The Daily Telegraph

170px Frontpage of The Daily Telegraph on 12 May 2010, the day after David Cameron became the British Prime Minister.
Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Broadsheet
Owner	Telegraph Media Group
Editor	Tony Gallagher
Founded	1855
Political alignment	conservative[1]
Headquarters	111 Buckingham Palace Road, London, SW1W 0DT
Circulation	634,113 (July 2011)[2]
ISSN	0307-1235
OCLC number	49632006
Official website	telegraph.co.uk

The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet conservative-leaning newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B. Sleigh in June 1855 as The Daily Telegraph and Courier, and since 2004 is owned by David and Frederick Barclay.

According to a MORI survey conducted in 2005, 64% of Telegraph readers intended to support the Conservative Party in the coming elections.^[3] It had an average daily circulation of 634,113 in July 2011 (compared to 441,205 for The Times).^[2]

It is the sister paper of The Sunday Telegraph. It is run separately with a different editorial staff, but there is some cross-usage of stories.

History[link]

Founding and early history (1855–1900)[link]

The Daily Telegraph and Courier was founded by Colonel Arthur B. Sleigh in June 1855 to air a personal grievance against the future Commander-in-chief of the British Army, Prince George, Duke of Cambridge.^[1][4] Joseph Moses Levy, the owner of The Sunday Times, agreed to print the newspaper, and the first edition was published on 29 June 1855. The paper cost 2d and was four pages long.^[1] It was not a success, however, and Sleigh was unable to pay Levy the printing bill.^[4] Levy took over the newspaper, his aim being to produce a cheaper newspaper than his main competitors in London, the Daily News and The Morning Post, to expand the size of the overall market.^{[citation needed]}

Levy then appointed his son, Edward Levy-Lawson, and Thornton Leigh Hunt to edit the newspaper, and relaunched it as The Daily Telegraph, with the slogan "the largest, best, and cheapest newspaper in the world".^[5] Hunt laid out the newspaper's principles in a memorandum sent to Levy: "We should report all striking events in science, so told that the intelligent public can understand what has happened and can see its bearing on our daily life and our future. The same principle should apply to all other events—to fashion, to new inventions, to new methods of conducting business".^[6]

The first edition of the Daily Telegraph & Courier

In 1876 Jules Verne published his novel Michael Strogoff, whose plot takes place during a fictional uprising and war in Siberia. Verne included among the book's characters a war correspondent of The Daily Telegraph, named Harry Blount—who is depicted as an exceptionally dedicated, resourceful and brave journalist, taking great personal risks in order to follow closely the ongoing war and bring accurate news of it to the Telegraph's readership, ahead of competing papers.^[7]

In 1882 The Daily Telegraph moved to new Fleet Street premises, which were pictured in the Illustrated London News.

1900 to 1945[link]

In 1908, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany gave a controversial interview to The Daily Telegraph that severely damaged Anglo-German relations and added to international tensions in the build-up to World War I.^{[non-primary source needed][8]} In 1928 the son of the 1st Baron Burnham sold it to the 1st Viscount Camrose, in partnership with his brother Viscount Kemsley and the 1st Baron Iliffe. Both the Camrose (Berry) and Burnham (Levy-Lawson) families remained involved in management until Conrad Black took control in 1986.

In 1937 the newspaper absorbed The Morning Post which traditionally espoused a conservative position and sold predominantly amongst the retired officer class. Originally William Ewart Berry, 1st Viscount Camrose, bought The Morning Post with the intention of publishing it alongside The Daily Telegraph, but poor sales of the former led him to merge the two. For some years the paper was retitled The Daily Telegraph and Morning Post before it reverted to just The Daily Telegraph. In the late 1930s, Victor Gordon Lennox, The Telegraph's diplomatic editor published an anti-appeasement private newspaper The Whitehall Letter that received much of its information from leaks from Sir Robert Vansittart, the Permanent Under-Secretary of the Foreign Office and Reginald "Rex" Leeper, the Foreign Office's Press Secretary^[9] As an result, Gordon Lennox was monitored by MI5^[9]

