Alec Baldwin

Alec Baldwin (born April 3, 1958, Amityville, New York, U.S.) is an American actor of great versatility who is especially known for his portrayal of roguish characters, notably Jack Donaghy on the sitcom 30 Rock (2006–13). Adept at comedy and drama, he has also starred in such movies as Beetlejuice (1988), The Hunt for Red October (1990), and The Cooler (2003).

While rehearsing a scene for the western Rust in 2021, Baldwin discharged a prop gun that mistakenly contained live rounds. The film’s cinematographer was killed, and Baldwin was later charged with manslaughter. The trial began in July 2024, but the judge later dismissed the case.

Early life and career

Baldwin was born in Amityville, on Long Island in New York, and was raised in nearby Massapequa. He was the second of six children, and his three brothers—Stephen, William, and Daniel—also pursued acting careers. Initially interested in law, he enrolled at George Washington University in 1976, but he later transferred to New York University (B.F.A., 1994) to study drama. While in college, he landed a role (1980–82) on the daytime soap opera The Doctors. Baldwin later appeared in several other television projects before joining (1984–85) the cast of Knots Landing, a popular nighttime drama. During this time he also acted on the stage, making his Broadway debut in the 1986 production of Loot.

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Stardom: Beetlejuice, The Hunt for Red October, and The Aviator

In 1987 Baldwin appeared in his first feature film, Forever, Lulu. The following year he starred as a ghost in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice, a comedy co-starring Geena Davis, Winona Ryder, and Michael Keaton that was a critical and commercial success. After notable supporting roles in Working Girl (1988) and Married to the Mob (1988), Baldwin was cast as CIA agent Jack Ryan in The Hunt for Red October (1990), an adaptation of Tom Clancy’s popular thriller. The film was a box-office hit, and it established Baldwin as a major star. In 1990 he also made the first of his numerous hosting appearances on the TV sketch comedy Saturday Night Live (SNL). The following year he appeared opposite Kim Basinger in The Marrying Man; the couple married in 1993.

Baldwin continued to perform on the stage, and in 1991 he received an Obie Award for his performance in Prelude to a Kiss; he later starred in the film version (1992). He controversially opted not to reprise the role of Jack Ryan in Patriot Games and instead appeared onstage as Stanley Kowalski in a 1992 revival of Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire; he received a Tony Award nomination for the performance. In 1992 Baldwin portrayed a heartless sales motivator in the film adaptation of David Mamet’s play Glengarry Glen Ross.

After a turn as a vain surgeon who might be a murderer in Malice (1993), Baldwin appeared in a series of little-seen films, including the civil rights drama Ghosts of Mississippi (1996); The Edge (1997), an adventure thriller written by Mamet; and Mercury Rising (1998), in which he starred opposite Bruce Willis. In 2004 Baldwin received an Academy Award nomination for his performance as a casino owner in the dark comedy The Cooler (2003). Later that year he had a supporting role in Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator, a biopic about Howard Hughes.

30 Rock, SNL, and later films

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Baldwin experienced something of a career resurgence when he began appearing (2006–13) as the arrogant but charismatic television executive Jack Donaghy in the TV sitcom 30 Rock. The critically acclaimed series, which was created and written by Tina Fey, showcased Baldwin’s comedic skills, and he won Emmy Awards in 2008 and 2009. His subsequent film credits included Scorsese’s The Departed (2006); It’s Complicated (2009), a comedy in which he starred as a man having an affair with his ex-wife (played by Meryl Streep); and Woody Allen’s To Rome with Love (2012) and Blue Jasmine (2013). In Still Alice (2014) he portrayed the husband of a woman (Julianne Moore) who is succumbing to early-onset Alzheimer disease.

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Baldwin later appeared in Concussion (2015), about head injuries in football; Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman (2018), a satire about a Black police officer who infiltrated a Ku Klux Klan chapter in the 1970s; and Motherless Brooklyn (2019), a crime drama adapted from the novel by Jonathan Lethem. Baldwin also lent his voice to such animated films as The Boss Baby (2017); its sequel, The Boss Baby: Family Business (2021); and Arctic Dogs (2019). In 2020 he reprised the role of Donaghy for 30 Rock: A One-Time Special, which featured promotions for NBCUniversal’s 2020–21 TV lineup. That year Baldwin also appeared in Chick Fight, about a women’s underground fight club.

In addition to his film work, Baldwin hosted (with Steve Martin) the 2010 Academy Awards ceremony. In 2013 he returned to Broadway in the psychological drama Orphans. Baldwin continued to make frequent appearances on SNL, and he garnered particular attention—as well as an Emmy Award (2017)—for his impersonations of Donald Trump, the Republican candidate and eventual winner of the 2016 U.S. presidential race. Baldwin later wrote (with Kurt Andersen) the parody You Can’t Spell America Without Me: The Really Tremendous Inside Story of My Fantastic First Year as President Donald J. Trump (2017).

Personal life, activism, and other work

While Baldwin received much attention for his acting, his personal life was often fodder for the tabloids. In 2002 his tumultuous marriage to Basinger ended in divorce, and the two engaged in a bitter and highly public custody battle over their daughter; the experience inspired the book A Promise to Ourselves: A Journey Through Fatherhood and Divorce (2008), which he wrote with Mark Tabb. In addition, the outspoken and sometimes combatant Baldwin was involved in a number of confrontations with paparazzi and others. He also garnered press for his involvement in various liberal causes and philanthropies. Passionate about classical music, he was active in the New York Philharmonic, and in 2009 he became the official announcer of its weekly radio broadcasts. Beginning in 2011, he hosted a podcast, Here’s the Thing, on which he interviewed artists, entertainers, and other notable figures. In October 2013 the weekly talk show Up Late with Alec Baldwin debuted on the cable television channel MSNBC. After just five episodes, however, Baldwin was suspended for calling a paparazzo a homophobic slur. Shortly thereafter the show ended. In 2018 he hosted a weekly talk show, The Alec Baldwin Show, which aired on ABC. The memoir Nevertheless was published in 2017.

Rust shooting

In October 2021 Baldwin was involved in a fatal shooting during the filming of the western Rust in New Mexico. While rehearsing a scene, Baldwin discharged a prop gun that was mistakenly thought to contain no live rounds. Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed, and the director, Joel Souza, was wounded. The family of Hutchins later filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the film’s producers, one of whom was Baldwin, and an undisclosed settlement was reached in 2022.

The following year New Mexico officials announced that Baldwin and armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who was in charge of the movie’s firearms, would be charged with involuntary manslaughter. It was also revealed that David Halls, the first assistant director, had agreed to plead guilty to negligent use of a deadly weapon in exchange for a suspended sentence; Halls had handed the prop gun to Baldwin. According to the special prosecutor appointed to the case, “If any one of these three people—Alec Baldwin, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed or David Halls—had done their job, Halyna Hutchins would be alive today. It’s that simple.” Although the charges against Baldwin were dropped in April 2023, he was again indicted for manslaughter the following year.

Baldwin’s trial began in July 2024, but just days into the proceedings the actor’s attorneys accused the prosecutors of withholding evidence. The claims centered on ammunition from the Rust set that was not turned over to the defense. The judge dismissed the case with prejudice, which meant that Baldwin could not be retried.