Kim Basinger
Basinger in France, September 1989
Born | Kimila Ann Basinger (1953-12-08) December 8, 1953 (age 60) 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(s) | Ron Snyder (1980?1989) Alec Baldwin (1993?2002)
Children | Ireland Eliesse Baldwin

Kimila Ann "Kim" Basinger (/[unsupported input]ʔ b[unsupported input]s ʔ ʔ[unsupported input]/ BAY-sing-?r, often mispronounced /ʔ b ʔ s ʔ n[unsupported input][unsupported input]/ BASS-in-j?r; 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 9? Weeks (1986), I Dreamed of Africa (as Kuki Gallmann) and 8 Mile (2002).

## Early life[edit]

Basinger was born in Athens, Georgia on 8 December 1953.[1] Her mother, Ann (n?e Cordell), was a model, an actress, and a swimmer who appeared in several Esther Williams films.[1] 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).[2] The third of five children,[1] she has two brothers, Mick and Skip, and two sisters, Ashley and Barbara. Basinger's ancestry includes German, Swedish, and Native American,[3] and she was raised a Methodist.[4] The relationship between her parents was tenuous and her father's critical nature affected her emotionally from a young age. She has said "I just couldn't please him enough. He never complimented me ever. And I saw a lot of silence. Children always read into silence as something terrible."[1] She confesses to have been extremely shy and lonely and faced a lot of hardship during her school years.[1]

She studied ballet from about age three to her mid-teens. By her mid teens she grew in confidence and successfully auditioned for the school cheerleading team.[1] 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?.[5] She competed in the national Junior Miss pageant and was offered a modeling contract with Ford Modeling Agency.[1] She turned it down in favor of singing and acting, and enrolled at the University of Georgia, but soon reconsidered and went to New York to become a Ford model.[1] Despite earning $1000 a day, Basinger never enjoyed modelling, saying "It was very hard to go from one booking to another and always have to deal with the way I looked. I couldn't stand it. I felt myself choking."[1] Basinger has said that even as a model, when others relished looking in the mirror before appearing, she abhorred it and would avoid mirrors out of insecurity.[6]

## Career[edit]

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.[7] She alternated between modeling and attending acting classes at the Neighborhood Playhouse as well as performing in Greenwich Village clubs as a singer.[8]

In 1976, after five years as a cover girl, Basinger quit modelling and moved to Los Angeles to act. She had guest roles on TV shows such as Charlie's Angels[9] and The Six Million Dollar Man,[10] as well as a starring role on the short-lived series Dog and Cat (1977).[11] 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.[1] She was cast as prostitute Lorene Rogers in the 1979 NBC miniseries remake of the 1953 film From Here to Eternity.[10] 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 received 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 9? 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.

Some directors cast her multiple times 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 Pr?t-?-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.[12]

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. She initially turned down the film three times, feeling an insecurity at returning to the screen and enjoying motherhood.[6] This earned her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, as well as the Golden Globe and Screen Actor's Guild Award. In a 2000 interview with Charlie Rose, Basinger said that that and her next project I Dreamed of Africa (2000) were the most pleasurable of her career and that the cast were all there for the right reasons.[6] She says that Vincent P?rez was the "most incredible actor she had ever worked with" and had the "biggest heart of anybody she has ever worked with."[6]

Curtis Hanson cast her again 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.[13]

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

## Personal life[edit]

### Relationships and family[edit]

Basinger with Alec Baldwin at the 1994 C?sar Awards ceremony in Paris.

Basinger dated and lived with Dale Robinette in the 1970s.[14]

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).[15] After the divorce Basinger dated casting director Jon Peters and singer Prince.[14] 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. In a 2000 interview with Charlie Rose, Basinger confessed to having suffered from agrophobia in the early 1980s and suffering deep-rooted insecurities.[6] Basinger says that she has a "humorous relationship" with God and a strong faith.[6]

### Financial problems[edit]

Some family members recommended Basinger buy the small town of Braselton, Georgia, some 1691 acres in 1989 for US$20 million, to establish as a tourist attraction with movie studios and film festival.[16] However, she encountered financial difficulties and started to sell parts of it off in 1995.[17] 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 [18] and appealed the jury's decision to a higher court, which sided with her. She and the studio settled for $3.8 million instead.[17] The town, even after such a big feature didn't happen, is one of the fastest growing cities in America and is mostly residential, warehouses, and a major motorsports community.