In November 1940, with Fleet Street subjected to almost daily bombing raids by the Luftwaffe, The Telegraph started printing in Manchester at Kemsley House, which was run by Camrose's brother Kemsley. Manchester quite often printed the entire run of The Telegraph when its Fleet Street offices were under threat. The name Kemsley House was changed to Thomson House in 1959. In 1986 printing of Northern editions of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph moved to Trafford Park and in 2008 to Newsprinters at Knowsley, Liverpool.

During the Second World War, The Daily Telegraph covertly helped in the recruitment of code-breakers for Bletchley Park. The ability to solve The Telegraph's crossword in under 12 minutes was considered a recruitment test. The newspaper was asked to organise a crossword competition, after which each of the successful participants was contacted and asked if they would be prepared to undertake "a particular type of work as a contribution to the war effort". The competition itself was won by F H W Hawes of Dagenham who finished the crossword in less than eight minutes.^[10]

1945 to 2004[link]

This section requires expansion.

2004 to present[link]

The Daily Telegraph is owned by the Barclay brothers. Until January 2004, the Telegraph Group was controlled by Canadian businessman Conrad Black. Black, through his holding company Ravelston Corporation, owned Hollinger Inc. which in turn owned 30% of Hollinger International and, under a deal masterminded by Andrew Knight through which Black bought the Telegraph Group in 1986, owned 78% of the voting rights. Hollinger Inc. also owned the Chicago Sun-Times, and conservative publications such as The Spectator.

On 18 January 2004, Black was dismissed as chairman of the Hollinger International board over allegations of financial wrongdoing. Black was also sued by the company. Later that day it was reported that the Barclay brothers had agreed to purchase Hollinger Inc. from Black, giving them the controlling interest in the newspaper group. They then launched a takeover bid for the rest of the group, valuing the company at £200m. However, a suit has been filed by the Hollinger International board with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to try to block Black selling shares in the company until an investigation into his dealings have been completed. Black filed a counter-suit but eventually United States judge Leo Strine sided with the Hollinger International board and blocked Black from selling his Hollinger Inc. shares and interests to the twins. On Sunday 7 March, the twins announced they were launching another takeover bid, this time just for The Daily Telegraph and its Sunday sister paper rather than the whole stable. Current^[when?] owner of the Daily Express, Richard Desmond, was also interested in purchasing the paper, selling his interest in several pornographic magazines to finance the initiative. Desmond withdrew in March 2004 when the price climbed above £600m, as did Daily Mail and General Trust plc on 17 June.^{[citation needed]}

Eventually, the Barclay brothers purchased the Telegraph Group, and with it The Telegraph, for around £665m in late June 2004. Amidst the unravelling of the takeover Sir David Barclay suggested that The Daily Telegraph might in the future no longer be the "house newspaper" of the Conservatives. In an interview with The Guardian he said, "Where the government are right we shall support them." The editorial board endorsed the Conservative party in the 2005 general election. 15 November 2004 saw the tenth anniversary of the launch of The Telegraph's website Electronic Telegraph. Now re-launched as telegraph.co.uk, the website was the UK's first national newspaper online. Monday 8 May 2006 saw the first stage of a major redesign of The Telegraph's website, based on a wider page layout and greater prominence for audio, video and journalist blogs.

On 10 October 2005, The Daily Telegraph relaunched to incorporate a tabloid sports section and a new standalone business section. The Daily Mails' star columnist and political analyst Simon Heffer left that paper in October 2005 to rejoin The Daily Telegraph, where he has become associate editor. Heffer, known for his combative style and wit, has written two columns a week for The Telegraph since late October 2005 and is a regular contributor to the news podcast. November, 2005 – launches the first regular podcast service by a newspaper in the UK.^[11] Just before Christmas 2005, it was announced that the Telegraph titles will be moving from Canada Place in Canary Wharf, to Victoria Plaza near Victoria Station in central London.^[12] The new office features a 'hub and spoke' layout for the newsroom, which will produce content for print and online editions.

