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Kimila Ann Basinger (pronounced ) (born December 8, 1953 in Athens, Georgia) is an Academy Award-winning American film actress and former fashion model.

Biography

Basinger is of German, Irish, Swedish and one-eighth Cherokee descent.

When Kim Basinger was 16 years old, she started her modelling career by entering and winning the Athens Junior Miss contest. She followed that up by winning the title of “Junior Miss Georgia.” Basinger then headed to New York City to compete in the national Junior Miss pageant. It was there that Basinger was approached by fashion modeling mogul Eileen Ford, who offered the young beauty queen a modeling contract with Ford Modeling Agency. Initially turning down the offer in favor of singing and acting, Basinger reconsidered and headed back to New York to become a Ford model.

Not long after penning the deal, Basinger’s face graced numerous magazine covers and she also appeared in hundred of ads throughout the early ‘70s, most notably appearing as the Breck shampoo girl. She achieved a top model status by age 20, earning a salary of $1,000 a day. In the meantime, she alternated between modeling work and attending acting classes at the prestigious Neighborhood Playhouse as well as performing in various Greenwich Village clubs.

Basinger's mother was a model as well. She has three siblings. A younger brother named Mick who is a marketing director and has two sisters. Basinger suffers from agoraphobia, which is a form of an anxiety disorder, the abnormal fear of expecting or experiencing a difficult or embarrassing situation from which the sufferer cannot find an escape.

In 1976, after a five-year stint as a cover girl, Basinger decided to put her modeling career on hold and move to Los Angeles to begin a career in acting. Her most prominent appearances include 9½ Weeks (1986), Batman (1989) and L.A. Confidential (1997) for which she received an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

From 1993 to 2002, she was married to actor Alec Baldwin. They share a daughter, Ireland Eliesse (born October 23, 1995). In the years after their divorce, she and Baldwin have engaged in a contentious custody battle.

The small town of Braselton, Georgia, was bought by Basinger in 1989 for $20 million, with the hopes of establishing the town as a tourist attraction with movie studios and a film festival, but she met financial difficulties and sold it in 1993. The town is now owned by developer Wayne Mason.

Filmography

• Hard Country (1981)
• Mother Lode (1982)
• Never Say Never Again (1983)
• The Man Who Loved Women (1983)
• The Natural (1984)
• Fool for Love (1985)
• 9½ Weeks (1986)
• No Mercy (1986)
• Blind Date (1987)
• Nadine (1987)
• My Stepmother Is an Alien (1988)
• Batman (1989)
• The Marrying Man (1991)
• Final Analysis (1992)
• Cool World (1992)
• The Real McCoy (1992)
• Wayne's World 2 (1993)
• A Century of Cinema (1994) (documentary)
• The Getaway (1994)
• Ready to Wear (Prêt-à-Porter) (1994)
• L.A. Confidential (1997)
• I Dreamed of Africa (2000)
• Bless the Child (2000)
• 8 Mile (2002)
• People I Know (2002)
• The Door in the Floor (2004)
• Elvis Has Left the Building (2004)
• Cellular (2004)
• Jump Shot (2005)
• The Sentinel (2006)

Television work

• Dog and Cat (1977) (canceled after six episodes)
• The Ghost of Flight 401 (1978)
• Katie: Portrait of a Centerfold (1978)
• From Here to Eternity (1979) (miniseries)
• From Here to Eternity (1980) (canceled after thirteen episodes)
• Killjoy (1981)
• Sean Connery, an Intimate Portrait (1997) (documentary)
• The Simpsons (1998: 13.17) (as herself)

External link

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