### Activism[edit]

Basinger is a vegetarian and an animal rights supporter. She has posed for anti-fur advertisements by PETA.[19] She has written to fashion designers such as Yohji Yamamoto to ask that they stop using fur.[20]

## Discography[edit]

Studio albums

- 1989: Hollywood Affair (produced by Prince; Sabotage Records)

EPs

- 1989: The Scandalous Sex Suite EP with Prince (Warner Bros)
- 1991: Too Hot To Handle EP: Music from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (produced by Tim Hauser; Hollywood Records)

## Filmography[edit]

Year | Film | Role | Awards and nominations
--- | --- | --- | ---
1981 | Hard Country | Jodie |
Killjoy | Laury Medford |
1982 | Mother Lode | Andrea Spalding |
1983 | Never Say Never Again | Domino Petachi |
The Man Who Loved Women | Louise Carr |
1984 | The Natural | Memo Paris | Nominated ? Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress ? Motion Picture
1985 | Fool for Love | May |
1986 | 9? Weeks | Elizabeth |
No Mercy | Michele Duval |
1987 | Blind Date | Nadia Gates |
Nadine | Nadine Hightower |
1988 | My Stepmother Is an Alien | Celeste Martin | Nominated ? Saturn Award for Best Actress
1989 | Batman | Vicki Vale | Nominated ? Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress
1991 | The Marrying Man (aka Too Hot to Handle) | Vicki Anderson |
1992 | Final Analysis | Heather Evans |
Cool World | Holli Would |
1993 | The Real McCoy | Karen McCoy |
Wayne's World 2 | Honey Horn? |
1994 | The Getaway | Carol McCoy |
Ready to Wear (aka Pr?t-?-Porter) | Kitty Potter | National Board of Review Award for Best Cast
1997 | L.A. Confidential | Lynn Bracken | Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress ? Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role ? Motion Picture Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated ? BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role Nominated ? Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2000 | I Dreamed of Africa | Kuki Gallmann |
Bless the Child | Maggie O'Connor |
2002 | 8 Mile | Stephanie Smith |
People I Know | Victoria Gray |
2004 | The Door in the Floor | Marion Cole |
Elvis Has Left the Building | Harmony Jones | Straight to video
Cellular | Jessica Martin | Nominated ? Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress
2006 | The Sentinel | 1st Lady Sarah Ballentine |
The Mermaid Chair | Jessie Sullivan |
Even Money | Carol Carver |
2008 | While She Was Out | Della Myers |
The Informers | Laura Sloan |
The Burning Plain | Gina |
2010 | Charlie St. Cloud | Claire St. Cloud |

### Television[edit]

Year | Film | Role | Notes
--- | --- | --- | ---
1976 | Gemini Man | Sheila | TV series; episode: "Night Train to Dallas"
Charlie's Angels | Linda Oliver | TV series; episode: "Angels in Chains"
1977 | McMillan Wife | Janet Carney | TV series; episode: "Dark Sunrise"
The Six Million Dollar Man | Lorraine Stenger | TV series; episode: "The Ultimate Imposter"
Dog and Cat | Officer J.Z. Kane | TV series (canceled after 6 episodes)
1978 | The Ghost of Flight 401 | Prissy Frasier |
Katie: Portrait of a Centerfold | Katie McEvera |
Vega$ | Allison Jorden | TV series; episode: "Lady Ice"
1979 | From Here to Eternity | Lorene Rogers |
1980 | From Here to Eternity | Lorene Rogers | Spinoff (canceled after 13 episodes)
1998 | The Simpsons | Herself | One episode: "When You Dish Upon a Star"

## Awards and honors[edit]

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Kim Basinger

Amongs other, Basinger has won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe award (out of two nominations), a Screen Actors Guild Award (out of two nominations), an award from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, as well from the Southeastern Film Critics Association. For her lifetime achievements in the cinematic arts, she is a recipient of the Athena Award at Kudzu Film Festival, while has been bestowed two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Her work, however, has earned her additional nominations, such as for the British Academy Film Awards, the People's Choice Awards, the Saturn Awards (overal three) and/or the MTV Movie Awards (four in total).[21]

## Further reading[edit]

- Britton, Ron; Markham-Smith, Ian; Hodgson, Liz (October 1998). Kim Basinger: Longer Than Forever. Blake. ISBN 978-1-85782-325-7.

