Alec Baldwin

Alec Baldwin
Alec Baldwin at a PETA event in New York, June 2008
Born	Alexander Rae Baldwin III April 3, 1958 (1958-04-03) (age 51) Massapequa, New York
Occupation	Film, stage, television actor
Years active	1986 — present
Spouse(s)	Kim Basinger (1993 – 2002)
Official website
Awards won Emmy Awards Outstanding Lead Actor - Comedy Series 2008 30 Rock Gemini Awards Best Dramatic Mini-Series 2001 Nuremberg Golden Globe Awards Best Actor - Musical or Comedy Series 2007 30 Rock Screen Actors Guild Awards Outstanding Actor - Comedy Series 2006 30 Rock 2007 30 Rock Other awards NBR Award for Best Cast 2000 State and Main 2006 The Departed NBR Award for Best Supporting Actor 2003 The Cooler

Alexander Rae "Alec" Baldwin III (born April 3, 1958) is an American actor, the oldest and arguably the most well-known of the Baldwin brothers, a family who has been prominent in film and television for the last two decades. His career has brought him Academy Award nominations and Emmy- and Golden Globe Awards. He is noted for having hosted Saturday Night Live over a dozen times. He is currently playing television executive Jack Donaghy in the NBC situation-comedy 30 Rock.

Early life

Baldwin was born in Massapequa, New York, the son of Carolyn Newcomb (née Martineau) and Alexander Rae Baldwin, Jr., a high school history/social studies teacher and football coach.^[1] Baldwin was raised in a Catholic family of Irish, English and French descent.^[2][3] He attended Alfred G. Berner High School in Massapequa, Long Island, and played football there under Coach Bob Reifsnyder, who is in the College Football Hall of Fame. Baldwin worked as a busboy at the famous New York City disco Studio 54. He attended George Washington University from 1976 to 1979, where he was known as "Alex." He then transferred to New York University to study acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute under Elaine Aiken and Geoffrey Horne. He returned to NYU in 1994 and graduated with a BFA that year.

The other Baldwin brothers, Daniel (Homicide: Life on the Street), William (Backdraft), and Stephen (The Usual Suspects) all followed him in becoming actors.

Career

Stage career

Baldwin made his Broadway debut in 1986, in a revival of Joe Orton's Loot alongside theatre veterans Zoe Wanamaker, Zeljko Ivanek, Joseph Maher and Charles Keating. This production closed after three months.

His other Broadway credits include Caryl Churchill's Serious Money with Kate Nelligan and a highly acclaimed revival of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire; his performance as Stanley Kowalski garnered him a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor. This production also featured Jessica Lange, Amy Madigan, Timothy Carhart, James Gandolfini, and Aida Turturro. Baldwin would receive an Emmy nomination for the television version of the production, in which both he and Lange reprise their roles. That version featured John Goodman and Diane Lane.

In 1998 Baldwin played the title role in Macbeth at the Public theater alongside Angela Bassett and Liev Schreiber. The production was directed by George C. Wolfe. In 2004, Baldwin starred in a revival of Twentieth Century with Anne Heche.

On June 9, 2005, he appeared in a concert version of the Rogers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific at Carnegie Hall. He starred as Luther Billis, alongside Reba McEntire as Nellie and Brian Stokes Mitchell as Emile. The production was taped and telecast by PBS on April 26, 2006. In 2006, Baldwin made theater news in Roundabout Theatre Company's Off-Broadway revival of Joe Orton's Entertaining Mr. Sloane.

Film and television

Baldwin's first major role was as Billy Aldrich on the daytime soap opera The Doctors from 1980 to 1982. In the fall of 1983 he starred in the short lived television series Cutter to Houston. He then shot to stardom co-starring in the television series Knots Landing from 1984 to 1986.

In 1986, Baldwin starred in a 4-hour made for television miniseries as an honest cadet sergeant who tries to solve the mystery of a murdered classmate.^[4] The film was adapted by Gore Vidal from the novel by Lucian K. Truscott.

Baldwin made his film debut with a minor role in the 1986 film She's Having a Baby. In 1988, he appeared in Beetlejuice and Working Girl. Fresh from those hits, his film career was firmly established with his role as Jack Ryan in The Hunt for Red October (1990).

Baldwin met his future wife Kim Basinger when both played romantic lovers in the 1991 film The Marrying Man. He appeared with Basinger again in The Getaway, a 1994 remake of the 1972 Steve McQueen film of the same name.

