Alec Baldwin
Baldwin is frequently described as Irish American, though his background includes English and Irish ancestry on his father's side and distant French and Canadian ancestry on his mother's. His maternal grandmother was born in Nova Scotia; his Irish ancestry comes from his paternal great-grandmother, Helen Irene McNamara.
When Baldwin was young, he worked as a busboy at the famous New York City disco Studio 54. Baldwin attended George Washington University from 1976 to 1979, where he was known as "Alex." After losing a student body president election, he transferred to New York University to study acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute under Elaine Aiken and Geoffrey Horne. He then returned to NYU in 1994 and graduated with a BFA that year.
The other Baldwin brothers, Daniel Baldwin (Homicide: Life on the street), William Baldwin (Backdraft), and Stephen Baldwin (The Usual Suspects) all followed him in becoming well-known actors.
Baldwin's first major role was as Billy Aldrich on the daytime soap The Doctors from 1980 to its cancellation in 1982. In the fall of 1983, he starred in the short lived series Cutter to Houston. He shot to stardom co-starring on Knots Landing as the preacher son of Julie Harris and spent most of the 1980s appearing in television series, before turning to film in 1986, making his film debut with a minor role in She's Having a Baby. In 1987, he appeared in Beetlejuice and, in 1988, Working Girl. Both of these films were box office successes that raised his profile.
After appearing in several other supporting roles, Baldwin starred as Jack Ryan in The Hunt for Red October, which grossed over $100 million after its release in March 1990. However, he turned down reprising the role in subsequent Tom Clancy movies. Instead, Harrison Ford took over the Jack Ryan character for Baldwin in Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger, and has since been played by Ben Affleck in The Sum of All Fears.
Baldwin subsequently had several notable roles in early 1990s films. His role in the beginning of Glengarry Glen Ross is considered by many to be the best performance of an ensemble cast that included Jack Lemmon and Al Pacino. In 1991, he met his future wife Kim Basinger on the set of the critically panned The Marrying Man. He appeared opposite Basinger again in The Getaway, a 1994 remake of the 1972 film of the same name.
Baldwin's late 1990s roles varied in terms of critical and box office reception, and included several thrillers, such as The Edge, The Juror (opposite Demi Moore) and Heaven's Prisoners. He has shifted more toward roles as a character actor, including his Academy Award nominated turn in 2003's The Cooler and working with director Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio in both The Aviator and The Departed among other roles.
He 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 13 times as of November 2006. He is reportedly one of only two people (the other being Christopher Walken) who have standing invitations to host the show whenever they want.
Baldwin has been nominated for an Emmy Award five times (see below) but has yet to have won any:
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
2005: Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series, for Will & Grace
2006: Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series, for Will & Grace
He wrote an episode of Law & Order entitled Tabloid, which aired in 1998.
Baldwin also stars in the NBC sitcom 30 Rock alongside Tina Fey; the show debuted in the fall of 2006. He was nominated for -- and won -- a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award for his work on this show.
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 acquried by producer Bob Yari and his company. 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 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 which 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 Award 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 starred in the title role of "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 the play Twentieth Century with Anne Heche.
On June 9, 2005, he appeared in a concert version of the Rodgers 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. He locked horns with co-star Jan Maxwell who quit the show early because of Baldwin's admitted outbursts due to the temperature in the theatre.
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CBS: Alec Baldwin ?Easy Target? for ?Conservative Junkyard Dog ...
On Sunday?s CBS "60 Minutes" anchor Morley Safer interviewed left-wing actor Alec Baldwin and spent some time focusing on Baldwin's liberal activism: "And yet it's his off-screen performances that can get in the way of a truly gifted ...
Alec Baldwin is Half Right
Alec Baldwin appeared on 60 Minutes. Morley Safer asked him about the voice mail he left for his daughter in the video above. Baldwin is correct when he says his anger was directed at his ex wife rather than his daughter, but he forgets ...
Alec Baldwin Rational, Smart, Unelectable
Alec Baldwin took to the highbrow nursing home that is 60 Minutes last night to discuss, among other things, that notorious voice message in which he called his adolescent daughter a ?rude little pig.? With narrowed eyes, Baldwin told ...
SAG Award News - Alec Baldwin again flirts with running for office ...
NEW 12:45 pm MELVILLE, NY ? If Alec Baldwin is again flirting with seeking public office, as he hints in an interview Sunday on 60 Minutes, a tirade in which he called his daughter a thoughtless little pig may come back to haunt him, ...
Alec Baldwin is Half Right
Dessarae Bradford Arrested for Prostitution; Alec Baldwin Hates Farmers and Fatties; Lindsay Lohan Extends Stay in Rehab; Looks ?Healthy? Compared to Parents; Alec Baldwin Talks About Parental Alienation; Alec Baldwin Leaves Talent ...