## See also[edit]

- Bond girl
- List of stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

## References[edit]

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Parish, James Robert (24 August 2007). The Hollywood Book of Extravagance: The Totally Infamous, Mostly Disastrous, and Always Compelling Excesses of America's Film and TV Idols. John Wiley Sons. p. 66. ISBN 978-0-470-05205-1. Retrieved 11 August 2012.
2. ^ Kim Basinger. Yahoo Movies.
3. ^ Baltake, Joe (1983-12-22). "Kim Basinger ? Information on the Academy Award Winning Actress and former fashion model.". Philadelphia Daily News. Retrieved 2007-12-10. Unknown parameter `|DNp_theme=` ignored (help)
4. ^ Wuntch, Philip (1987-08-02). "NADINE IS THAT YOU? Robert Benton needed a down-home girl to play a manicurist in his movie. He found her in Kim Basinger". The Dallas Morning News. Retrieved 2007-12-10.
5. ^ Denisoff, R. Serge; Romanowski, William D. (1991). Risky Business: Rock in Film. Transaction Publishers. p. 547. ISBN 978-0-88738-843-9. Retrieved 11 August 2012.
6. ^ a b c d e f "Interview". Charlierose.com. Retrieved 11 August 2012.
7. ^ Sherrow, Victoria (2006). Encyclopedia of Hair: A Cultural History. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 72. ISBN 978-0-313-33145-9. Retrieved 11 August 2012.
8. ^ Publishing, Macmillan; Brownstone, David; Franck, Irene (1 May 1995). People in the News 1995. Macmillan Reference USA. p. 22. ISBN 978-0-02-897058-5. Retrieved 11 August 2012.
9. ^ Stephens, Autumn (1998). Drama Queens: Wild Women of the Silver Screen. Conari Press. p. 60. ISBN 978-1-57324-136-6. Retrieved 11 August 2012.
10. ^ a b Current biography yearbook. H.W. Wilson Company. 1991. p. 53. Retrieved 11 August 2012.
11. ^ Bianculli, David (1992). Teleliteracy: Taking Television Seriously. Syracuse University Press. p. 132. ISBN 978-0-8156-0653-6. Retrieved 11 August 2012.
12. ^ "Chart Stats ? Was (Not Was)". chartstats.com. Retrieved 2008-11-09.
13. ^ Kemp, Stuart (2007-11-05). "Market buyers pick up pace, pics". The Hollywood Reporter.
14. ^ a b http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800011707/bio
15. ^ Britton, Ron. Longer than Forever. Blake Publishing. 1998. ISBN 978-1-85782-325-7.
16. ^ New York Magazine. New York Media, LLC. 23 September 1996. p. 24. ISSN 00287369. Retrieved 11 August 2012.
17. ^ a b For Kim Basinger, the "fire ball" is out ? and Veronica Lake is in
18. ^ O'Steen, Kathleen (1993-05-26). bankruptcy "Basinger files Chapter 11". Variety.
19. ^ Celebs that protest for PETA, some in the buff. (2008-07-21). "Kim Basinger ? Protesting for PETA ? Pictures ? Homefamily". Virgin Media. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
20. ^ "Join Kim Basinger in Telling Yohji Yamamoto to Stop Using Fur!". Action.petaasiapacific.com. Retrieved 2010-03-01. Text " PETA Asia-Pacific " ignored (help)
21. ^ For Kim Basinger awards and/or nominations received for her performances either in motion pictures or television films, use her IMDb link.

## External links[edit]

| Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kim Basinger.

- API at the Internet Movie Database
- API at AllRovi
- API at Rotten Tomatoes

Preceded by Maud Adams | Bond girl 1983 | Succeeded by Tanya Roberts

Awards for Kim Basinger
Template:AcademyAwardBestSupportingActress 1981?2000 Template:GoldenGlobeBestSuppActressMotionPicture 1981?2000 Template:ScreenActorsGuildAward FemaleSupportMotionPicture 1994?2000

Authority control | VIAF: 85419820

Persondata
Name | Basinger, Kim
Alternative names | Basinger, Kimila Ann
Short description | Actor, fashion model
Date of birth | December 8, 1953
Place of birth | Athens, Georgia, U.S.
Date of death |
Place of death |