Born
April 3, 1958, Alec grew up in Massapequa, Long Island where his father
was a high school teacher for twenty-eight years and his mother raised
six children, including his sisters, Beth and Jane. Alec is the eldest
of his brothers, Daniel, William, and Stephen Baldwin, all of whom
are actors in film and television.
Alec attended George Washington University and planned to attend law
school, when he auditioned for the New York University Undergraduate
Drama Program on a dare. He was accepted, and in 1979 began what would
become his professional training. In 1980, he was cast in the daytime
TV series "The Doctors" on NBC and has worked in nearly every venue
as a professional actor ever since.
Whether in regional theater or on Saturday Night Live, blockbuster
movies or Broadway, literary festivals or television mini-series,
Alec has always attempted to balance his love of communicating with
an audience with the demands of a motion picture and television career.
On Broadway, Baldwin appeared in The Roundabout Theatre Company's
2006 revival of Joe Orton's "Entertaining Mr. Sloane" directed by
Scott Ellis. His previous work with The Roundabout Theatre Company
was with their 2004 revival of Hecht and MacArthur's "The Twentieth
Century", directed by Walter Bobbie, co-starring Anne Heche. He was
nominated for a Tony Award for his performance in the 1992 revival
of Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire", was nominated for
an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award for the television movie of
that same production, won an Obie Award for the 1991 off-Broadway
production of Craig Lucas' "Prelude to a Kiss" and a Theatre World
Award in 1986 for his turn in Joe Orton's "Loot" on Broadway. He has
also performed on Broadway in Caryl Churchill's "Serious Money". Other
stage includes David Mamet's "Life in the Theatre", (directed by the
late AJ Antoon), the Williamstown Theatre Festival and at the Bay
Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, New York, where he performed in Ira
Lewis's "Gross Points".
Alec has starred in several films, including "Beetlejuice", "Miami
Blues", "The Hunt for Red October", "Malice", "The Shadow", "Glengarry
Glen Ross", "Heaven's Prisoners", "Ghosts of Mississippi", "The Edge",
"The Cat in the Hat", "The Aviator", "The Departed", "Running with
Scissors", "The Good Shepherd" and many others. He received the National
Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor for "The Cooler",
directed by Wayne Kramer (2003) and was nominated for an Oscar for
the same film.
On television, Baldwin is currently starring in NBC's Emmy award winning
comedy series, "30 ROCK", for which he received the 2007 Golden Globe,
SAG and Television Critics Association awards as Best Actor in a comedy.
Baldwin has starred on "Knot's Landing" for CBS and numerous other
TV shows including "Dress Grey" (a miniseries for NBC), "Nuremberg:
Infamy on Trial (for TNT) and appearances on "Saturday Night Live"
(too many to count).
His production company, El Dorado Pictures, has produced such films
as "The Confession" (for Showtime) which won the Writer's Guild Award
for Best original screenplay and David Mamet's "State and Main", among
others.
Alec is an out-spoken supporter of various causes related to public
policy, including environmentalism, the government's support of the
arts, campaign finance reform, animal rights and gun control. He serves
on the board of directors of the East Hampton Daycare Center, People
For American Way and NYU Tisch School of the Arts Dean's Council.
He is on the advisory board of the NYU/Brennan Center for Justice
and the Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund. He is a vigorous
supporter of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)
and the Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), just to name
a couple.
Baldwin is a graduate of New York University (BFA, Tisch School of
the Arts), 1994.
Alec has a daughter, Ireland Eliesse.
In preparing this website, Alec has said, "I'd like to welcome all
those who are curious about my work and where that might be headed
in the next several years. Acting has provided me with some of the
highest highs in my life. I hope that I will have the opportunity
to make more films and appear in shows that people want to see. To
be able to do this for a living is a tremendous gift."
Alec's book, A Promise to Ourselves, published by St. Martin's
Press will be published in 2008.
