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Alec Baldwin

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Alec Baldwin
Alec Baldwin at a PETA event in New York, June 2008
Born
Alexander Rae Baldwin III
Occupation(s)Film, stage, television actor
SpouseKim Basinger (1993 – 2002)
AwardsNBR Award for Best Cast
2000 State and Main
2006 The Departed
NBR Award for Best Supporting Actor
2003 The Cooler
Websitehttp://www.alecbaldwin.com/

Alexander Rae "Alec" Baldwin III (born April 3, 1958) is an Academy Award-nominated, and Emmy- and Golden Globe Award-winning, American actor. He is the oldest and most famous of the Baldwin brothers, and has starred in many movies and TV shows. He is also 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, USA, 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 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.

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 theatre 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 Mr. 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 Lucian K. Truscott's novel.

In 1986 he made his film debut with a minor role in She's Having a Baby. In 1988, he appeared in Beetlejuice and Working Girl. Both of these films were hits. His film career was then firmly established with his role as Jack Ryan in The Hunt for Red October (1990).

In 1991, Baldwin met his future wife Kim Basinger on the set of the critically panned The Marrying Man. He appeared with Basinger again in The Getaway, a 1994 remake of the 1972 Steve McQueen film of the same name.

File:Glengarryglenross1.jpg
Alec Baldwin in "Glengarry Glen Ross", 1992

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 entertainingThe Shadow. The film made $48 million but was considered a commercial failure due to the high expectations that it would be a block buster[6]. Baldwin played in several thrillers including The Edge (with Anthony Hopkins), The Juror (with Demi Moore) and Heaven's Prisoners (with Teri Hatcher).

On November 12, 2000, Baldwin appeared in a celebrity edition of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire with 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 and in working with director Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio in 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. This film has yet to be released, however. The film became an asset of a federal bank fraud trial in 2003, where financial investor Jed Barron, of Las Vegas, was convicted of bank fraud while financing the movie. The film's producer, David Glasser, was also under investigation. The film eventually was acquired by producer Bob Yari and his company.

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.

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. Starz! also announced they had acquired pay TV rights for the film. Baldwin also recently performed opposite Sarah Michelle Gellar in a romantic comedy, Suburban Girl.

Baldwin stars in the Emmy Award-winning NBC sitcom 30 Rock, which first aired in October of 2006, while winning the 2007 and 2008 Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series. 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.[7] He received his second Emmy nomination for his role as Jack Donaghy on July 17, 2008, marking his seventh Primetime Emmy nomination and won the Emmy award.

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

Awards

Baldwin won the Emmy Award in 2008 as the outstanding lead actor in 30 Rock, and has been nominated for the Emmy Award seven times:

  • 1996: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Special, for Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire
  • 2001: Outstanding Miniseries, for Nuremberg (as producer)
  • 2002: Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Special, for Path to War (as Robert McNamara)
  • 2005: Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series, for Will & Grace
  • 2006: Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series, for Will & Grace
  • 2007: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, for 30 Rock
  • 2008: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, for 30 Rock

Baldwin was nominated for an Oscar in 2004 for his role in the The Cooler.

Baldwin's First Book: A Promise to Ourselves

In 2008 Alec Baldwin released "A Promise to Ourselves", which chronicles his seven year battle to remain a part of his little girls life.[8]

In 2001 Kim Basinger divorced Alec Baldwin, and for the next seven years waged a no expense limit campaign to deny Alec Baldwin access to his daughter. Mz. Basinger denied telephone access, failed to follow court orders, failed to drop her daughter off for reasons of it being "inconvenient," and lobbied her daughter directly against her father. In the book Mr. Baldwin notes that Mz. Basinger "didn't serve anything that wasn't on the menu," and he faults the opportunist attorneys and psychologists who feed on the divorce industry. Mz. Basinger spent over a million dollars to withhold her daughter and in reply Mr. Baldwin spent over a million dollars, put time aside from his career, traveled extensively, and bought a house nearby so that he could at least stay in his daughter's life.

