British authorities are bringing criminal charges against actor Kevin Spacey on four counts of sexual assault against three men.
Spacey won an Oscar for his lead role in American Beauty and was known as the conniving politician Frank Underwood in the TV series House of Cards.
The Crown Prosecution Service said on Thursday that Spacey, 62, had “also been charged with causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.”
The career of Spacey, once one of Hollywood’s leading stars, went into a tailspin after actor Anthony Rapp claimed in 2017 that Spacey had made unwanted sexual advances toward him when he was 14 years old.
This was followed by a former television anchor who came forward to accuse Spacey of sexually assaulting her son. This was followed by accusations by 20 people who worked with Spacey at a theatre in London, where he was artistic director for 11 years, who accused him of inappropriate behaviour.
A massage therapist sued Spacey in California in 2019, accusing him of groping and trying to kiss him before offering him oral sex during a massage. The accuser died unexpectedly ahead of the trial.
TV and film producers started dropping Spacey from projects after Rapp’s accusations, including from the Netflix political drama House of Cards, which finished its run without the actor.