In October 2006, with its relocation to Buckingham Palace Road, Victoria, the Telegraph rebranded itself the Telegraph Media Group, repositioning itself as a multimedia company. On 2 September 2008, the Daily Telegraph was printed with colour on each page for the first time when it left Westferry for Newsprinters at Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, another arm of the Murdoch (Rupert Murdoch) company.^[13] The paper is also printed in Liverpool and Glasgow by Newsprinters. In May 2009, the daily and Sunday editions published details of MPs' expenses. This led to a number of high-profile resignations from both the ruling Labour administration and the Conservative opposition.

Political stance[link]

The Daily Telegraph has been politically conservative in modern times.^[14] The personal links between the paper's editors and the leadership of the Conservative Party, along with the paper's influence over Conservative activists, has resulted in the paper commonly being referred to, especially in Private Eye, as the Torygraph.^[14] Even when Conservative support was shown to have slumped in the opinion polls and Labour became ascendant in them (particularly when leader Tony Blair rebranded the party as "New Labour" on becoming leader after the death of John Smith in 1994), the newspaper remained loyal to the Conservatives. This loyalty continued after Labour ousted the Conservatives from power by a landslide election result in 1997, and in the face of Labour election wins in 2001 and the third successive Labour election win in 2005.

Sister publications[link]

[edit] The Sunday Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph's sister Sunday paper was founded in 1961. The writer Sir Peregrine Worsthorne is probably the best known journalist associated with the title (1961–97), eventually being editor for three years from 1986. In 1989 the Sunday title was briefly merged in to a seven-day operation under Max Hastings's overall control. In 2005 the paper was revamped, a glossy fashion magazine being added to the more traditional review section. It costs £2.00 and includes separate Money, Home and Living, Sport, Travel and Business supplements. Circulation of The Sunday Telegraph in July 2010 was 505,214 (ABC)

[edit] The Young Telegraph

The Young Telegraph was a weekly section of The Daily Telegraph published as a 14-page supplement in the weekend edition of the newspaper. The Young Telegraph featured a mixture of news, features, cartoon strips and product reviews aimed at 8–12 year olds. It was edited by Damien Kelleher (1993–97) and Kitty Melrose (1997–1999). Launched in 1990, the award-winning supplement also ran original serialised stories featuring popular brands such as Young Indiana Jones and the British children's sitcom Maid Marian and her Merry Men. In 1995, an interactive spin-off called Electronic Young Telegraph was launched on floppy disk. Described as an interactive computer magazine for children, Electronic Young Telegraph was edited by Adam Tanswell, who led the re-launch of the product on CD-Rom in 1998.^[15] Electronic Young Telegraph featured original content including interactive quizzes, informative features and computer games, as well as entertainment news and reviews. It was later re-branded as T:Drive in 1999.

Website[link]

Telegraph.co.uk is the online version of the newspaper. It includes articles from the print editions of The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph, as well as web-only content such as breaking news, features, picture galleries and blogs. It was named UK Consumer Website of the Year in 2007^[16] and Digital Publisher of the year in 2009^[17] by the Association of Online Publishers.^[18] The site is overseen by Edward Roussel, digital editor of Telegraph Media Group. Other staff include Shane Richmond, head of technology (editorial),^[19]and Ian Douglas, head of digital production^[20]. The site, which has been the focus of the group's efforts to create an integrated news operation producing content for print and online from the same newsroom, completed a relaunch during 2008 involving the use of the Escenic content management system, popular among northern European and Scandinavian newspaper groups. Telegraph TV is an Online Video on Demand Television service run by The Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph. It is hosted on The Telegraph's official website, telegraph.co.uk.