After seven years of repeated denied access, unanswered telephone calls, interrupted work days, spoiled international travel for visits, and over two million dollars spent, in April of 2007 Baldwin left an angry voicemail message in response to yet another unanswered arranged call, saying on the tape ostensibly left for his 11 year old daugther, that she was being a "rude, thoughtless little pig" for not consider at all the trouble he had been through.

Mz. Basinger then provided the voice mail to someone and was sold to TMZ.com, who published it widely.

In his book Mr. Baldwin admits he makes mistakes, but asks who could be judged for parenthood on based on their worst moment taken out of context? He has not seen his daughter since the message publication.

Baldwin addressed the Commadore Club about the book. [9]


Politics and Political Controversy

Alec Baldwin has repeatedly expressed a deep concern over corrupt actions of politicians from both parties. His comments are typically delivered with a disarming level of frankness perspective and humor.

Baldwin serves on the board of People for the American Way. Baldwin is an animal rights activist and follows a mostly vegetarian diet. He is a strong supporter of PETA and has done work for the organization including narrating the video entitled 'Meet your Meat'.[10]

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 Tocqueville compared to Schwarzenegger." [11]

In October of 2008 Alec Baldwin appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher and criticized both Democrats and Republicans for the economic crash. He expressed the federalist view that the bailout should go to the states. He took a decidedly anti-republic view when talked about the Republican disease on how they opposed government, and said that Sarah Palin had a very bad case [12]

On March 26, 2006, Baldwin guest-hosted Brian Whitman's talk show on WABC radio in New York. During the show, conservative talk show hosts Sean Hannity and Mark Levin called the show. Hannity badgered Baldwin with claimes that Baldwin had been scheduled to appear on Hannity's show first, but Baldwin asserted that he never had such a deal, and that he'd never have agreed to go on Hannity's show. The back-and-forth continued for about 10 minutes until Levin made a personal attack by bringing up Baldwin's divorce asking, "why is your wife so mad at you anyway," at which point Baldwin said, "we're done," and walked out of the studio. WABC President and General Manager Tim McCarthy phoned Baldwin on March 28 to apologize for Sean's attacks. [13][14]

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."[14] 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 a Feb 2006 provocative editorial column written for his blog on the Huffington Post, [15] 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 jokes "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." When asked if he hadn't gone too far, Baldwin sardonically replied that Cheney was not a terrorist, but rather just "a lying, thieving oil whore and a murderer of the U.S. Constitution".[16]

In another one of his editorials Baldwin once 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."[17]

In 2002 Baldwin appeared on the ribald Howard Stern show and on the topic of gay conservatives told the story of Matt Drudge, who writes the conservative Drudge report, as having made a pass at him. He quoted Drudge as having said, ""Do you have any Tabasco sauce?... I want to drizzle it all over you,'" Drudge threatened a slander suit but did not file one. [18].

In 2000, an interview with Basinger appeared in the German magazine Focus, where Basinger claimed Baldwin had promised to leave the United States if George W. Bush beat Al Gore for the presidency. Baldwin replied that he never made such a promise, and suggested that Mz. Basinger may have been talking about director Robert Altman, who did indeed make a vow to leave the United States if Bush was re-elected. Though in his characteristic sarcastic manner, he added that it might not have been a bad idea.

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."[19] Baldwin apologized, and the network explained it was meant as a joke and promised not to rerun it. [20]


