Biography of Kim Basinger
Kim Basinger was one of Hollywood's most captivating actresses of the 80s. She earned the title "the new Marilyn Monroe" with her breakthrough roles in "Nine ½ Weeks" (Elizabeth McGraw), "Blind Date" (Nadia Gates), and "The Marrying Man" (Vicki Anderson). She won both an Oscar and Golden Globe for her unforgettable performance as Lynn Bracken in "L.A. Confidential".
Childhood and Youth
Kimila Ann Basinger was born in winter 1953 to Donald Wade Basinger and Ann Lee Cordell in Athens, Georgia. Her father was a jazz musician turned financial consultant.
Despite her strict upbringing, Kim considers her childhood happy. She loved helping her mother cook peas, green turnips, and pumpkin pie. But what Kim loved most were German chocolate cakes, which she devoured despite having to watch her figure since age three for ballet.
Kim had no school friends - classmates avoided the girl who was always lost in daydreams. Everything changed in high school when Kim joined the cheerleading squad and started dancing. By 16, Kim had transformed from gawky teenager to stunning beauty, taking her first steps into modeling and winning the 1971 Junior Miss Georgia pageant. This victory took her to New York, where she represented Georgia in the America's Junior Miss Scholarship pageant."I don't like being the center of attention. I remember when I was little, my mom would give me a birthday present, and I'd run off to my room to open it. And not much has changed with age. Friends occasionally throw parties for me for various reasons, I'll hang out for a bit, and then I run off to the neighbors' house. That's how quiet I am!"
Film Career
Early on, Basinger was typecast as just another pretty face, and her roles reflected this limitation. She appeared as Jodie Lee Palmer ("Hard Country"), and Louise Carr ("The Man Who Loved Women").
In the very explicit scenes, Kim was substituted by a body double. But filming was anything but easy. The film's director, Adrian Lyne, subjected Basinger (and Rourke) to psychological terror. He banned them from talking after work, fed Basinger nasty gossip about Mickey, and gave Rourke helpful notes while completely ignoring Kim. All this manipulation fueled Basinger's frustration and shaped her performance exactly how Lyne wanted.I think both my character and I were misunderstood. It's a very contradictory film. We made a truly wonderful movie, but what ended up on screen was this MTV-style version. Women still come up to me on the street asking, 'That scene from '9½ Weeks' – could you teach me how?'
Alongside Bruce Willis, she brought romance to the melodramatic comedy "Blind Date". In the sci-fi comedy "My Stepmother Is an Alien" starring Dan Aykroyd, Kim created the memorable character of Celeste Martin, an alien who comes to Earth on a mission she never quite manages to complete.
Basinger kicked off the new millennium with the supernatural thriller "Bless the Child," playing nurse Maggie O'Connor. She's raising her younger sister's daughter when the sister returns with her new husband—a cult leader—and Maggie discovers a terrifying truth about her niece. To protect the child, she teams up with an FBI agent who specializes in the occult.The role in 'L.A. Confidential' was a real gift for me. I enjoyed filming so much! For the first time in a long time, I really enjoyed acting - everything that happened between the commands 'action!' and 'cut!'.
Personal Life of Kim Basinger
Before marriage, Kim had a series of short-term relationships. Among her boyfriends were cinematographer Dale Robinette, actor Jan-Michael Vincent, and Tom Sonders and Richard Deros.Kim's first husband was makeup artist Ron Snyder, who went by the surname Britton. He was the son of Marilyn Monroe's personal makeup artist, and he met Kim on the set of "Hard Country". Initially, Ron caught Kim's attention with his modesty and care, qualities her previous suitors had lacked. Even though he was 15 years older than the actress, Kim married Britton in 1980.
In 1987, they separated, and Kim started dating producer Jon Peters. In 1989, Basinger's divorce was finalized, with Britton securing $8,000 monthly alimony plus full mortgage payments from his ex-wife. In his memoir, Ron accused his former wife of infidelity, claiming she had an affair with Richard Gere during their marriage.
In 2015, there were rumors that Kim secretly married her hairdresser, Mitch Stone. Paparazzi managed to take several pictures where they both wore identical gold rings on their ring fingers.
Kim Basinger Now
Basinger hasn't had any film roles since 2018, but in 2021, she joined Chloe Sevigny, Du Juan, Jourdan Dunn and other actresses in the Miu Miu Icons advertising campaign, a subsidiary brand of Prada Miu Miu. The concept by photographers Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott involves uniting women based on their individuality and their differences from each other.
Interesting Facts
- At school, Kim Basinger was bullied and called "dummy" and "fish mouth," leaving her feeling isolated and lonely.
- Kim received her first million-dollar fee for the role of Nadia Gates in the movie "Blind Date".
- In 1989, the actress spent $20 million pursuing her next dream: transforming the small Georgia town of Braselton into a tourist destination. The investment proved disastrous, and when she eventually sold, Basinger recovered only $1 million of her original investment.
- During the famous refrigerator scene in "9½ Weeks," a continuity error occurred because Basinger refused to eat the chili pepper. The script called for a long pepper. The director convinced Kim to eat a smaller pepper to get a genuine reaction. So Rourke pulls out a long pepper from the fridge, but seconds later, the actress is clearly chewing a much smaller one.
- Her divorce from Alec Baldwin and other personal struggles triggered panic attacks and agoraphobia, leaving Basinger afraid of everything. The actress eventually overcame these struggles and, as she puts it, "let go of all her pain."
- Kim Basinger has her own star, number 7021, on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
