He embarked on a trail of bit parts in major Hollywood productions, including a stint as a subway thief in 1986’s Heartburn with Jack Nicholson, a sleazy business executive in Working Girl with Melanie Griffith and Harrison Ford, one of a murderous pair in See No Evil, Hear No Evil, and a son-in-law in Steven Spielberg’s Dad, with Jack Lemmon. He found more prominent roles in television productions, playing evangelist Jim Bakker in Fall from Grace (1990) and lawyer Clarence Darrow in the TV movie, Darrow (1991). He also continued to work in stage, winning a Tony award in 1991 for his portrayal of mobster Uncle Louie in Neil Simon’s Lost in Yonkers. Spacey also appeared in 1990’s Show of Force and the first NC-17 rated film, Henry and June, both of which received little box-office attention. In 1992, Spacey appeared alongside acting greats Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alan Arkin, and Ed Harris as a lusterless office manager in a widely acclaimed film adaptation of David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross. Although his next two films, Consenting Adults and the Denis Leary comedy, The Ref, were panned by critics, Spacey garnered favorable reviews. Hal Hinson of The Washington Post wrote of Spacey in the former, “As Eddy, [Spacey] is given his first real opportunity to fully express his fruitcake talent. He doesn’t disappoint—though he does outclass the movie and his co-stars.”

1995 proved to be a groundbreaking year for the now seasoned and experienced Spacey, although he seemed to appear miraculously out of nowhere to the Hollywood set. He played a supporting role as army officer Casey Schuler in the suspense thriller about the rapidly spreading Ebola virus in Outbreak, and played a mean-spirited film mogul held hostage by his fed-up assistant in the low-budget independent Swimming With Sharks. However, his portrayal of John Doe, the chillingly dead pan villain in David Fincher’s gritty and violent thriller, Seven, incited rave reviews and carried Spacey into a whole new realm of celebrity and recognition. Jack Mathews of Newsday wrote, “Not to mention his participation would be to ignore the film’s strongest performance… Spacey gives a truly chilling performance, madness under glass.”

Spacey followed this success strongly, earning glowing praise and an Oscar for best supporting actor, with his portrayal of Roger “Verbal” Kint in 1995’s runaway hit, The Usual Suspects. This time, Spacey masterfully masked manipulative menace and genius under a slippery guise of shy, stuttering innocence—blowing audiences away with a deceptive performance which carried through the film’s twisted conclusion. The film also spurred mass circulation of the query “Who is Keyser Soze?” in reference to the film’s looming but elusive villain.