In a brief but memorable role, Baldwin played a ferocious sales executive in 1992's Glengarry Glen Ross, a part added to the film version of David Mamet's Pulitzer Prize-winning stage play. He then starred in 1992's Prelude to a Kiss with Meg Ryan, which was based on the Broadway play. The film received a lukewarm reception by critics though it grossed over 22 million dollars world wide ticket sales.^[5]

In 1994, Baldwin joined the fray into pulp fiction based movies with the role of the title character in the entertaining The Shadow. The film made $48 million but was considered a commercial failure due to the high expectations that it would be a block buster. Baldwin played in several thrillers including The Edge (with Anthony Hopkins), The Juror (with Demi Moore) and Heaven's Prisoners (with Teri Hatcher).

Baldwin appeared in a celebrity edition of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire in November 2000, competing against Jon Stewart, Charlie Sheen, Vivica A. Fox and Norm Macdonald. He won $250,000 for PAWS, and used Kim Basinger as a phone a friend.

Baldwin shifted towards character acting (see character actor), including in his Academy Award-nominated performance in 2003's gambling drama The Cooler. He appeared with Leonardo DiCaprio in the director Martin Scorsese films The Aviator and The Departed.

Baldwin is also a voice actor, working in the films Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. Baldwin has hosted Saturday Night Live 14 times as of May, 2007, including a 1993 episode with Kim Basinger. He performed as the narrator in the hit RTS video game World in Conflict.

Baldwin wrote an episode of Law & Order entitled "Tabloid", which aired in 1998. He played the role of Dr. Barrett Moore, a retired plastic surgeon, in the series Nip/Tuck. In 2001, Baldwin directed and starred in an all-star version of The Devil and Daniel Webster with Anthony Hopkins, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Dan Aykroyd.^[6] The then-unreleased film became an asset in a federal bank fraud trial when investor Jed Barron was convicted of bank fraud while the movie was in production. The film eventually was acquired by The Yari Group without Baldwin's involvement.^[7]

In 2002, Baldwin appeared on two episodes of Friends as Phoebe Buffay's overly enthusiastic love interest, Parker. In the episode entitled "The One in Massapequa", Parker, seemingly clueless and curious about its history, comments that Massapequa sounds like a "magical place". In reality, Baldwin was born and raised in Massapequa. Baldwin appeared in a number of episodes in season 7 and 8 of Will & Grace. He played Malcolm - a 'top secret agent' and the lover of Karen Walker (Megan Mullally). He also appeared in the first live episode of the series.

In 2006, he starred in the film Mini's First Time, alongside Nikki Reed and Luke Wilson. In 2007, the Yari Film Group announced it would give the film, now titled Shortcut to Happiness a theatrical release in the spring and cable film network Starz! announced they had acquired pay TV rights for the film. Baldwin performed opposite Sarah Michelle Gellar in 2007 romantic comedy, Suburban Girl.

Baldwin stars in the Emmy Award-winning NBC sitcom 30 Rock, which first aired in October of 2006. Baldwin had met series creator Tina Fey and one of his co-stars, Tracy Morgan, during several tapings of Saturday Night Live. He received numerous honors for his work as TV exec Jack Donaghy, including a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award. He was again nominated for the Emmy for Best Actor in a Television Comedy or Musical in 2007, for the role but lost to Ricky Gervais.^[8] He received his second Emmy nomination for his role as Jack Donaghy in 2008, marking his seventh Primetime Emmy nomination and went on to win the award. Since season 3, Baldwin has been credited as producer of the show.

On July 7, 2007, Baldwin presented at the American leg of Live Earth. He recorded two nationally distributed public service radio announcements on behalf of the Save the Manatee Club.

Baldwin will co-host TCM’s upcoming season of The Essentials.^[9]

A Promise to Ourselves

In 2008 Alec Baldwin and Mark Tabb published A Promise to Ourselves, which chronicles his seven year battle to remain a part of his daughter's life.^[10]

Baldwin contends that after their separation in December of 2000, his former wife, Kim Basinger, endeavored to deny him access to his daughter by refusing to discuss parenting,^[11] blocking visitation,^[12] not providing telephone access,^[13] not following court orders,^[14] not dropping their daughter off for reasons of it being inconvenient,^[15] and directly lobbying the child.^[16] He contends she spent over $1.5 million in the effort.^[17]

Baldwin called this parental alienation syndrome.^[18] Baldwin faults what he sees as opportunist attorneys and psychologists who constitute the 'divorce industry' more than he faults Basinger. He writes, "In fact, I blame my ex-wife least of all for what has transpired. She is a person, like many of us, doing the best she can with what she has. She is a litigant and, therefore, one who walks into a courtroom and is never offered anything other than what is served there. Nothing off the menu, ever."^[19]

