Kim Basinger

Kim Basinger
Basinger in France, September 1989
Born	Kimila Ann Basinger (1953-12-08) December 8, 1953 (age 58) Athens, Georgia, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, producer
Years active	1969–1975 (model) 1976–present (actress)
Height	5 ft 7.5 in (1.71 m)
Spouse	Ron Snyder (m. 1980–1989) «start: (1980)–end+1: (1990)»"Marriage: Ron Snyder to Kim Basinger" Location: (linkback://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Basinger) (divorced) Alec Baldwin (m. 1993–2002) «start: (1993)–end+1: (2003)»"Marriage: Alec Baldwin to Kim Basinger" Location: (linkback://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Basinger) (divorced)
Children	Ireland Eliesse Baldwin (b. 1995)

Kimila Ann "Kim" Basinger ( /ˈbeɪsɪŋər/ BAY-sing-ər, often mispronounced /ˈbæsɪndʒər/ BASS-in-jər; born December 8, 1953) is an American actress, singer, and former fashion model.

She is known for her portrayals of Domino Petachi, the Bond girl in Never Say Never Again (1983), and Vicki Vale, the female lead in Batman (1989). Basinger received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture nomination for her work in The Natural (1984). She won an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in L.A. Confidential (1997). Basinger also acted in the movies 9½ Weeks (1986) and 8 Mile (2002).

Early life

Basinger was born in Athens, Georgia. Her father, Donald Wade Basinger, was a big band musician and loan manager who as a U.S. Army soldier landed in Normandy on D-Day (June 6, 1944).^[1] Her mother, Ann (née Cordell), was a model, an actress, and a swimmer who appeared in several Esther Williams films.^[2][3] The third of five children, she has two brothers, Mick and Skip, and two sisters, Ashley and Barbara. Basinger's ancestry includes German, Swedish, Irish and Native American,^[4] and she was raised a Methodist.^[5]

She spent most of her childhood studying ballet from about the time she was three to her mid-teens. She was suspended from her elementary school talent show after she stripped down to a bikini and sang "The Game of Love." When Basinger was 16, she started modeling by winning the Athens Junior Miss contest. She then won the title “Junior Miss Georgia”. She competed in the national Junior Miss pageant and was offered a modeling contract with Ford Modeling Agency. She turned it down in favor of singing and acting, but reconsidered and went to New York to become a Ford model.

Career

Not long after the Ford deal, Basinger was on the cover of magazines. She appeared in hundreds of ads throughout the early 1970s, most notably as the Breck Shampoo girl. She alternated between modeling and attending acting classes at the Neighborhood Playhouse as well as performing in Greenwich Village clubs.

In 1976, after five years as a cover girl, Basinger moved to Los Angeles to act. She had guest roles on TV shows such as Charlie's Angels and The Six Million Dollar Man, as well as a starring role on the short-lived series Dog and Cat (1977). In 1978, Basinger played the lead role in the made-for-TV movie Katie: Portrait of a Centerfold, as a smalltown young woman who goes to Hollywood to become an actress and winds up a famous centerfold for a men's magazine. She was cast as Lorene Rogers in the 1979 miniseries remake of From Here to Eternity. Basinger reprised that role in a 13-episode series spinoff in 1980. She made her theatrical feature debut in Hard Country (shot in 1979 and released in 1981), where she starred opposite Jan Michael Vincent. Her next film was the 1982 adventure Mother Lode, featuring Charlton Heston and directed by Fraser Clarke Heston.

Basinger's breakout role was as Bond girl Domino Petachi in Never Say Never Again (1983), opposite Sean Connery. She recevied a Golden Globe nomination for her performance in Barry Levinson's The Natural (1984), opposite Robert Redford. In 1984, Basinger began work on the sexually provocative film 9½ Weeks (released 1986), which co-starred Mickey Rourke. Oscar-winning writer-director Robert Benton cast her in the title role for the film Nadine (1987) with Jeff Bridges. Basinger played Vicki Vale in the 1989 blockbuster Batman, directed by Tim Burton.

Directors repeated her in their films, such as Blake Edwards for The Man Who Loved Women (1983) and Blind Date (1987), as well as Robert Altman for Fool for Love (1985) and Prêt-à-Porter (1994). In 1992, Basinger was guest vocalist on a re-recorded version of Was (Not Was)'s "Shake Your Head", which also featured Ozzy Osbourne on vocals, and reached the UK Top 5.^[6]

Basinger scaled back her acting work for most of the 1990s. She made a comeback in 1997 as the femme fatale in the neo-noir L.A. Confidential. This earned her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, as well as the Golden Globe and Screen Actor's Guild Award. The film's director, Curtis Hanson, cast her once more as Eminem's mother in 8 Mile (2002). Basinger appeared in the mainstream thrillers Cellular (2004) and The Sentinel (2006), but for the rest of the decade her appearances were in low-profile projects. She starred in the 2006 Lifetime original movie The Mermaid Chair, as well as independent films such as 2008's The Burning Plain.^[7]

Basinger played Zac Efron's mother in the 2010 film Charlie St. Cloud.

Personal life

Relationships and family

Basinger with Alec Baldwin at the 1994 César Awards ceremony in Paris.

Basinger dated and lived with Dale Robinette in the 1970s.^[8]

On October 12, 1980, Basinger married makeup artist Ron Snyder-Britton (born 1938), who worked on the crew of her film Hard Country. They separated in 1988 and were officially divorced in 1989. He later wrote a memoir in 1998, Longer than Forever, about their time together and her rumored affair with actor Richard Gere, with whom she starred in No Mercy (1986) and Final Analysis (1992).^[9]

After the divorce Basinger dated casting director Jon Peters and singer Prince.^[8]

She met her second husband, Alec Baldwin, in 1990 when they played lovers in The Marrying Man. They married on August 19, 1993, and appeared in the remake of The Getaway (1994). They played themselves in a 1998 episode of The Simpsons (which includes Ron Howard), in which Basinger corrects Homer Simpson on the pronunciation of her last name and polishes her Oscar statuette. Basinger and Baldwin have a daughter, Ireland Eliesse Baldwin (born October 23, 1995). They separated in December 2000 and were officially divorced in February 2002. In the following years, the pair was embroiled in a custody battle over their daughter.

Financial problems

Some family members recommended Basinger buy the small town of Braselton, Georgia in 1989 for US$20 million, to establish as a tourist attraction with movie studios and film festival, but she met financial difficulties and started to sell parts off in 1995.^[10] The town is now owned by developer Wayne Mason. In a 1998 interview with Barbara Walters Basinger admitted that "nothing good came out of it" because a rift resulted within her family. Her financial difficulties were exacerbated when she pulled out of the controversial film Boxing Helena, resulting in the studio's winning an US$8.1 million judgment against her. Basinger filed for bankruptcy ^[11] and appealed the jury's decision to a higher court, which sided with her. She and the studio settled for $3.8 million instead.^[10] The Town, even after such a big feature not happening, is one of the fastest growing cities in America and is mostly residental, warehouses, and a major motorsports community.

Activism

Basinger is a vegan animal rights supporter. She has posed for anti-fur advertisements by PETA.^[12] She has written to fashion designers such as Yohji Yamamoto to ask that they stop using fur.^[13]

Filmography

Discography

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kim Basinger

• Kim Basinger at the Internet Movie Database
• Kim Basinger at AllRovi
• Kim Basinger at Rotten Tomatoes