Kriti Mehrotra
If there’s one thing absolutely nobody can deny, it’s that ID’s ‘Spacey Unmasked’ is an incredibly jarring documentary series owing to all the alleged abuse it brings straight into the limelight. The fact it spans not just once-renowned actor Kevin Spacey but also his father is significant too because it is believed the former’s early experiences shaped his behavior at every step of the way.
Kevin Spacey’s Childhood Was Anything But Ordinary
It was reportedly back in the early 1950s when technical writer and data consultant Thomas Geoffrey Fowler tied the knot with secretary Kathleen Ann Knutson, only for them to soon settle down. They actually then welcomed three beautiful children into their lives — a daughter named Julie, a son they called Randall “Randy,” and finally their youngest, Kevin — yet their home wasn’t happy.
According to Randy in the aforementioned production, “The house was creepy. It was cold. It was violent,” especially as their father allegedly never hesitated to raise his voice or his hands at him. On the other hand, Kevin has since indicated their father was a white supremacist neo-Nazi who even used to use slurs for queer individuals, making him extremely scared to come out earlier in life.
It’s also imperative to note that Thomas apparently used to target Randy the most in their household — meaning whether it be mental, physical, or sexual, the middle child got the worst of the abuse. “He was so full of so much hatred…,” the latter candidly conceded in the original. “My father had a riding crop, and he used to beat the sh*t out of me. Looking at it from my brother’s perspective, all he saw was ‘Randy got into trouble a lot,’ and he would just split. I never saw my father ever lay a hand on my brother. Ever. But Kevin didn’t have a normal childhood. He just found a way to survive in an environment that was not loving.”
Then, Randy also detailed the horrific sexual violence he reportedly endured at the hands of his father and how he seriously did try to do his best to ensure Kevin was never assaulted in this manner. “In 1969, it was the summer,” he somberly expressed. “That’s when it first started. My father took me up to the master bedroom and raped me. He sodomized me. He gave me oral sex… I was only 13 or 14 years old. This kind of nonsense went on for years, and it wasn’t until 1971 [that] I just said, ‘No, this has to stop now.’ And I threatened him. I said, ‘If you ever lay a hand on Kevin, I’m gonna tell mother.’ That was the last sexual abuse.”
It thus comes as no surprise that Julie, Randy, as well as Kevin all left home almost as soon as they could because they simply couldn’t take or witness the explosive abuse anymore. As per the then 19-year-old brother, he did feel guilty about leaving the latter behind in 1975, yet he hoped everything would be okay because this youngest sibling did share a close bond with their mother and was, hence, inadvertently protected by her.
Kevin Spacey’s Parents Have Both Passed Away
While Thomas died on Christmas Eve 1992, that is, on December 24, 1992, in Lawrenceville, Georgia, at the age of 68, his wife Kathleen sadly passed away from a brain tumor on March 19, 2003, in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 70. We should mention her dearest son Kevin subsequently dedicated his film ‘Beyond the Sea’ to her before also singing her praises and asserting the calming impact she had on his life during his 2004 appearance on ‘Voice of America.’
Read More: Randall “Randy” Fowler: Where is Kevin Spacey’s Brother Now?