Telegraph.co.uk became the most popular UK newspaper site in April 2008.^[21] It was overtaken by Guardian.co.uk in April 2009 and later by "Mail Online".^[22] As of Decemeber 2010, "Telegraph.co.uk" is now the third most visited British newspaper website with 1.7 million daily browsers compared to 2.3 million for "Guardian.co.uk" and nearly 3 million for "Mail Online".^[23] 8% of the Telegraph's traffic comes from social media sites,^[24] much more than for any other site.^[25] Part of this is down to its success with the Digg widget.^[26]

History[link]

The website was launched, under the name electronic telegraph at midday on 15 November 1994 at the headquarters of The Daily Telegraph at Canary Wharf in London Docklands. It was Europe's first daily web-based newspaper. Initially the site published only the top stories from the print edition of the newspaper but it gradually increased its coverage until virtually all of the newspaper was carried online and the website was also publishing original material. The website, hosted on a Sun Microsystems Sparc 20 server and connected via a 64 kbit/s leased line from Demon Internet, was edited by Ben Rooney. Key personnel behind the launch of the site were Matthew Doull and Saul Klein and the then marketing manager of The Daily Telegraph, Hugo Drayton, and the webmaster Fiona Carter. Drayton later became managing director of the newspaper.

An early coup for the site was the publication of articles by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard on Bill Clinton and the Whitewater controversy. The availability of the articles online brought a large American audience to the site. In 1997, the Clinton administration issued a 331-page report that accused Evans-Pritchard of peddling "right-wing inventions". Derek Bishton, who by then had succeeded Rooney as editor, later wrote: "In the days before ET it would have been highly unlikely that anyone in the US would have been aware of Evans-Pritchard's work – and certainly not to the extent that the White House would be forced to issue such a lengthy rebuttal."^[27] Bishton, who is now^[when?] consulting editor for Telegraph Media Group, was followed as editor by Richard Burton, who was made redundant in August 2006. Edward Roussel replaced Burton.

My Telegraph[link]

My Telegraph offers a platform for readers to have their own blog, save articles, and network with other readers. Launched in May 2007, My Telegraph won a Cross Media Award from international newspaper organisation Ifra in October 2007.^[28] One of the judges, Robert Cauthorn, described the project as "the best deployment of blogging yet seen in any newspaper anywhere in the world".

Notable stories[link]

In May 2009 the daily and Sunday editions published details of MPs' expenses. This led to a number of high-profile resignations from both the ruling Labour administration and the Conservative opposition.

In December 2010 Telegraph reporters posing as constituents secretly recorded Business Secretary Vince Cable. In an undisclosed part of the transcript given to the BBC's Robert Peston by a whistleblower unhappy that the Telegraph had not published Cable's comments in full, Cable stated in reference to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation takeover bid for BSkyB, "I have declared war on Mr Murdoch and I think we are going to win."^[29] Following this revelation Cable had his responsibility for media affairs – including ruling on Murdoch's takeover plans – withdrawn from his role as business secretary.^[30] In May 2011 the Press Complaints Commission upheld a complaint regarding the Telegraph's use of subterfuge: "On this occasion, the commission was not convinced that the public interest was such as to justify proportionately this level of subterfuge."^[31] In July 2011 a firm of private investigators hired by the Telegraph to track the source of the leak concluded "strong suspicion" that two former Telegraph employees who had moved to News International, one of them Will Lewis, had gained access to the transcript and audio files and leaked them to Peston.^[32]

Notable mistakes[link]

The Daily Telegraph has published at least five premature obituaries:

