Alexander Rae Baldwin | Biography, Early life, Education & Awards
Alexander Rae Baldwin is an American film patron, actor, funnyman, and political activist. He's known for his protean performances, from ridiculous work on TV to dramatic places in the film. In 1986, he made his Broadway debut in Joe Orton's Loot, and he made his film debut a year later in Forever Lulu. Over the years, Baldwin has shown his versatility as an actor in films including Beetlejuice, Working Girl, The Hunt for Red October, The Cooler, The Departed and Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation. He received two Emmy Awards and three Golden Globes for his role as TV exec Jack Donaghy in the sitcom 30 Rock and holds the record for most times hosting Saturday Night Live.
- Full Name: Alexander Rae Baldwin III
- Birth: 03 April 1958, in Amityville, New York, U.S.
- Nationality: American
- Occupation: Actor, film patron, comedian activist
- Times Active: 1980 – present
- Profession: Filmography, Political party Democratic
- Spouse: Kim Basinger (m. 1993; div. 2002), Hilaria Baldwin (m. 2012)
- Children: Ireland Baldwin, Carmen Gabriela Baldwin, Rafael Baldwin, Leonardo Baldwin, Romeo Baldwin, Eduardo Baldwin, Lucia Baldwin
Early Life
Alexander Rae Baldwin was born on 03 April 1958, in Amityville, New York. He grew up in the Nassau Shores neighborhood of nearby Massapequa. He was the eldest son of Carol Newcomb and Alexander Rae Baldwin Jr. a high school history/ social studies schoolteacher and football trainer from Brooklyn. He has three younger sisters, Daniel (born 1960), William (born 1963), and Stephen( born 1966), who also became actors. He also has two sisters, Elizabeth" Beth" Baldwin Kuchler (born 1955) and Jane Ann Baldwin Sasso (born 1965). Baldwin and his siblings were raised as Roman Catholics. They're of Irish, French, and English ancestry.
Baldwin attended Alfred G. Berner High School in Massapequa. In Massapequa, he played football under Coach Bob Reifsnyder. In New York City, Baldwin worked as a busboy at the famed discotheque, Studio 54. He attended George Washington University, from 1976 to 1979. In 1979, he lost the election for student body president and received a particular letter from former U.S. chairman Richard Nixon encouraging him to use the loss as a learning experience.
Early career
In 1986, Baldwin made his Broadway debut in reanimation of Joe Orton's Loot alongside Zeljko Ivanek, Zoe Wanamaker, Charles Keating, and Joseph Maher. This project closed after three months. His other Broadway credits include Caryl Churchill's Serious Money with Kate Nelligan and a revival of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, for which his performance as Stanley Kowalski garnered a Tony Award nomination for fashionable Actor. Baldwin also got an Emmy nomination for the 1995 TV interpretation of the production. Baldwin played the title leading role in Macbeth at The Public Theater alongside Angela Bassett and Liev Schreiber in a production directed by George C. Wolfe, in 1998. In 2004, Baldwin starred in a revival of Broadway's Twentieth Century about a successful and egomaniacal Broadway director (Baldwin), who has transformed a chorus girl into a leading lady.
On 09 June 2005, he appeared in a musical 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 work was taped and telecast by PBS on 26 April 2006. In 2006, Baldwin made theater news in Roundabout Theatre Company's Off-Broadway revival of Joe Orton's Entertaining Mr. Sloane. In 2010, Baldwin starred opposite Sam Underwood in a critically accredited revival of Peter Shaffer's Equus, directed by Tony Walton at Guild Hall in East Hampton, New York.
Films and Television Shows
'The Doctors', 'Knots Landing'
Baldwin began his theater career on TV when he landed a character playing Billy Aldrich on the NBC soap opera The Doctors (1980-1982). He soon moved to prime-time television as a co-star in the series Cutter to Houston, and as Joshua Rush in the nighttime soap opera Knots Landing (1984- 85). In time 1988, he replaced George Carlin as the narrator of the popular animated children's show Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends.
Baldwin also pursued a stage career, making his Broadway debut in Joe Orton's black comedy Loot, which won him a Theatre World Award. His succeeding stage part was in the year 1987, in Caryl Churchill's megahit comedy Serious' plutocrat'. He also starred off-Broadway in a sold-out engagement of Prelude to a Kiss, receiving an Obie Award as a fashionable Actor, in 1991.
After this, he appeared as Stanley Kowalski in a revival of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire( 1992), earning a Tony nomination for fashionable Actor. Later on, he appeared in the 1995 version of the play on CBS, which co-starred Jessica Lange, John Goodman, and Diane Lane. In 1998, Baldwin went back to the stage, appearing in Shakespeare's Hamlet with co-star Angela Bassett, at the Joseph Papp Public Theater in New York City.
'Beetlejuice', 'The Hunt for Red October' and 'Glengarry Glen Ross'
Baldwin made his film debut in the quirky Forever Lulu (1987) with Dr. Ruth Westheimer and Deborah Harry. Subsequent film highlights include Jonathan Demme's Married to the Mob (1988) with Michelle Pfeiffer, Tim Burton's offbeat comedy Beetlejuice (1988), Mike Nichols' Working Girl (1988), Oliver Stone's Talk Radio (1988), playing Jimmy Swaggart in Great Balls of Fire (1989) and starring in Miami Blues (1990) and The Hunt For Red October (1990). Baldwin was also part of the all-star ensemble cast in David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) and starred in the film adaptation of Prelude to a Kiss (1992) and The Shadow (1994).
