Best Known As: Oscar-winning blonde star of L.A. Confidential
Kim Basinger went from beauty pageants to modelling, then from Playboy magazine to television and the movies. She had parts in Never Say Never Again (1983) and The Natural (1984, with Robert Redford), but it was her starring role in 9 1/2 Weeks that gained her an audience. Basinger made headlines when she bought the small town of Braselton, Georgia in 1989; she was forced to sell it when she declared bankruptcy in 1993. She proved her acting chops in the 1997 drama L. A. Confidential (opposite Russell Crowe) and won an Oscar. Her other films include 8 Mile, in which she played Eminem's mother, The Door in the Floor (2004) and Cellular (2004).
Basinger and actor Alec Baldwin were married in 1994, but split up in 2001; they have a daughter, Ireland, born in 1995.
Career Highlights: L.A. Confidential, Batman, Blind Date
First Major Screen Credit: Katie: Portrait of a Centerfold (1978)
Biography
Kim Basinger was hardly the first successful model to head to Hollywood in hopes of a career on the big screen, but few have managed to achieve the same degree of public acclaim and professional recognition that she has earned. Born in Athens, GA, on December 8, 1953, Kim Basinger was raised in a family of entertainers; her father had been a jazz musician and her mother a dancer who was part of the "water ballet" chorus in a handful of Esther Williams musicals. Basinger's parents enrolled her in dance classes at an early age to help her overcome a strong case of shyness; in time, she discovered she enjoyed both dancing and singing, and began contemplating a career in show business. She began competing in beauty contests as a teenager, and won the Junior Miss Georgia pageant, which took her to the national competition in New York City. By this time a striking and statuesque blonde beauty, Basinger was spotted by a representative of the prestigious Ford Modeling Agency and offered a contract; while she had hoped to make her mark as a cabaret singer, she wisely decided moving to the Big Apple was a step in the right direction. Before long, Basinger was earning 1,000 dollars per day through modeling jobs, and had signed on as the Breck Shampoo girl; in her spare time, she studied acting and picked up occasional singing gigs.
In 1976, Basinger decided to take a more serious stab at acting, and moved to Los Angeles. Within a year, she made her television debut as a female police detective in the pilot for a short-lived crime drama entitled Dog and Cat; in 1978, she landed the starring role in the made-for-TV movie Katie: Portrait of a Centerfold, appropriately playing a beautiful Southern girl who comes to Los Angeles in search of stardom. After being cast as Lorene Rogers in a TV remake of From Here to Eternity (a role she reprised in a subsequent series based upon the film), Basinger finally made her way to the big screen in the low-budget drama Hard Country. But while it (and Basinger) received good reviews, her screen career didn't take off in a big way until 1983, when she was cast opposite Sean Connery in the James Bond adventure Never Say Never Again. She also posed for a well-publicized layout in Playboy which, coinciding with the film's release, certainly didn't hurt her growing popularity.
While Basinger's career took off after Never Say Never Again, and she appeared in several major hits (including The Natural, 9 1/2 Weeks, and Batman, the latter of which led to a brief romance with pop star Prince), quality roles tended to elude her. But she generally fared well with the material given to her, and shined in several smaller films, including Fool for Love and Nadine. In 1991, Basinger was cast opposite Alec Baldwin in the comedy The Marrying Man, and the two hit it off -- so much so that some accused their romance of interfering with the production. The couple rode out the negative publicity, however, and married in 1993. (It was Basinger's second marriage after divorcing Ron Britton in 1989.)
The next several years were difficult for Basinger. Her decision to not appear in the film Boxing Helena after verbally committing to the project led to her being sued by the film's producers, who won an eight-million-dollar judgment against her. Although the ruling was eventually overturned on appeal, legal bills forced Basinger to declare bankruptcy. And after several undistinguished projects, the actress went three years without working, during which she and Baldwin had a child. However, Basinger's 1997 comeback in L.A. Confidential suggested her time away had been well spent; playing a high-priced call girl with a close resemblance to Veronica Lake, Basinger's assured performance won her an Oscar as best supporting actress. This triumph was followed by another three-year sabbatical, which was followed by her divorce from Baldwin and a pair of box-office flops, I Dreamed of Africa and Bless the Child. In 2002, Basinger re-teamed with L.A. Confidential director Curtis Hanson, and won rave reviews for her gritty performance as a troubled single mother in the acclaimed urban drama 8 Mile. A committed vegetarian, Basinger also became an outspoken animal-rights activist In her offscreen life during the '90s. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Basinger was born in Athens, Georgia. Her father, Don Basinger, was a big band musician and loan manager[1] who landed in Normandy on D-Day.[2] Her mother, Ann, was a model, actress, and swimmer who appeared in Esther Williams films. The third of five children, she has two brothers, Mick and Skip, and two sisters, Ashley and Barbara. Basinger has German, Swedish and Cherokee ancestry[3] and was raised Methodist.[4]
When Basinger was sixteen, she started her modeling career by winning the Athens Junior Miss contest. She followed that by winning the title “Junior Miss Georgia”. Basinger then competed in the national Junior Miss pageant. It was there that Basinger was offered a modeling contract with Ford Modeling Agency. Initially turning down the offer in favor of singing and acting, Basinger reconsidered and went to New York to become a Ford model.
