Alec Baldwin’s full name is Alexander Rae Baldwin III. He was born on April 3, 1958 in Amityville, New York, and he is the second of six children. He has two sisters, one older — Elizabeth — and one younger, Jane. His brothers — William, Daniel and Stephen — all became actors as well.

Though he majored in political science at George Washington University to go to law school, his love for acting led him to choose a different path and study drama at New York University in the Lee Strasberg Institute. He later pursued a career in theater, making his Broadway debut in Joe Orton’s Loot (1986), and the performance won him a Theatre World Award. He then appeared in Caryl Churchill’s Serious Money (1987). Off-Broadway, he won an Obie Award for Best Actor in Prelude to a Kiss (1991), and he played the role of Peter Hoskins in the 1992 film as well. He earned a Tony nomination for Best Actor in the revival of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire (1992), and he later appeared in CBS’ 1995 version of the play. He co-starred in Hamlet in 1998 alongside Angela Bassett.

Baldwin made his movie debut in Forever Lulu (1987) alongside Deborah Harry and Dr. Ruth Westheimer. He then appeared in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice (1988), Married to the Mob (1988) alongside Michelle Pfeiffer, Oliver Stone’s Talk Radio (1988), Working Girl (1988) and Great Balls of Fire (1989) as Jimmy Swaggart. He starred in Miami Blues (1990),The Hunt For Red October (1990), Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) and The Shadow (1994). He made a cameo in Notting Hill (1999) with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant, and he later was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Cooler (2003). He appeared in Martin Scorsese’s Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator (2004) and also Along Came Polly (2004) before returning to work with Scorsese on The Departed(2006).

Still more credits include It’s Complicated (2009), Blue Jasmine (2013), Mission Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015), The Public (2018) and more.  Baldwin also held voice roles in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008), Rise of the Guardians (2012), Boss Baby (2017) and Boss Baby 2: The Family Business (2021).

Baldwin won two Emmy Awards for his role of Jack Donaghy in 30 Rock, both for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. He also played Malcolm Widmark in 10 episodes of Will & Grace, and he has appeared many times on Saturday Night Live to impersonate Donald Trump and others.

He married Kim Basinger, with whom he starred in The Marrying Man (1991) in 1993, and together they share a daughter Ireland Baldwin. They divorced in 2002 when Ireland was 7 years old. He later married Hilaria Thomas in 2012, and the couple shares seven children — Carmen, Rafael, Leonardo, Romeo, Eduardo, Lucia and Ilaria.

Baldwin’s trial for involuntary manslaughter on the set of the indie Western film Rust takes place in July. On October 21, 2021, a gun that Baldwin was holding during production shot and fatally wounded the film’s cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins. He currently faces a charge of involuntary manslaughter that would result in 18 months of jail time as well as $5000 in fines if he is convicted. The finished Rust film has been shopped around at festivals, but no distributors have bitten.