Kim Basinger Oscar Winning Actress

Kim Basinger is an Oscar winning Hollywood actress. Before acting she had already established herself as a successful fashion model. She had also posed nude for the Playboy magazine. Basinger holds the distinction of being the only Oscar winner actress who also posed nude for Playboy.

Kim Basinger was born as Kimila Ann Basinger on December 8, 1958 in Athens, Georgia. Her father, Don Basinger was a big band musician and a loan manager. During the World War II, he was sent Normandy, France. Her mother, Ann Basinger was a model, swimmer and actress in Esther Williamss films. She has two brothers and two sisters.

Kim Basinger started her modeling career at the young age of sixteen by winning the Athens Junior Muss followed by Junior Miss Georgia crown. She headed to New York to win the national Junior Miss contest where she was offered a modeling contract with the Ford Modeling Agency. After some initial hesitation, she joined the agency and became a Ford model.

Kim Basinger made a successful modeling career with the agency and appeared in numerous magazine covers and also did numerous ads throughout the 70s. By the age of 20, Basinger had become a top model in the industry. In the meantime she also started attending acting classes at the prestigious Neighborhood Playhouse and performed in various Greenwich Village clubs.

In 1976 Kim Basinger moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting. She started off with some small parts on few TV shows such as McMillan & Wife and Charlie's Angels and later on appeared in the lead role of the television movie Katie: Portrait of a Centerfold. In 1983, she became the bond girl in Never Say Never Again opposite Sean Connery. The same year she did a nude photo shoot for playboy magazine, which earned her good amount of notice. In 1984 she starred opposite Robert Redford in The Natural which earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Soon after, Kim Basinger started working with noted directors such as Robert Benton for Nadine (1987); Blake Edwards for The Man Who Loved Women (1983) and Blind Date (1987) and Robert Altman for Fool for Love (1985) and Prêt-à-Porter (1994). Her other prominent works include 9 Weeks (1986), Batman (1989) and Curtis Hanson's L.A. Confidential (1997) for which she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress as well as the Golden Globe and Screen Actor's Guild Award. Upcoming movies include While She Was Out (2008), The Informers (2008) and The Burning Plain (2009)

Kim Basinger has been married twice, first to make up artist Ron Snyder-Britton in 1980 whom she divorced in 1988 and then to actor Alec Baldwin in 1993, whom she divorced in 2002. They have a daughter, Ireland Eliesse Addie Baldwin (born October 23, 1995), who has been the subject of a custody battle between the two since their separation. Kim_Basinger