Career
Not long after penning the deal, Basinger was on the cover of numerous magazines. She appeared in hundreds of ads throughout the early 1970s, most notably appearing as the Breck Shampoo girl. In the meantime, she alternated between modeling work and attending acting classes at the prestigious Neighborhood Playhouse as well as performing in various Greenwich Village clubs.
In 1976, after a five-year stint as a cover girl, Basinger decided to put her modeling career on hold and move to Los Angeles to begin a career in acting. After appearing in small parts on a few TV shows such as Starsky and Hutch and Charlie's Angels, her first starring role was a made-for-TV movie, Katie: Portrait of a Centerfold (1978) in which she played a small town girl who goes to Hollywood to become an actress and winds up becoming a famous centerfold for a men's magazine. She was then cast as a prostitute in From Here to Eternity (1979), in which she starred alongside Natalie Wood. Basinger played the same character in a 13-episode TV spinoff. She made her feature film debut in Hard Country (1981) with Jan Michael Vincent, followed by Mother Load (1982) with Charlton Heston.
Basinger then played Vicki Vale in the blockbuster hit Batman (1989). Sean Young was originally cast as Vicki Vale, but dropped out due to an injury prior to filming. Tim Burton recommended to replace Young with Michelle Pfeiffer, but Pfeiffer was doing The Fabulous Baker Boys at the time. (Pfeiffer would be cast as Catwoman in Batman Returns) When she was interviewed with Burton, Basinger was accepted and was cast.
In 1992, Basinger was the 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.[citation needed] In the video for Tom Petty's 1993 song "Mary Jane's Last Dance", Basinger played the role of a deceased woman Petty brings home from the morgue for a dinner date, clothing her in a wedding dress. Later, Petty is shown carrying her to a rocky shore and throwing her into the sea. In a macabre ending, she is seen floating in the water with her eyes open.
On October 12, 1980, Basinger married makeup artist Ron Snyder-Britton, whom she had met on the film Hard Country, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1989. He would later write a memoir titled Longer than Forever, published in 1998, about their time together and about her rumored affairs with singer Prince and actor Richard Gere, with whom she starred in No Mercy (1986) and Final Analysis (1992).[6]
In 1990, she met her second husband, actor Alec Baldwin, when they played lovers in the film The Marrying Man. They married on August 19, 1993 and appeared in the remake of The Getaway (1994). They also played themselves in a 1998 episode of The Simpsons (which also includes Ron Howard), where Basinger corrects Homer Simpson on the pronunciation of her last name and also polishes her Oscar statuette.
Basinger and Baldwin had a daughter, Ireland Eliesse "Addie" Baldwin (born October 23, 1995). They filed for divorce in January 2001; it was finalized in February 2002. Since then, the couple have been locked in a contentious public custody battle. Alec Baldwin's book A Promise To Ourselves[7] chronicles the lengths Baldwin claims Basinger has gone to deny Baldwin access to their daughter since their separation.
Some of her family members recommended that Basinger buy the small town of Braselton, Georgia in 1989 for $20 million, with the hopes of establishing it as a tourist attraction with movie studios and a film festival, but she met financial difficulties and sold it in 1993. 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 suing and winning an $8-million judgment against her. Basinger filed for bankruptcy[8] and also appealed the jury's decision to a higher court, which sided with her. Eventually, she and the studio settled for a lesser amount.[9][10]
While Basinger is close to her sister Ashley and father Don, she is estranged from her brother Mick and her mother, Ann, who has been sympathetic to ex-son-in-law Baldwin in the aftermath of the divorce. "Kim has just written off the ones who don't agree with her", says a source close to the family.[11]
