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Fall From Grace: Kevin Spacey

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Written for Friday Faithfuls at Mindlovemiserysmenagerie
where the prompt is “celebrities that fell from grace”.

In the fall of 2017, Kevin Spacey’s life and his astronomical career in acting, writing, directing and production (and more) came crashing down with devastating swiftness and near Shakespearean consequences. The reason: sexual assault allegations from 30 years ago.

On October 29, 2017, actor Anthony Rapp alleged that Spacey, while appearing intoxicated, made a sexual advance toward him at a party in 1986, when Rapp was 14 and Spacey was 26. Spacey stated on Twitter that he did not remember the encounter, but that he owed Rapp “the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior” if he had behaved as asserted.

Almost three years later, on September 9, 2020, Rapp sued Spacey for sexual assault, sexual battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress under the Child Victims Act. In the subsequent federal civil court proceeding, a jury found that Spacey did not molest Rapp and was found not liable on all counts, with Rapp subsequently ordered by the court to pay Spacey $39,089 in damages.

Fifteen other accusers emerged from the woodwork and jumped on the bandwagon alleging similar abuse. The Guardian was contacted by “a number of people” who alleged that Spacey “groped and behaved in an inappropriate way with young men” while he was artistic director of The Old Vic theatre. 

On the same day as Rapp’s allegations against him, Kevin Spacey came out as gay when apologizing to Rapp. His decision to come out via his statement was criticized by gay celebrities as an attempt to change the subject and shift focus from Rapp’s accusation, for using his own drunkenness as an excuse for making a sexual advance on a minor and for implying a connection between homosexuality and child sexual abuse. Spacey expressed regret over the way he came out and said that it was “never his intention” to deflect from the allegations against him or conflate them with his sexual orientation.

Amid the allegations, filming was suspended on the sixth and final season of House of Cards starring Kevin Spacey. His livelihood, public acceptance, reputation, peace of mind and very existence was hanging by an excruciatingly slender thread.

As Rapp’s trial lawsuit against Spacey commenced in October 2022, it was revealed Rapp had given an inaccurate description of the apartment where he alleged the abuse took place. The judge dismissed the emotional-distress charges as a “duplicate” of the battery charges and a jury found Spacey not liable of all charges.

On May 26, 2022, Spacey was charged by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in the UK with four counts of sexual assault against three complainants which were said to have taken place between 2005 and 2013 in Gloucestershire and London. According to the CPS, it would be possible to formally charge Spacey only if he entered England or Wales either voluntarily or through an extradition request. In a statement to Good Morning America on May 31, 2022, Spacey said he would “voluntarily appear in the UK”.

In his first British court appearance, on June 16, Spacey denied the allegations against him. On July 14, he pleaded not guilty to the charges in London. During the hearings, the complainant gave conflicting reports, false information regarding deleted text messages on his phone and eventually refused to answer any other questions, invoking the Fifth Amendment. On November 16, the CPS authorized an additional seven charges against Spacey, all related to a single complainant arising from incidents alleged to have occurred between 2001 and 2004. Three charges were dismissed before or during the trial, which began on June 28, 2023, and, on July 26, 2023, a jury found Kevin Spacey not guilty of the remaining nine charges.

Kevin Spacey has received countless accolades, including two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Tony Award and two Laurence Olivier Awards. He was named an honorary Commander and Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2010 and 2015, respectively. 

Kevin Spacey’s brother, Randy Fowler, has stated that their father was sexually, physically and emotionally abusive and that young Kevin shut down emotionally and became “very sly and smart” to avoid beatings. Spacey addressed the matter in October 2022, saying that his father was a white supremacist and a neo-Nazi who beat him regularly and called him derogatory names, including ‘faggot‘. Spacey stated that the abuse at the hands of his father caused him to become extremely private about his personal life which, in turn, resulted in him choosing not to come out as gay earlier in his life.

The following video aired prior to Kevin Spacey’s hearings in the UK where he was found not guilty of all charges. There are other videos available for viewing on YouTube if you so desire. I went with this one, choosing to avoid the sleazy and salacious nature of “entertainment news”.

This next video is a clip from the movie “Beyond The Sea” with Kevin Spacey portraying Bobby Darin. Spacey did all his own singing which is rather impressive. I could have gone with songs like “Mack The Knife” or “Beyond The Sea” but the name of this video tickled my funny bone.

Here is Kevin Spacey as Bobby Darin singing “Dream Lover”.

NAR©2024

Celebrities That Fell from Grace

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and is not for use by anyone without permission. NAR©2017-present.

40 thoughts on “Fall From Grace: Kevin Spacey”

  1. Pingback: Fall From Grace: Kevin Spacey – walk sign is on

  4. I’d lost track of this case, so thanks for the update! Yeah, we’ve all done stupid, careless things in our past. Sadie’s point about Bad vs. Notorious is spot on, though.

    So we’re left in that uncomfortable hole where massive talent, good public works, artistic integrity, unwise & hurtful behavior, criminality, immorality, and reasonable doubt roll around together. Do they all (suspicions and/or reality) negate each other? What is our role, as consumers of the arts?

    And historically and/or long term, has this happened before (easy answer? Yeah. Sigh.)?

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    1. See my comment to Sadje. There is notorious and then there is notorious.

      When you ask the question “what is our role, as consumers of the arts?” I think that is entirely up to the consumer. I remember my father used to say that he loved Sinatra’s voice but refused to listen to him because he didn’t like him as a man. Fine. But who suffers because of this? Frank Sinatra wouldn’t know if my father was listening to him or not, and he probably wouldn’t care. But my father was depriving himself of the pleasure of Sinatra’s voice, which he said he liked, by refusing on moral principles to listen to him. That makes no sense to me. We call that cutting off your nose to spite your face.

