In 1999, Kevin Spacey won a Best Actor Oscar for his performance in Sam Mendes's American Beauty. "This," he announced in typically understated fashion, "has definitely been the highlight of my day."

["I read the screenplay and nearly fell out of bed," Spacey later recalled. "I thought I better meet him

[Mendes] quick before someone else read it."]

[Spacey, a versatile performer, once rotated through all the parts in David Rabe's "Hurlyburly".]