryan Singer–directed superhero film, Superman Returns. He was to return for its 2009 sequel, but it was recently revealed that there won't be a chronological sequel; it is currently unknown if he has been asked to resume the role in any future films. Spacey also appeared in Edison, co-starring Morgan Freeman and Justin Timberlake; Edison received a direct-to-video release on July 18, 2006. In 2008, he played an MIT lecturer in the film 21, along with Kate Bosworth, Laurence Fishburne, and Jim Sturgess. The film is based on Ben Mezrich's best seller, Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, a story of student MIT card-counters who used mathematical probability to aid them in card games such as blackjack.

Spacey is well known in Hollywood for his impressions as when he appeared on Inside the Actors Studio he imitated, at host James Lipton's request: James Stewart, Johnny Carson, Katharine Hepburn, Clint Eastwood, John Gielgud, Marlon Brando, Christopher Walken, Al Pacino and Jack Lemmon.^[12]

Capitol/EMI's album Forever Cool (2007) features two duets with Spacey and the voice of the late Dean Martin: "Ain't That a Kick in the Head" and "King of the Road."

Spacey sits on the Board of Directors of the Motion Picture and Television Fund.^[13]

The Old Vic[link]

In February 2003, Spacey announced that he was returning to London to become the artistic director of the Old Vic, one of the city's oldest theatres.^[14] Appearing at a press conference with Judi Dench and Elton John, he promised both to appear on stage and to bring in big-name talent.^[15] Spacey undertook to remain in the post for a full ten years. The Old Vic Theatre Company, in its current form, stages shows eight months out of the year. Spacey's first season started in September 2004, and opened with the British premiere of the play Cloaca by Maria Goos, directed by Spacey, which opened to mixed reviews.^[16] In the 2005 season, Spacey made his UK Shakespearean debut, to good notices, in the title role of Richard II directed by Trevor Nunn.^[16]

In mid-2006, Spacey felt he was having the time of his life working at the Old Vic. At this point in his career, he was "trying to do things now that are much bigger and outside himself".^[17] He performed in productions of National Anthems by Dennis McIntyre, and The Philadelphia Story by Philip Barry in which he played C. K. Dexter Haven, the Cary Grant role in the film version. Critics applauded Spacey's daring for taking on the management of a theatre, but noted that while his acting was impressive, his skills and judgment as a producer/manager had yet to develop.^{[citation needed]}

In the 2006 season, Spacey suffered a major setback with a production of Arthur Miller's Resurrection Blues, directed by Robert Altman.^[18] Despite an all-star cast (including Neve Campbell and Matthew Modine) and the pedigree of Miller's script, Spacey's decision to lure Altman to the stage proved disastrous: after a fraught rehearsal period, the play opened to a critical panning, and closed after only a few weeks.^[17] Later in the year, Spacey starred in Eugene O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten, along with Colm Meaney and Eve Best. The play received excellent reviews for Spacey and Best, and was transferred to Broadway in 2007. For the spring part of the 2007–08 season, Jeff Goldblum and Laura Michelle Kelly joined Spacey as the three characters in David Mamet's 1988 play Speed-the-Plow.^[19]

In January 2009, he directed the premiere of Joe Sutton's Complicit, with Richard Dreyfuss, David Suchet and Elizabeth McGovern.

In September, 2009, Trevor Nunn directed Spacey in a revival of Inherit The Wind. Based on a true story of a teacher arrested for teaching his students evolution also known as the "Scopes Monkey Trial," Spacey played defense lawyer Henry Drummond, a role that was made famous by actor Spencer Tracy in the 1960 film of the same name.

In June 2011, Sam Mendes directed Spacey in a Shakespeare's Richard III. The production will mount a worldwide tour for the rest of 2011 culminating in New York in early 2012.^[20]

Other honors[link]

Spacey was awarded a Doctor of Letters, honoris causa from the London South Bank University in November 2005.^[21]

In June 2008, he was appointed as Cameron Mackintosh Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre at St Catherine's College, Oxford, succeeding Patrick Stewart in the post. He was officially welcomed on October 13, 2008.^[22]

On November 3, 2010 he was invested as an honorary CBE by Prince Charles at Clarence House, on behalf of the Queen, for services to drama.^[23]

Personal life[link]

This section may require copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone, or spelling. You can assist by editing it. (March 2012)

In September 2006, Spacey announced his intention to stay on at the Old Vic for at least another nine years, and that due to his continuing UK residency he intends to take up British citizenship when it becomes available to him.^[24]

Spacey is a staunch Democrat and a friend of former US President Bill Clinton, having met Clinton before his presidency began. Spacey has described Clinton as "one of the shining lights" of the political process.^[8] According to Federal Election Commission data, Spacey has contributed US$42,000 to Democratic candidates and committees.^[25] He additionally made a cameo appearance in President Clinton: Final Days, a light-hearted political satire produced by the Clinton administration for the White House Correspondents Dinner.^[26]

In September 2007, Spacey met Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez. Neither spoke to the press about their encounter but hours later the actor visited the government-funded movie studio, Villa del Cine (Cinema City).^[27] In December of that year he co-hosted the Nobel Peace Prize Concert with Uma Thurman.^[28]

Spacey has never married and staunchly protects his private life.^[29] This has generated rumors regarding his sexual orientation. He has stated that he is not gay in the October 1999 issue of Playboy,^[30] in The Sunday Times Magazine (December 19, 1999)^[31] and in the May 2007 issue of Gotham Magazine.^[32]

