LOS ANGELES – Hollywood never knew exactly what to do with Alec Baldwin, So he did a little bit of everything with it.
Before cinematographer Halyna Hutchins’ horrific 2021 shooting on the set of the western “Rust” put his career in question, he came out and delivered a wide spectrum of variations on masculinity. He went from heroes to scoundrels to thugs to gentle father figures to office alpha males to a “ Boss baby.”
He went from leading man to bit player to scene stealer, sometimes going years without a major role in a hit movie or show. But he remained a household name for nearly 35 years, largely due to his real-life persona: as an outspoken, occasionally heated liberal, talk show guest, podcast host, game show host, and the king of all ” Saturdays”. Night Live presenters.”
Here’s a look at Baldwin’s career in and out of Hollywood as he prepares for be tried for manslaughter.
Alexander Rae Baldwin III is the oldest of six children of a teacher and football coach who grew up in Massapequa, New York, and studied acting at New York University. He made his screen debut at age 22 in 1980 on the soap opera “The Doctors,” where he remained until 1982. In 1984 and 1985, he took a step forward with a recurring role on a primetime soap opera, “Knots.” Land.”
Baldwin would enter film in an epic year that included major roles in five major films. His big screen breakthrough came alongside Geena Davis and Michael Keaton in “Beetlejuice.” But Baldwin’s bespectacled bourgeois husband character in Tim Burton’s strange ghost story wouldn’t be the norm. Her archetypes would appear in other films. He plays Melanie Griffith’s cheating boyfriend in director Mike Nichols’ blockbuster romantic comedy “Working Girl” and a hairy-chested brawler married to Michelle Pfeiffer in Jonathan Demme’s “Married to the Mob.” . The studios smelled a movie star.
For a brief moment, Baldwin became a protagonist along the lines of Harrison Ford It is Tom Cruise. He was the first to play CIA analyst Jack Ryan on screen, in the 1990 Cold War submarine thriller “The Hunt for Red October,” a huge hit. But he would be replaced as Ryan in Ford’s subsequent films. throat,” Baldwin said years later.
Instead, he played Stanley Kowalski in a Broadway revival of “A Streetcar Named Desire.” He would receive a Tony and Emmy nomination for a TV version.
He had a small but unforgettable role in 1992’s “Glengarry Glen Ross” as a shabbily dressed business bigwig who berates and emasculates a group of salesmen, telling them they are missing “brass balls” (while holding a pair in front of your crotch). ). Baldwin would first host the show in 1990 and would do so a record 17 times.
Baldwin’s three younger actor brothers began to emerge in his wake. Daniel Baldwin was a regular on the series “Homicide: Life on the Street” from 1993 to 1995. Billy Baldwin starred alongside Sharon Stone in the 1993 erotic thriller “Sliver.” Stephen Baldwin had a major role in the 1995 classic “The Usual Suspects.”
The brothers as a group have become a cultural phenomenon. When Alicia Silverstone admits that Paul Rudd is attractive in 1995’s “Clueless,” she says he’s “kind of a Baldwin.”
Meanwhile, Alec Baldwin was expanding his family and his profile in Hollywood by marrying actress Kim Basinger in 1993. He starred with her in 1992’s “The Marrying Man” and 1994’s “The Getaway.” box office, but Baldwin and Basinger would remain an A-list couple in the public eye for a decade, even playing each other on “The Simpsons.” Another failure came with the final attempt to make Baldwin a blockbuster leading man, 1994’s “The Shadow.”
Baldwin’s career as a movie star was interrupted in the late 1990s. He starred in director Rob Reiner’s “Ghost of Mississippi” but began to become a specialist and popular voice actor, narrating the children’s show “Thomas & Friends” and the Wes Anderson film “The Royal Tenenbaums”. He still hosted “SNL” almost annually and was a brash liberal Democrat on TV talk shows and in other public appearances.
Baldwin’s role as a casino owner in 2003’s “The Cooler” earned him his only career Oscar nomination, for best supporting actor. New York Times critic AO Scott said “Baldwin pivots elegantly from evil to self-pity” in the role.
Strong supporting performances were becoming a trademark. Director Martin Scorsese cast him in 2004’s “The Aviator” with Leonardo DiCaprio and 2006’s best picture winner “The Departed,” where he gives Matt Damon a highly quotable, Boston-accented talk about marriage and masculinity.
With new career highs came personal lows. Her divorce from Basinger in 2003 turned ugly. In 2007, TMZ broadcast a leaked voicemail from Baldwin to his 11-year-old daughter Ireland, who had missed a scheduled visit with him, in which he called her a “thoughtless little pig.” Baldwin later said in interviews that he considered suicide afterwards. Ireland poked fun at the moment at a 2019 Comedy Central Roast of her father, saying she almost missed the event because she hadn’t checked her father’s emails in 12 years.
In a complete turnaround for television, Baldwin was perfectly cast in NBC’s “30 Rock” as Jack Donaghy, a bitter, conservative network executive whose feud with Liz Lemon, the show’s creator and star, was a big part of the series’ appeal. . Baldwin would win two Emmys for the role and more praise than he had received in years.
In 2012, he married yoga instructor Hilaria Thomas. The two have seven children together.
After “30 Rock” went off the air, Baldwin performed sporadically while performing alone more frequently. He played the boss in a couple of “Mission Impossible” films. And he voiced the animated “Boss Baby” in 2017. He also hosted a primetime revival of “The Match Game” for five seasons. And he continued to host a public radio show and podcast, “Here’s The Thing,” in which, in an urbane, relaxed but intellectual tone, he interviewed public figures.
He became a national phenomenon before and after Donald Trump’s election, when “SNL” had him do his over-the-top impression of his fellow New Yorker, which earned him his third Emmy. . More public ugliness emerged, however. He would be accused of assault and harassment in 2018 after an argument with a man over a parking space in New York. He later pleaded guilty only to harassment.
On October 21, 2021, on the New Mexico set of independent western “Rust”, Baldwin was rehearsing a scene in a small church and pointed his gun at the director of photography, Hutchins. It exploded, killing her and injuring director Joel Souza.
In an interview that December with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, Baldwin said he did not pull the trigger on the gun. He would be charged with involuntary manslaughter in January 2023.
The charges were dropped, but refilled a year later. His trial begins Tuesday. As the trial approached, he and Hilaria agreed to reality show featuring them and their children which is scheduled to begin next year.
This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
