Kim Basinger

American film actress, sensual, full-lipped and lushly gorgeous. Part Cherokee, she is 5' 8", the third of five kids born to a financier who had once played in a big band and a former model. As a kid she was so painfully shy that her parents had her tested for autism. It was not until high school that she began to come out of her shell. A beauty contest became her ticket out of Athens to pursue her dream of becoming an actress. She left home for New York at 17 where she studied drama and became a top model, posing for Playboy, among other layouts. After five years in New York, she moved to Hollywood. She began her acting career with appearances on TV series like "Charlie's Angels" and "The Six Million Dollar Man." In 1981 Basinger made her feature film debut in "Hard Country" and her breakthrough role came two years later opposite Sean Connery's James Bond in "Never Say Never Again." She rapidly rose to stardom with convincing performances. In 1981, Basinger met make-up artist Ron Britton and they married the following year. When they divorced six years later Britton sued her for $12,000 a month alimony. In 1984, Basinger starred with Robert Redford in "The Natural." She steamed up the screen with Mickey Rourke in "9 1/2 Weeks," 1986 and cemented her reputation as a sexy screen star with a turn as Vicki Vale, the love interest in 1989's "Batman." She made headlines in 1989 when she bought her home town, Athens, Georgia. She lost a multi-million dollar law suit filed against her for backing out of the film "Boxing Helena" and the town deal fell through. It was a difficult professional period with the investment turning sour and the lawsuit left her filing for bankruptcy in the early 1990's. Basinger met Alec Baldwin while making "The Marrying Man" in 1990. She was not at all taken with him at first but after three years courting and bickering, they married on 19 August 1993. Their daughter, Ireland Eliesse, was born on 23 October 1995. They separated on 5 December 2000 and divorced on 3 February 2002. Basinger is a vegetarian, environmentalist and animal rights advocate, as well as an agoraphobic. After taking off a few years to devote time to her family, she came back with the biggest role of her career, as the Veronica Lake look-alike in the critically acclaimed L.A. Confidential, 1997, for which she received an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress on 23 March 1998. Her next big screen appearance came three years later in the adventure drama "I Dreamed of Africa," in which Basinger starred as a young Italian wife and mother who settles on a ranch in Kenya. Her 2002 divorce from Alec Baldwin was bitter, resulting in a blistering multi-year, public custody fight over their daughter, with each adult accusing the other of dreadful misdeeds and horrible character traits. On 4 October 2006, the actress entered her “not guilty” plea in a Los Angeles court to 14 contempt of court charges including not allowing her ex to have court-ordered visitation rights. Link to Wikipedia biography