Voice actress April Winchell revealed in broadcasts of her KFI show, on her web diary and several other websites that she and Spacey dated for a while after high school during a run of the musical Gypsy and later went to New York together.^[33][34] Between 1992 and 2000, Spacey reportedly discreetly dated Dianne Dreyer,^[32][35][36] script supervisor to Anthony Minghella, M. Night Shyamalan and Sydney Pollack.^[37]

In March 2011, following Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko's crackdown on the Belarusian democracy movement, Spacey, along with Jude Law and others, joined street protests against Lukashenko. Spacey stated: "...they will never be able to ban the Belarus people's right to fight for their freedom and their voices to be heard, and that's what this protest is about."^[38]

Filmography[link]

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Singles[link]

Live performances[link]

• "Mind Games" — Come Together: A Night for John Lennon's Words and Music — October 2, 2001 — Radio City Music Hall

Curiosities[link]

In year 2011 the italian rapper Caparezza dedicates a song to the actor, named "Kevin Spacey," included in his album Il sogno eretico. The song has been playing on Italian and Swiss radios since January 27, 2012.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kevin Spacey

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Kevin Spacey

• Kevin Spacey at the Internet Broadway Database
• Kevin Spacey at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Kevin Spacey at the Internet Movie Database
• Interview with Kevin Spacey from April 2007
• Kevin Spacey interview in the UK Independent on Sunday

This article focuses too much on specific examples, without clearly discussing its abstract general subject. Please help by consulting secondary sources for general statements made about the subject and improving this article by adding more general information. The talk page may contain suggestions. (August 2011)

Wes Anderson
Anderson in Berlin, 2005
Born	Wesley Wales Mortimer Anderson (1969-05-01) May 1, 1969 (age 43) Houston, Texas, United States
Nationality	American
Alma mater	University of Texas at Austin
Occupation	Director, Screenwriter, Producer, Actor
Years active	1994–present
Influenced by	François Truffaut, Satyajit Ray, Hal Ashby[1][2]

Wesley Wales Mortimer "Wes" Anderson (born May 1, 1969)^[3][4][5][6] is an American film director, screenwriter, actor, and producer of features, short films and commercials. He was nominated for a 2001 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Royal Tenenbaums and a 2010 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for Fantastic Mr. Fox. His films employ similar aesthetics, using a deliberate, methodical cinematography, with mostly primary colors. His soundtracks feature folk and early rock music, in particular classic British rock. Anderson's films combine dry humor with poignant portrayals of flawed characters – often a mix of the wealthy and the working class. He is also known for working with many of the same actors and crew on varying projects.

Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom opened the Cannes Film Festival 2012.^[7]

Early life[link]

This section requires expansion.

Wesley Wales Mortimer Anderson was born on May 1, 1969 in Houston, Texas.^[8] His father, Melver Anderson, ran an advertising and public relations company, and his mother, Texas Anne Burroughs, was an archaeologist who later became a real estate agent. Anderson grew up with his two brothers, Eric and Mel, but their parents divorced when Anderson was only eight. Anderson would later describe the divorce as "the most crucial event of my brothers and my growing up." This situation gave him the premise for The Royal Tenenbaums's story.^[9] As a child, the young Anderson directed many Super 8 movies starring himself and his brothers. He went to Westchester High School and St. John's School, a private school in Houston featured in Anderson's film Rushmore. There he wrote and directed many plays for the school's theater. After graduating from St. John's, Wes Anderson attended the University of Texas at Austin. There he met Owen Wilson, who became an essential writing partner and cast member in Anderson's filmography. Anderson and Wilson met during a playwriting class and became roommates. Then they worked on a script for a full-length movie called Bottle Rocket. Anderson earned his B.A. in philosophy in 1991 and released the short film version of Bottle Rocket in 1992. ^[10]

Film career[link]

Anderson's films feature many of the same actors, crew members, and other collaborators. For example, the Wilson brothers (Owen, Luke, and Andrew), Bill Murray,^[11] Willem Dafoe, Seymour Cassel, Anjelica Huston, Jason Schwartzman, Kumar Pallana and son Dipak Pallana, Stephen Dignan and Brian Tenenbaum, and Eric Chase Anderson (Anderson's brother). Other frequent collaborators include writer Noah Baumbach (who co-wrote The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and Fantastic Mr. Fox, with Anderson co-producing his film The Squid and the Whale), Owen Wilson (who co-wrote three of Anderson's feature films), cinematographer Robert Yeoman (A.S.C.), music supervisor Randall Poster, and composer Mark Mothersbaugh.

Anderson has acknowledged that he went to India to film his 2007 film The Darjeeling Limited partly as a tribute to the legendary Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray, whose "films have also inspired all my other movies in different ways" (the film is dedicated to him).^[12] Jason Schwartzman reunited with Anderson for the The Darjeeling Limited, acting as well as co-writing the script with Anderson and Roman Coppola.^[13] In September 2006, following the disappointing commercial and critical reception of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Steely Dan's Walter Becker and Donald Fagen released a tongue-in-cheek "letter of intervention" of Anderson's artistic "malaise." Proclaiming themselves to be fans of "World Cinema" and Anderson in particular, they offered Anderson their soundtrack services for his The Darjeeling Limited, including lyrics for a title track.^[14]