Kim Basinger facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Kim Basinger
Kim Basinger at the 62nd Academy Awards in 1990
Born	Kimila Ann Basinger (1953-12-08) December 8, 1953 (age 71) Athens, Georgia, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Georgia
Occupation	Actress singer
Years active	1976–present
Spouse(s)	Ron Snyder ​ ​ (m. 1980; div. 1989)​ Alec Baldwin ​ ​ (m. 1993; div. 2002)​
Partner(s)	Mitchell Stone (2014–present)
Children	Ireland Baldwin

Kim Basinger (born December 8, 1953) is a famous American actress. She has won many important awards for her acting. These include an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Kim Basinger first became known as a model. Then she started acting in TV shows. She became very famous as a Bond girl in 1983. For the next 20 years, she was a very popular actress. In 2011, Los Angeles Times Magazine named her one of the "50 Most Beautiful Women In Film."

Basinger started her career as a model. She then began acting in 1976. She was in several TV shows. One was a remake of From Here to Eternity (1979). Her first movie was Hard Country (1981). She gained a lot of attention as Domino Petachi in the James Bond movie Never Say Never Again (1983). She was nominated for a Golden Globe for her role in The Natural (1984). She also starred in 9½ Weeks (1986). She played Vicki Vale in Tim Burton's Batman (1989). This is her highest-earning film.

In 1997, Basinger won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. This was for her role in L.A. Confidential. Some of her other movies include No Mercy (1986), Blind Date (1987), and My Stepmother Is an Alien (1988). She also appeared in 8 Mile (2002) and Cellular (2004). Later films include Grudge Match (2013) and Fifty Shades Darker (2017).

Kim Basinger was married to makeup artist Ron Snyder. She was also married to actor Alec Baldwin. She has a daughter named Ireland Baldwin with Alec Baldwin. She is currently with her longtime hairstylist, Mitch Stone.

Early Life and Becoming a Model

Kim Basinger was born in Athens, Georgia, on December 8, 1953. Her mother, Ann Lee, was a model, actress, and swimmer. Her father, Donald Wade Basinger, was a musician and loan manager. Kim was the middle child of five. She has two older brothers and two younger sisters.

Kim described herself as very shy when she was young. This shyness affected her a lot. She studied ballet from age three until her mid-teens. As she got older, she became more confident. At 17, she won the Athens Junior Miss pageant.

She was offered a modeling contract with the Ford Modeling Agency. At first, she wanted to sing and act instead. She enrolled at the University of Georgia. But she soon decided to become a model in New York. Even though she earned a lot of money, she didn't enjoy modeling. She said it was hard to always focus on her looks.

In the early 1970s, Kim appeared on many magazine covers. She was in hundreds of advertisements. She was especially known as the "Breck Shampoo girl." While modeling, she also took acting classes. She performed as a singer in clubs in Greenwich Village. She studied acting at the William Esper Studio in Manhattan.

Her Acting Career

Starting Out in TV and Movies (1976–1982)

Basinger as Officer J.Z. Kane in the TV show Dog and Cat (1977)

In 1976, after five years as a model, Kim Basinger moved to Los Angeles. She wanted to become an actress. She appeared on TV shows like McMillan & Wife and Charlie's Angels. She turned down a regular role in Charlie's Angels. Her first main role was in a TV movie called Katie: Portrait of a Centerfold (1978). In this movie, she played a small-town girl who becomes a famous model.

In 1979, she co-starred in the TV miniseries From Here to Eternity. She then continued her role in a 13-episode spinoff show. In 1981, Kim made her first movie, Hard Country. She then starred in Mother Lode (1982).

Becoming a Worldwide Star (1983–1989)

Kim Basinger became a Bond girl named Domino Petachi in Never Say Never Again (1983). She starred alongside Sean Connery. The movie earned US$160 million worldwide. She then played the romantic interest in The Natural (1984). For this role, she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.

Director Blake Edwards cast her in two of his films. She was in The Man Who Loved Women (1983). She also starred in Blind Date (1987). In 1986, Basinger starred with Mickey Rourke in 9½ Weeks. This movie was very popular in Europe.

Kim Basinger also starred in Nadine (1987). These films helped her become a well-known actress. Her highest-earning film is Tim Burton's Batman (1989). She played photojournalist Vicki Vale. She starred with Michael Keaton (Batman) and Jack Nicholson (Joker).