• Cockie Hoogterp, the second wife of Baron Blixen, in 1938 after the Baron's third wife died in a car accident. Mrs. Hoogterp sent all her bills back marked "Deceased" and survived her premature obituary by over 50 years.^[33]
• Dave Swarbrick in 1999, prompting much embarrassing publicity for the newspaper, and Swarbrick's remark "It's not the first time I have died in Coventry."^[33]
• Dorothy Southworth Ritter, the widow of Tex Ritter and mother of John Ritter, in August 2001.^[33] She eventually died in 2003, two months after her son's death.
• Ballet dancer Katharine Sergava in 2003, which also caused The New York Times to print an erroneous obituary based on The Telegraph's.^[34]
• Iraqi Defence and Interior Minister Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali", who was widely reported to have been killed in April 2003.^[35]

On Wednesday, 24 February 1988, The Daily Telegraph was printed with the wrong date: Thursday 25 February was printed by mistake. This caused complaints from confused readers, but also inspired the first front page cartoon by Matt Pritchett, who now^[when?] has a cartoon on the front page of the Telegraph almost every day. The cartoon had the caption: "I hope I have a better Thursday than I did yesterday".

Awards[link]

At the 2010 British Press Awards The Telegraph was named the "National Newspaper of the Year" for its coverage of the MPs expenses scandal (named "Scoop of the Year"), with William Lewis winning "Journalist of the Year".^[36] The Telegraph won "Team of the Year" in 2004 for its coverage of the Iraq War.^[36] The paper also won "Columnist of the Year" three years' running from 2002 to 2004: Zoë Heller (2002), Robert Harris (2003) and Boris Johnson (2004).^[36]

Charity and fundraising work[link]

In 1979, following a letter in The Daily Telegraph and a Government report highlighting the shortfall in care available for premature babies, Bliss, the special care baby charity was founded. In 2009, as part of the Bliss' 30th birthday celebrations, the charity was chosen as one of four beneficiaries of the newspaper's Christmas Charity Appeal. In February 2010 a cheque was presented to Bliss for £120,000.

The newspaper runs a charity appeal every Christmas, choosing different charities each year. In 2009, £1.2 million was raised.

Editors[link]

1855: Thornton Leigh Hunt

1873: Edwin Arnold

1888: John le Sage

1923: Fred Miller

1924: Arthur Watson

1950: Colin Coote

1964: Maurice Green

1974: Bill Deedes

1986: Max Hastings

1995: Charles Moore

2003: Martin Newland

2005: John Bryant

2007: William Lewis

2009: Tony Gallagher

See also[link]

• Sunday Telegraph

• Katharine Birbalsingh, columnist
• Simon Heffer, former columnist
• Anthony Loyd, one-time war correspondent
• J. H. B. Peel, columnist
• Mark Steyn, former columnist
• Auberon Waugh, a previous columnist
• Peter Simple, the pseudonym of Michael Wharton, who wrote a humorous column in the paper from 1957 to 2006.

Notes and references[link]

Further reading[link]

• The House The Berrys Built by Duff Hart-Davis. Concerns the history of The Daily Telegraph' from its inception to 1986. Illustrated with references and illustrations of William Ewart Berry, 1st Viscount Camrose (later called Lord Camrose).
• William Camrose: Giant of Fleet Street by his son Lord Hartwell. Illustrated biography with black-and-white photographic plates and includes an index. Concerns his links with The Daily Telegraph.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: The Daily Telegraph

• Telegraph.co.uk
• The digital edition of The Telegraph
• Leaping into the future at the Telegraph's Camelot – from The Guardian
• The Guardian: The plight of Hollinger
• BBC: Telegraph empire in tycoons' grip – 18 Jan 2004
• 'Daily Telegraph "will not be the house organ of the Conservatives"' – from BBC News Online
• The continuing takeover saga – from BBC News 7 March 2004
• Plunkett, John (21 November 2007). "Telegraph 'told to spike Blunkett story'". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/nov/21/dailytelegraph.telegraphmediagroup?gusrc=rss&feed=media. 
• Russia Now on The Daily Telegraph, produced by Russia Beyond the Headlines

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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]

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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]