Alec Baldwin: Encyclopedia - Alec Baldwin

Alec Baldwin

Alexander Rae Baldwin III (born April 3, 1958, in Massapequa, Long Island, New York, USA) is an American actor who is the oldest and best known of the "Baldwin brothers", with brothers Daniel, Stephen and William. He is of three quarters Irish and one quarter French descent.

Baldwin has appeared in movies such as The Cooler, The Hunt for Red October, Beetlejuice, Ghosts of Mississippi, Talk Radio, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (voice), The Cat in the Hat, Pearl Harbor, Thomas and the Magic Railroad, Along Came Polly, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, and The Aviator.

He has also made notable appearances on television. In particular, Baldwin is one of the most frequent hosts of Saturday Night Live, leading the show twelve times and also making cameo appearances regularly. He played William Barrett Travis in a movie about the Battle of the Alamo called The Alamo: Thirteen Days to Glory. In 1998, he began narrating the American version of the children's series Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. He left the series in 2003.

When Baldwin was young, he had a job as a busboy at famous New York City disco Studio 54. He claims he had to quit the job because seeing all of the sex going on around him "was making me too horny."

He was married to actress Kim Basinger from 1993 to 2002. They were the subject of much media attention for the bitter divorce and custody fight for their daughter and accusations that Baldwin was an abusive husband, which many believed hurt his career in addition to allegations of him having anger management problems.

Baldwin was widely criticized for his appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien on December 11th, 1998, eight days before President Bill Clinton was impeached. In a skit that Baldwin later referred to as a "parody", he said that "if we were in another country, ... We would stone Henry Hyde to death and we would go to their homes and we’d kill their wives and their children. We would kill their families." [1] Baldwin later apologized to Hyde for his remarks. NBC has promised never to re-air the show. [2]

Baldwin, a liberal Democrat, has always had an active interest in politics and is frequently rumored to be a candidate for public office. He recently revealed in a British magazine interview that he plans to leave acting in a few years to pursue a career in politics.

Alec Baldwin - Partial filmography

• The Girl's Guide For Hunting And Fishing (2007) - Archie Knox
• Running with Scissors - Norman Burroughs
• The Departed (2006) - Ellerby
• The Good Shepherd (2006)
• Fun with Dick and Jane (2005)
• The Aviator (2004) - Juan Trippe
• The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004) - Dennis
• Along Came Polly (2004) - Stan Indursky
• The Cat in the Hat (2003) - Quinn
• The Cooler (2003) - Shelly Kaplow
• Path to War (TV) (2002) - Robert McNamara
• The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) - Narrator (voice)
• Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001) - Capt. Gray Edwards (voice)
• Cats & Dogs (2001) - Butch (voice)
• Pearl Harbor (2001) - Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle
• State and Main (2000) - Bob Barrenger
• Clerks (TV) (2000) - Leonardo Leonardo (voice)
• Notting Hill (1999)
• Outside Providence (1999) - Old Man Dumphy
• Mercury Rising (1998) - Lt. Col. Nicholas Kudrow
• The Edge (1997)
• Ghosts of Mississippi (1996) - Bobby DeLaughter
• The Juror (1996) - Teacher
• Heaven's Prisoners (1996) - Dave Robicheaux
• The Shadow (1994) - The Shadow/Lamont Cranston
• Malice (1993) - Dr. Jed Hill
• Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) - Blake
• Miami Blues (1990) with Fred Ward
• The Hunt for Red October (1990) - Jack Ryan
• Married to the Mob (1988) - "Cucumber" Frank de Marco
• Working Girl (1988) - Mick Dugan
• Beetlejuice (1988) - Adam
• Talk Radio (1988) - Dan

Alec Baldwin - TV appearances

• The Simpsons (1998: 13.17) - Himself.
• Las Vegas - Jack Keller, fictional character who is an ex-CIA employee, episodes 12 and 32.
• Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends - Narrator/Voices. He narrated the Amerecan Thomas episodes in 1998 and 2003, after Ringo Starr left and Alec Baldwin was replaced by Michael Angelis in 2003.
• Storytime With Thomas - Along with Ringo Starr in 1998.
• The Simpsons - Guest appearance in two episodes.
• Friends (8.17, 8.18) - Phoebe's annoyingly postive boyfriend Parker.
• Nip/Tuck (2004: 2.16) - Dr. Barrett Moore (plastic surgeon), husband of Ava Moore, a MTF transexual who formally went by Avery Tanner.
• Will & Grace (2004: 7.23, 7.24; 2005: 8.01, 8.05) - Malcolm
• Saturday Night Live 12 times

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Alec Baldwin", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki