Ace of Spader
He's a TV star now, and his surprise hit show, Boston Legal, will be back this fall. But it was the surprises in his 36-film career that turned audiences on to his talent. And his penchant for roles that ooze sexuality.
 Less Than Zero (top left) photograph by John Clifford/Twentieth Century-Fox; White Palace (top right) photograph courtesy of the Everett Collection; Secretary (bottom left) photograph by Bruce Birmelin/Lions Gate Films; Boston Legal photograph by Carin Baer/ABC Television |
Endless Love (1981) His small role as Brooke Shields's brother marked Spader's transition from failed TV pilots and movies-of-the-week to the big screen.
Pretty in Pink (1986) Welcome to the Brat Pack. Spader established his bona fides as the wealthy yuppie you love to hate in this Molly Ringwald film written by John Hughes.
Less Than Zero (1987) Spader's turn as an omnisexual drug dealer nearly stole the show from fellow Brat Packers Andrew McCarthy and Robert Downey Jr. Though often lumped with this rising generation of actors, Spader says he never felt a part of any group.
sex, lies, and videotape (1989) Spader broke free of his Evil Yuppie pigeonhole in a film that established him as a sexy, sensitive leading man while legitimizing the nascent independent film movement.
White Palace (1990) This sexy - and controversial - May-September romance film co-starred Susan Sarandon. Despite the studio's hopes of incendiary box office results to match the film's steamy sex scenes, audience response was flaccid.
Wolf (1994) Spader reverts to evil, wife-stealing yuppie in this Mike Nichols film starring Jack Nicholson. With Michelle Pfeiffer as the third side of the triangle, this horror parable of modern living scored a hit.
Stargate (1994) A surprise hit from Director Roland Emmerich, Spader's wide-eyed wonder as a genius Egyptologist thrown into a parallel dimension propelled this sci-fi film to international success.
Crash (1996) Spader speaks of this auto-erotic thriller from director David Cronenberg as one of his most challenging and creatively satisfying. "It's the one thing that had resonance in terms of creeping in and staying inside me," he says. "It took a long time to recover from the intensity of the shoot."
Secretary (2002) After six years of forgettable films, Spader scored a modest hit on the art-house circuit in this entertaining exploration of bondage and discipline, business-style, with Maggie Gyllenhaal. Prior to its release, David E. Kelley made the fateful call that would put Spader in the cast of The Practice and on prime-time TV.
© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.