Baldwin wrote that he spent over a million dollars,^[20] had to put time aside from his career,^[21] travel extensively,^[22] and find a house nearby in California (he lived in New York),^[23] so he could stay in his daughter's life.^[24] Baldwin contended that after seven years of these issues, he had hit a breaking point and left an angry voicemail message in response to yet another unanswered arranged call.^[25] He contends that the tape was sold to TMZ, which released the recording despite laws against publishing media related to a minor without the permission of both parents.^[26] Baldwin admitted he makes mistakes, but asked who could be judged for parenthood based on their worst moment.^[27]

During the fall of 2008, Baldwin toured in support of the book, speaking about his experiences related in the book.^{[28][29][30][31]}

Politics and political controversy

Baldwin serves on the board of People for the American Way. Baldwin is an animal rights activist and follows a vegetarian diet. He is a strong supporter of PETA and has done work for the organization including narrating the video entitled Meet your Meat.^[32]

When interviewed by the New York Times, Baldwin was asked what public office he would consider running for, he replied: "If I ever ran for anything, the thing I would like to be is governor of New York." When asked if he was qualified, Baldwin answered: "That's what I hate about Arnold Schwarzenegger. His only credentials are that he ran a fitness program under some bygone president...I'm de Tocqueville compared to Schwarzenegger."^[33]

Baldwin and commentator Bill O'Reilly have been in a number of conflicts. Despite their political differences, however, Baldwin stated on his blog after an interview with O'Reilly that he, "was aggressive, but was a gentleman throughout," and also called O'Reilly a, "talented broadcaster."^[34] Baldwin, however, also referred to O'Reilly's employer, Fox News Channel, in the same blog post as "Roger Ailes' Luftwaffe/Looney Bin news operation."

In 2002, conservative blogger Matt Drudge threatened to sue Baldwin for his appearance on the Howard Stern show, during which Baldwin claimed that Drudge had propositioned him in the hallway at ABC studios in Los Angeles when he was doing the Gloria Allred show.^[35][36][37] No other action was taken by Drudge. In March 2008, Baldwin repeated the story to the LGBT magazine, The Advocate, saying that there was, "a kind of creepy quality," to Drudge's sexual advances, and that he was surprised Drudge was so, "uptight about being gay."^[38]

In a Feb 2006 editorial column written for his blog on the Huffington Post,^[39] Baldwin provides a searing criticism of Dick Cheney, pointing out that he was involved in deposing Gray Davis, that Cheney had instigated the outing of Valerie Plame, and that Cheney had shot Harry Whittington. Baldwin wrote "The rumor I heard is that someone yelled, "Look out! Shooter!" and Cheney thought he said Scooter and fired in that general direction." He concluded that Vice President Dick Cheney is a terrorist and Whittington should sue. "Cheney is a terrorist. He terrorizes our enemies abroad and innocent citizens here at home indiscriminately. Who ever thought Harry Whittington would be the answer to America's prayers?"^[39] When asked if he hadn't gone too far, Baldwin replied that Cheney was not a terrorist, but rather just "a lying, thieving Oil Whore. Or, a murderer of the US Constitution..."^[40]

In another editorial Baldwin compared the damage done by Bush 'stealing' the 2000 presidential election to that of the damage done by the September 11, 2001 attacks. While bringing up such things as the new wire tap laws he noted, "I know that's a harsh thing to say, perhaps, but I believe that what happened in 2000 did as much damage to the pillars of democracy as terrorists did to the pillars of commerce in New York City."^[41]

During his appearance on the comedy late night show Late Night with Conan O'Brien on December 12, 1998, eight days before President Bill Clinton was to be impeached, to a great deal of applause and laughter Baldwin said "if we were in another country... we would stone Henry Hyde to death and we would go to their homes and kill their wives and their children. We would kill their families, for what they're doing to this country."^[42] Baldwin apologized, and the network explained it was meant as a joke and promised not to rerun it.^[43]

Filmography

Awards

References

Further reading

• Baldwin, Alec. A Promise to Ourselves - A Journey through Fatherhood and Divorce. St. Martin's Press, 2008.

External links

• Official Site
• Alec Baldwin at the Internet Movie Database
• Alec Baldwin at Allmovie
• Political contributions of Alec Baldwin
• Alec Baldwin's Blog at Huffington Post
• Alec Baldwin speaks out about travelling animal acts.
• Alec Baldwin circus ad
• Alec Baldwin addresses Congress
• Alec Baldwin narrates the meat.org video
• Alec Baldwin's Charity Work