Features

Year Title Role Notes
1987 Forever, Lulu Buck
1988 She's Having a Baby Davis McDonald
Beetlejuice Adam Maitland
Married to the Mob Frank de Marco
Working Girl Mick Dugan
Talk Radio Dan
1989 Great Balls of Fire! Jimmy Swaggart
Tong Tana (narrator) (documentary)
1990 The Hunt for Red October Jack Ryan
Miami Blues Frederick J. Frenger Jr.
Alice Ed
1991 The Marrying Man Charley Pearl
1992 Prelude to a Kiss Peter Hoskins
Glengarry Glen Ross Blake
1993 Malice Dr. Jed Hill
1994 The Getaway Carter 'Doc' McCoy
The Shadow Lamont Cranston/The Shadow
1995 Two Bits (narrator)
1996 Wild Bill: Hollywoos Maverick (narrator) (documentary)
The Juror Teacher
Heaven's Prisoners Dave Robicheaux
Looking for Richard (documentary)
Ghosts of Mississippi Bobby DeLaughter
1997 The Edge Robert Green
1998 Thick as Thieves Mackin, The Thief
Mercury Rising Lt. Col. Nicholas Kudrow
1999 The Confession Roy Bleakie
Notting Hill Jeff King
Outside Providence Old Man Dunphy
2000 The Acting Class Himself
Thomas and the Magic Railroad Mr. Conductor
State and Main Bob Barrenger
2001 Pearl Harbor Lt. Col. James Doolittle
Cats & Dogs Butch (voice)
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within Capt. Gray Edwards (voice)
The Royal Tenenbaums (narrator) (voice)
2002 The Adventures of Pluto Nash M.Z.M.
2003 The Cooler Shelly Kaplow
Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There
The Cat in the Hat Lawrence "Larry" Quinn
Walking with Cavemen Narrator (documentary)
2004 Along Came Polly Stan Indursky
Double Dare (documentary)
The Last Shot Joe Devine
The Aviator Juan Trippe
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie Dennis (Plankton's minion) (voice)
2005 Elizabethtown Phil DeVoss
Fun with Dick and Jane Jack McCallister
2006 Mini's First Time Martin
The Departed Capt. George Ellerby
Running with Scissors Norman Burroughs
The Good Shepherd Sam Murach
2007 Suburban Girl Archie Knox
Brooklyn Rules Caesar Manganaro
Shortcut to Happiness Jabez Stone
World in Conflict (video game) Lt. Parker (narrator) voice
2008 My Best Friend's Girl Professor Turner
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa Makunga voice
2009 Lymelife Mickey Bartlett post-production
My Sister's Keeper Campbell Alexander post-production

Short subjects

  • Scout's Honor (1999)
  • Brighter Days (2003)

References

  1. ^ Alec Baldwin Biography (1958-), filmreference.com
  2. ^ Helen's Alec Baldwin site-Interview, 1989
  3. ^ Newsday
  4. ^ http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/14783/Dress-Gray/overview
  5. ^ Prelude to a Kiss at TheNumbers.com
  6. ^ The Shadow'
  7. ^ "Hollywood Foreign Press Association 2008 Golden Globe Awards For The Year Ended December 31, 2007". HFPA. 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-13.
  8. ^ Alec Baldwin, A Promise to Ourselves, A Journey through Fatherhood and Divorce, St. Martin's Press,2008.
  9. ^ http://fora.tv/2008/09/22/Alec_Baldwin_A_Journey_Through_Fatherhood_and_Divorce
  10. ^ "USA Today: Alec Baldwin to receive award at PETA gala".
  11. ^ Getting In on the Sitcom Act - New York Times
  12. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJrRla5LHyk
  13. ^ Alec Baldwin v. Sean Hannity in Radio Donnybrook
  14. ^ a b Hannity Makes Political Pornography
  15. ^ Will They Go to Court?
  16. ^ Republicans Married into the Wrong Family
  17. ^ Alec Baldwin says disputed vote damaged democracy
  18. ^ http://www.medialifemagazine.com/news2002/aug02/aug05/2_tues/news7tuesday.html
  19. ^ http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/1998/cyb19981216.asp "Media Research Center
  20. ^ http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/1998/cyb19981222.asp#5
Awards and achievements
Preceded by National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor
2003
for The Cooler 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series
2006, 2007
for 30 Rock 		Succeeded by
TBD
Preceded by Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Musical Or Comedy
2007
for 30 Rock 		Succeeded by

Template:Baldwin brothers


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