Kim Basinger Biography

Name:Kimila Ann "Kim  Basinger"

Date of Birth: December 8, 1953

Place of Birth: Athens, Georgia

Kimila Ann "Kim Basinger"is an American actress, singer, and former fashion model.

Kim  Basinger 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). Kim  Basinger 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. Kim  Basinger 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). Kim  Basinger mother, Ann (née Cordell), was a model, an actress, and a swimmer who appeared in several Esther Williams films. 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, and she was raised a Methodist.

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

Career 

Basinger at the 1990 Academy AwardsNot long after the Ford deal, Basinger was on the cover of magazines. Kim  Basinger appeared in hundreds of ads throughout the early 1970s, most notably as the Breck Shampoo girl. Kim  Basinger 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. After guest roles on TV shows such as Starsky and Hutch and Charlie's Angels in 1976, and a starring role on the short-lived series Dog and Cat (1977), her first feature-length role was in a made-for-TV movie, Katie: Portrait of a Centerfold (1978) in which she played a smalltown young woman who goes to Hollywood to become an actress and winds up a famous centerfold for a men's magazine. Kim  Basinger 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 in 1980. Kim  Basinger made her theatrical film debut in Hard Country (1981) with Jan Michael Vincent, followed by Mother Lode (1982) with Charlton Heston.

Basinger's breakout role was as Bond girl Domino Petachi in Never Say Never Again (1983), starring opposite Sean Connery. Kim  Basinger posed nude for Playboy to promote the film. Basinger said Playboy led to opportunities such as Barry Levinson's The Natural (1984), co-starring Robert Redford, for which she earned a Golden Globe nomination as Best Supporting Actress. Kim  Basinger starred opposite Mickey Rourke in the sexually provocative 9½ Weeks (1986). 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. In the video for Tom Petty's 1993 song "Mary Jane's Last Dance", Basinger played the unconscious woman whom Petty brings home from the morgue for dinner, dressing her in a wedding gown. Later, Petty is shown throwing her into the sea. In a macabre ending, she floats with her eyes open.

Basinger acted less in the 1990s to take care of her family. Kim  Basinger made a comeback in 1997 as the femme fatale in the neo-noir L.A. Confidential, co-starring Russell Crowe. 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). Kim  Basinger appeared mostly in television and independent films such as While Kim  Basinger Was Out, The Burning Plain, and Lifetime's The Mermaid Chair. Kim  Basinger was also seen in the mainstream thrillers Cellular (2004) and The Sentinel (2006), and The Informers (2009).

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 lived with model, Dale Robinette, in the 1970's.

On October 12, 1980, Basinger married makeup artist, Ron Snyder-Britton (born 1938), who worked on the crew of her film, Hard Country. The marriage ended in divorce in 1988. He later wrote a memoir in 1998, Longer than Forever: The Story of Our Strange Marriage, about their time together, and her rumored affair with actor, Richard Gere, with whom she starred in No Mercy (1986) and Final Analysis (1992).

After the divorce Basinger dated casting director, Jon Peters, and singer, Prince.

Kim  Basinger 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 filed for divorce in January 2001, and it was finalized in February 2002. Since then the couple have been in a contentious custody battle over the daughter. Alec Baldwin's book A Promise To Ourselves chronicles the lengths to which Basinger has gone to deny Baldwin access to their daughter since separation.

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.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. Kim  Basinger 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 and appealed the jury's decision to a higher court, which sided with her. Kim  Basinger and the studio settled for $3.8 million instead.

Activism

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

Filmography/Television

1981 Hard Country Jodie  

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 9½ Weeks Elizabeth  

No Mercy Michele Duval  

1987 Blind Date  

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 Vicki Anderson  

1992 Final Analysis Heather Evans  

Cool World Holli Would  

The Real McCoy Karen McCoy  

1993 Wayne's World 2 Honey Horné  

Mary Jane's Last Dance The Unconscious Woman Music video for Tom Petty  

1994 A Century of Cinema Herself documentary 

The Getaway Carol McCoy  

Ready to Wear (Prêt-à-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  

Cellular Jessica Martin Nominated – Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress 

2006 The Sentinel 1st Lady Sarah Ballentine  

The Mermaid Chair Jessie Sullivan  

2007 Even Money Carol Carver  

2008 While She Was Out Della Myers  

2009 The Informers Laura Sloan  

The Burning Plain Gina  

2010 Charlie St. Cloud Claire St. Cloud  

DiscographyYear Album Producer(s) Label 

1989 Hollywood Affair Prince Sabotage Records 

Television workCharlie's Angels (1976) (episode: Angels in Chains) 

Dog and Cat (1977) (TV) (canceled after six episodes) 

The Ghost of Flight 401 (1978) (TV) 

Katie: Portrait of a Centerfold (1978) (TV) 

From Here to Eternity (1979) (miniseries) 

From Here to Eternity (1980) (canceled after thirteen episodes) 

Killjoy (1981) (TV) 

Sean Connery, an Intimate Portrait (1997) (documentary) 

The Simpsons (1998: 13.17) – Herself 

The Mermaid Chair (2006) (TV)