Movies in the 1990s

Basinger at the Deauville American Film Festival in 1989

After Batman was a success, Basinger played a singer in The Marrying Man (1991). She starred with Alec Baldwin. She also appeared with Richard Gere in Final Analysis (1992). In 1992, she sang on a song called "Shake Your Head". She also voiced a cartoon character in the film Cool World.

In 1993, Basinger played a woman just out of prison in The Real McCoy. She also had a role in the comedy Wayne's World 2. In 1994, she worked with Alec Baldwin again in The Getaway. She also reunited with director Robert Altman for Prêt-à-Porter.

Kim Basinger made a big comeback in L.A. Confidential (1997). She starred with Guy Pearce and Russell Crowe. She won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for this role. She also won a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She said this film and I Dreamed of Africa (2000) were her favorite projects.

Roles in the 2000s

In I Dreamed of Africa (2000), Basinger played writer Kuki Gallmann. She said she "cried for hours" when filming ended in Kenya. In 2002, she starred as the mother of a rapper in 8 Mile. She acted alongside Eminem and Brittany Murphy. This film was a big success, earning US$242.9 million.

Basinger starred with Jeff Bridges in The Door in the Floor (2004). A critic from Rolling Stone said her "haunted beauty burns in the memory." She then appeared in two crime thrillers. These were Cellular (2004) and The Sentinel (2006). In Cellular, she played a teacher taken hostage. In The Sentinel, she played the First Lady of the United States.

In 2008, Basinger starred in The Burning Plain. She acted with Charlize Theron and Jennifer Lawrence. She also produced and starred in the thriller While She Was Out (2008). Her next film was The Informers (2009).

Films in the 2010s

In 2010, Basinger played the mother of a young man in Charlie St. Cloud. She starred with Zac Efron. She then appeared in the 2012 Nigerian drama Black November. She played a kidnapped reporter in this film.

In 2013, Basinger played a wife in two films. These were Third Person and Grudge Match. In Grudge Match, she starred with Robert De Niro and Sylvester Stallone. A critic said she "looks stunning at 60." In 2016, she had a small role in the crime comedy The Nice Guys.

Basinger played Elena Lincoln in Fifty Shades Darker (2017). She was the business partner and former lover of Christian Grey. Her co-star, Dakota Johnson, praised her acting. The film earned US$381.4 million globally. Basinger played the role again in Fifty Shades Freed (2018).

Recent Work (2020s)

In 2022, Kim Basinger worked on a short film called LIT Project 2: Flux. She also appears as a character in the video game Crime Boss: Rockay City (2023).

Personal Life

Basinger with Alec Baldwin in Paris in 1994

Kim Basinger has been married twice. On October 12, 1980, she married makeup artist Ron Snyder-Britton. They met while working on the film Hard Country. They divorced in 1989.

In 1990, Basinger met her second husband, Alec Baldwin. They played lovers in the movie The Marrying Man. They married on August 19, 1993. They also starred together in the 1994 film The Getaway. Kim and Alec have a daughter, Ireland Baldwin, who was born in 1995. They separated in 2000 and divorced in 2002.

After her divorce from Alec Baldwin, Basinger began dating Mitch Stone in 2014. He is her hairstylist. They live together.

Activism

Kim Basinger is a vegetarian. She is also a strong supporter of animal rights. She has appeared in anti-fur advertisements for PETA. She also made a public service announcement for Farm Sanctuary. This was about protecting sick farm animals. She helped create a bill to protect these animals. The bill was signed by the Governor of California.

Filmography and Awards

Since she started acting in the late 1970s, Kim Basinger has been in over fifty films and TV shows. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her role in The Natural (1984). She also won an ensemble award for the cast of Prêt-à-Porter (1994).

She won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. These were all for Best Supporting Actress in L.A. Confidential (1997). She also has a motion pictures star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. This is for her achievements in movies.

Her most famous and highest-earning films include:

Discography

• 1989: The Scandalous ... Suite EP with Prince, Warner Bros. Records
• 1990: Hollywood Affair (unreleased album)
• 1991: Too Hot to Handle EP: Music from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (to The Marrying Man), produced by Tim Hauser; Hollywood Records

See also

In Spanish: Kim Basinger para niños

• Bond girl
• List of stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
• List of actors with Academy Award nominations