      But, as my dad also liked to say “Sau-seech his own!” I was a huge fan of “House of Cards”; I’m sure it will never come back to TV (especially since they killed off Kevin Spacey’s character) …. but IF it did and Spacey was in it, I would watch. It was a great show. Why should I deprive myself of quality entertainment because the star may or may not have made some horrible mistakes 30 years ago?

      Thanks for your great comments today.

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      1. The quandary comes up again and again. Within the hour of reading your blog, a professor of children’s lit mentioned that she was leading her students down the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland today. So I mentioned the befuddling moral issues to her (online discussion). Because Lewis Carroll had a questionable and unfathomable relationship with young Alice Liddell, in the mid-1800’s.
        So yes, we have to decide, critical thinking, the difference between notorious and NOTORIOUS.
        And now on to happier, easier things.
        Great post & discussion from all. Like ya do!

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  5. Kevin Spacey found not guilty does not mean he is innocent. I think he did some things that were wrong, but he has good enough lawyers to have the charges dropped. I actually stopped following this story and I was glad to hear the update that you wrote about, Nancy.

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    1. Hi Jim. I’m just a simple storyteller telling a story in response to this very interesting prompt. My opinion on Spacey’s guilt or innocence isn’t worth a hill of beans.

      There are, I’m sure, many guilty people walking around free who should be locked up just as there are innocent people wrongly incarcerated. No one knows the whole truth except the person facing charges, (maybe) their lawyer and the victims. Our judicial system has a lot of holes in it but it’s all we have.

      Thanks for your comments.

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    1. He was accused of sexual advances supposedly made 30 years ago which could not be proven sufficiently in courts of law; his accuser also had a lot of holes in his story which caused the jury to come back with a not guilty verdict. We was found not guilty but his reputation will never be the same again.

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    1. You said the right thing, Willow. This is a new and interesting prompt I followed. I’m not sure if I’ll do another of these. It isn’t a category I came up with but these true stories are very interesting.

      I need people to remember I’m just the messenger and I’m not favoring one side or the other.

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    1. As a fan of true crime, Vee, I was wondering how you’d feel about this post. I don’t know anything about Kevin Spacey other than the fact that I always thought of him as an excellent and entertaining actor. I don’t know anything about his personal life, especially something that may have happened 30 years ago.

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          1. I’m particularly hard on celebs–they don’t agree with my viewpoint, but I feel they have an obligation to set a good example for all the youth that look to them…and help pay for their lifestyles. I don’t care if their movies are R-rated–(I don’t have to watch them) but if they’re going to make public all their indiscretions and addictions in their personal lives that’s it, I’m done. And since I’m on a rant–Mel Gibson has had numerous DUI’s, and when I learned that the cops routinely give him a pass just because he’s “Mel”, I was furious! Drunk/druggie drivers kill way too many innocent people–and usually survive the catastrophic accidents they cause. I will now sit down and put my head on my desk😉

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            1. Yes, you make a very good point, Vee and I take everything you said seriously. Just for a moment allow me to play devil’s advocate. You wrote about people in the public eye setting a good example for the youth of today. I believe there are people right now in professional sports, in the entertainment industry or public office who have done and are doing far worse things than Kevin Spacey. Whatever he is accused of doing was done in private thirty years ago. That’s a very long time for someone to wait before making an accusation. I’m not saying any of this sits right with me but I’m more offended, disgusted and outraged by entertainers such as Cardi B who is performing practically nude and simulating sex acts on stage and in videos than anything Kevin Spacey may have done thirty years ago behind the scenes. I am more outraged by terrorists and the barbaric deeds they have done to babies, young children and women. Kevin Spacey is, in comparison, small potatoes.

              Thanks for sharing your thoughts today.

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                1. No apologies needed on this website, Vee. Everyone’s point of view deserves equal respect and validation and, unless someone insults me or my family, all comments are welcome.

                  This was a prompt I thought would be interesting to answer; I doubt I’ll be doing another.

                  Thank you for sharing your thoughts!

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                  1. Thank you for your kindness, Nancy–and I have something for you today. This was in my Bible-reading time (from the New Living Translation): Psalm 84:6-7, “When they walk through the Valley of Weeping, it will become a place of refreshing springs…v.7, “they will continue to grow stronger…”.

                    This blessed me greatly, and I hope it will do the same for you and your husband, and sister-in-law. That’s my prayer for alll of you, and other family members. Much love, Leslie (Vee)

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    1. An excellent point, Fan. This is now his legacy and it stinks, especially since he was found not guilty of all charges. Only Spacey and the people who brought up these allegations know the truth, but to see a person destroyed based on finger pointing is a tragedy.

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    1. Sadly, that does happen. Innocent before proven guilty; we can’t lose sight of that which is why we have courts of law. Kevin Spacey was judged not guilty but that does not mean he will ever get back the life he once had because of those allegations. It seems that’s all people will remember about him.

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        1. That’s a good saying. I consider Hitler notorious. The Son of Sam was notorious as was Charles Manson. Jack the Ripper, Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy were notorious psychopaths. Idi Amin, Saddam Husseim and the Uni Bomber were notorious. Jim Jones, Al Capone and OJ Simpson were notorious. Harvey Weinstein was notorious but Kevin Spacey? He’s no saint, apparently, but I don’t think he can hold a candle to any of those notorious ones.

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