'The Cooler', 'The Aviator' and 'The Departed'
By continuing his film work, Baldwin appeared in the 1998 thriller Mercury Rising and the 1999 comedy Outside Providence, before making an unbilled cameo in 1999's Notting Hill, with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. Baldwin was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2003 for his work in the romantic drama The Cooler. In 2004, he appeared in The Aviator, Martin Scorsese's Howard Hughes biopic starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and the quirky Along Came Polly with Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston. He again worked with Scorsese in' The Departed' in 2005.
'30 Rock'
In 2006, Baldwin landed a starring work as television executive Jack Donaghy in the popular TV sitcom 30 Rock, co-starring Tina Fey. He received multitudinous awards for his work in the sitcom, including three Golden Globes, three Screen Actors Guild Awards and two Emmy Awards. Baldwin also worked behind the cameras as a producer on 30 Rock.
'Mission Impossible', 'The Public' and 'Boss Baby'
Coming back on the big screen, Baldwin appeared in the romantic comedy It's Complicated with Meryl Streep and Steve Martin in 2009 and Rock of Ages with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Tom Cruise in 2012. Baldwin alsoco-starred in Mission insolvable Rogue Nation in 2015, before reprising his work three years later for Mission Impossible-Fallout.
With his distinctive, deep voice, Baldwin has given voice work for animated films and documentaries. His voice work include Madagascar Escape 2 Africa (2008) and Rise of the Guardians( 2012). He also gave his voice in the titular newborn businessman of the animated Boss Baby( 2017) and a polar bear in Arctic Dogs (2019).
Around that time, the actor enjoyed a prominent role in the ensemble drama The Public, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2018, before appearing in the crime film Motherless Brooklyn and the comedies Before You Know It and Drunk Parents in 2019.
Radio and Podcasts
On 12 January 2009, Baldwin became the host of The New York Philharmonic This Week, the nationally syndicated radio series of the New York Philharmonic. Baldwin has recorded two nationally distributed public service radio announcements on behalf of the Save the Manatee Club.
On 24 October 2011, WNYC public radio released the first event of Baldwin's podcast Here is the Thing, a series of interviews with public numbers including artists, policy-makers, and Show performers. The first two events featured actor Michael Douglas and political adviser Ed Rollins. In 2011 and 2020, Baldwin completed more than 150 interviews, with guests who included filmmaker Edward Norton, musician Wynton Marsalis, comedian David Letterman, pianist Lang Lang, and violinist Itzhak Perlman among many others. Here's the Thing was developed for Alec Baldwin by Lu Olkowski, Trey Kay, Kathy Russo, and Emily Botein.
Awards
Baldwin has received many awards, including three Emmy Awards, eight Screen Actors council Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards as well as nominations for an Academy Award, a Tony Award, and a British Academy Film Award.
Alec Baldwin has also got a number of awards and nominations throughout his career for stage, TV, and film works. Baldwin has been nominated for the Academy Award, Tony Award, and BAFTA Award and has Got three Primetime Emmy Awards, eight Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards.
On 12 May 2010, Baldwin gave an inception address at New York University and was awarded a Doctor of Fine Arts degree, honoris causa. Baldwin was named Esteemed Faculty by Stony Brook University after teaching a master's class in acting at Stony Brook Southampton.
Book by Alec Baldwin
Baldwin published the book "A Promise to Ourselves", in 2008. In this book, he documented his battle to retain custody and visitation for his daughter. In the book, he revealed that he had spent millions on travel, bought a home close to Basinger, and taken a break in his career in order to be near his daughter in ,Ireland. Baldwin said that, as a result, his frustration leaked into a court-appointed phone call to his daughter, which she didn't answer. In 2009, he told Playboy magazine that he had contemplated suicide over that voicemail incident.
Before the release of his bio "Nevertheless", in 2017, Baldwin gave an interview to anchor George Stephanopoulos, of Good Morning America, in which he talked over his struggles with drunkenness. In his statement he said "I got sober when I was just about to turn 27. In this interview, he also said "And those two years that I lived in that white, hot period, as a daily drug abuser, as a daily drinker. to my misery, boy, that was a tough time."
Other Efforts
Alec Baldwin has been a contributor to community theater organizations, including the now-defunct Circle Repertory Theatre in New York City and the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor (New York). He is an open activist for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and Baldwin is also on the board of directors of- People for the American Way, The Creative Coalition, The Drama League of New York, and New York City Center.
Personal Information
In May 1990, Baldwin met actress Kim Basinger when they played lovers in the film The Marrying Man. Baldwin and Kim Basinger married on 19 August 1993 and the couple has one daughter, Ireland Eliesse-born on 23 October 1995. In January 2001, after seven years of marriage, Basinger filed for divorce and they divorced on 03 September 2002. Following their split, there were allegations of abuse and drunkenness, and a vicious guardianship battle over the couple's daughter.
In their 2004 divorce trial, Baldwin was awarded common legal guardianship of his daughter. Alec Baldwin wrote that he spent over a million dollars, had to put time apart from his career, had to travel considerably, and is required to find a house in California (New York), so that he could stay in his daughter's life. In May 2007, still, the courts compactly abandoned his visiting rights when his 11-year-old daughter publicized curse-strewn phone communication he left her in April of that year.
Baldwin began a relationship with yoga teacher Hilaria Thomas in August 2011. The couple got engaged in April 2012 and were married on 01 July 2012, at New York City's St. Patrick's Old Cathedral. Their guests included Lorne Michaels, Fey, Jimmy Fallon, and Woody Allen. The couple had their first child together, in August 2013, daughter Carmen. They went on to have four more children - Rafael (born in June 2015), Leonardo (born in September 2016), Romeo (born in May 2018), and Eduardo (born in September 2020). In February 2021, Thomas posted on her Instagram that they welcomed a daughter, Lucia.
