actress
From Bond girl to Oscar winner: Kim Basinger turns 70
Kim Basinger at the “Last Chance for Animals” gala. The actress is strongly committed to animal welfare. photo
© Billy Bennight/ZUMA Wire/dpa
As a Bond girl and in “9 1/2 Weeks,” Kim Basinger turned the heads of audiences worldwide – and she won an Oscar for “LA Confidential.” She has since withdrawn from the public eye.
In front of the camera has Kim Basinger hasn’t been seen for several years. The actress, who turns 70 on Friday (December 8th), also largely avoids appearances on the red carpet or interviews.
This is partly due to an anxiety disorder that has not yet been completely overcome, Basinger recently said when she made an exception for actress Jada Pinkett Smith and her “Red Table Talk”. “I didn’t leave the house. I didn’t go out to eat anymore. I had to learn how to drive again. Everything made me nervous, everything became a big deal that I had to figure out how to do.”
Basinger was in the spotlight for decades. She went from being a Bond girl to becoming an Oscar winner, something that no one had ever achieved before her. In 1983 she turned the heads of millions of viewers worldwide, mostly half-naked, in “Never Say Never Again” alongside Sean Connery as James Bond. 14 years later, she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the ambitious gangster film “LA Confidential.”
Successful as a model
Basinger was born in 1953 in the US state of Georgia as the daughter of a musician and an actress. Her mother sent her to ballet when she was three and later supported the 16-year-old’s first steps as a model. Basinger won several beauty contests, eventually dropped out of college and became a professional and well-earning model. She went to New York, took acting lessons and got her first roles, including in the series “Charlie’s Angels”.
The role as a Bond girl in 1983 was her breakthrough, and the erotic film “9 1/2 Weeks” made her a global star a few years later. However, she turned down the lead role in “Basic Instinct,” which then made Sharon Stone world famous. In the 2000s and 2010s her roles became smaller, most recently she received poor reviews for her appearances in the “Fifty Shades of Grey” series. But despite everything, Basinger said at the time, she loved the work. “I feel very lucky that I have been able to be in the film business for so long and still am.”
Complicated family relationships
In 1993, after a failed first marriage to make-up artist Ron Snyder, Basinger married her actor colleague Alec Baldwin; at the time, the two were among the most sought-after dream couples in Hollywood. Daughter Ireland was born in 1995. But in 2002 the marriage collapsed dramatically and a years-long headline-grabbing legal battle over Ireland’s custody began.
All three of them now understand each other again, even if it’s not always easy, said Basinger and her daughter Ireland, who now works successfully as a model, in the “Red Table Talk”. The main roles for Basinger now play her private life, including boyfriend Mitch Stone, and her commitment to animal welfare. She lives in southern California near Ireland, and the two spend a lot of time by the sea and with their many pets, with music and books. Basinger also writes books himself, especially children’s books.
She has made peace with her life and her career, says Basinger. “We all have our challenges, our ups and downs, our successes and failures, but it’s all a process and over time I’ve learned to like my path in life and be grateful for everything. I’ve learned a lot and will continue to do so learn until I leave this planet. I have no regrets.”