NEW YORK • Oscar-winner Kevin Spacey was accused in a civil lawsuit on Wednesday of sexual assault in the 1980s by actor Anthony Rapp and a second, unnamed person when both plaintiffs were about 14.

The suit, filed in New York state court in Manhattan, refers to the same alleged incident that Rapp, now 48, first recounted in an October 2017 BuzzFeed interview that triggered Spacey's fall from grace in Hollywood.

Spacey, who won Oscars for the films The Usual Suspects (1995) and American Beauty (1999), and a Golden Globe for the TV political drama House Of Cards (2013 to 2018), has largely retreated from public life in the past three years.

The actor said in 2017 he did not remember the encounter Rapp described, but added: "If I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behaviour."

Spacey, now 61, came out as gay in 2017.

Rapp, best known for starring in the Broadway musical Rent, alleged in the lawsuit that Spacey "engaged in an unwanted sexual advance" with him when he was 14, during a party at Spacey's home in 1986.

The second person, identified only as C.D., alleged that he and Spacey had engaged in sexual acts on several occasions in the early 1980s when the plaintiff was approximately 14 years old.

Both men are seeking unspecified damages for emotional distress.

Rapp's initial accusation, part of the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct, led to Spacey being dropped from House Of Cards and his scenes in the movie All The Money In The World (2017) were reshot with actor Christopher Plummer.

Prosecutors in Massachusetts last year dropped criminal charges against Spacey of felony indecent assault and battery involving an 18-year-old man in a bar in 2016.

Spacey had pleaded not guilty. The case was dropped after the alleged victim declined to testify.

REUTERS