Spacey's first professional stage appearance was in 1981. He was a spear carrier in a New York Shakespeare Festival performance of "Henry VI, Part 1". In 1982, he made his first Broadway appearance, as Oswald in a production of Henrik Ibsen's "Ghosts", starring Liv Ullmann. Then he played Philinte in Molière's "The Misanthrope". In 1984, he appeared in a production of David Rabe's stage play "Hurlyburly", in which he played each of the male parts on different nights. Next came Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull". In 1986, he appeared in a production of "Sleuth" in a New Jersey dinner theatre. He became best known as a stage actor in 1986, when he was cast opposite Jack Lemmon, Peter Gallagher and Bethel Leslie as Jamie, the eldest Tyrone son in Jonathan Miller's production of Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey into Night". Lemmon became a mentor to Spacey. Although he had decided he liked making movies better, Spacey stayed active in live theater community. In 1991, he won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Uncle Louie in Neil Simon's Broadway hit "Lost in Yonkers".