The Young Alec Baldwin: Dashing Photos from His Early Days
In 1994, the year before their daughter, Ireland, was born, a bespectacled Baldwin and Kim Basinger arrive at the New York premiere of Robert Altman’s Ready to Wear, in which Basinger starred, at the Ziegfeld.
BBC host, early-career Pat Sajak, or prime-time-soap star? Although he could have passed for any of the three with his feathery hair and tweed blazer, Baldwin is posing as the latter in this 1984 publicity still for the CBS soap opera Knots Landing. Pictured here at age 26, Baldwin appeared in 40 episodes as Joshua Rush, a mentally ill televangelist who attempts to kill his wife, Cathy, in a violent rage, only to fall from a roof to his own death in an episode subtly titled “Rise and Fall.” Then again, you probably could have gathered as much from this image.
Looking every inch the preppy all-American, Baldwin is seen here at a 1985 celebrity tennis event to benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation in Queens, New York. A longtime tennis buff and advocate of the United States Tennis Association, the actor appears at ease in his tennis whites and shades.
Having grown out the buzz cut and clean shave, Baldwin shows off his dashing profile alongside Jamie Lee Curtis at the Spirit of Liberty Awards Dinner in 1990.
It was at Morton’s restaurant in Los Angeles, to discuss their 1991 film, The Marrying Man, that Baldwin met his future wife Kim Basinger. In the romantic comedy, Alec starred as the titular nuptials-bound fellow who falls for a bombshell nightclub singer played by Basinger.
That same year, Baldwin began the very brief but shirtless chapter of his career in the crime thriller Miami Blues. As a violent psychopath determined to start a new life in Florida, he’s shown here toeing the line between crazed killer (note the buzz cut, gun, and bicep tattoo) and average suburban Dockers consumer (note the smart belt).
In* Prelude to a Kiss *(1992), Baldwin and Meg Ryan star as a recently wed couple whose relationship is tested by a supernatural turn of events. Here they make eyes at each other in coordinating denim.
Promoting his superhero foray *The Shadow, *Alec Baldwin poses with co-star Penelope Ann Miller at a press conference in 1993.
On the brink of his big-screen breakthrough, a grinning Baldwin rings in 1987 with Anthony Quinn at a New Year’s Eve party at Regine’s supper club in Manhattan. While the two-time Oscar winner sticks with a standard tuxedo, the future Oscar nominee (for his 2003 performance in The Cooler) makes a bold sartorial statement with a checkered jacket, geometric-print magenta button-down, and plum tie.
In this 1990 shot, a young Alec eerily channels Jack Donaghy, the suited TV executive he plays on 30 Rock—a portrayal that’s earned him two Emmys.
Not yet a household name, Baldwin is identified by name tag at an event in 1986. In some understated casualwear (for the 80s, at least), the then soap actor appears to be either posing like a bodybuilder, walking like an Egyptian, and/or horsing around in a classroom. The yellow utility belt strapped around his waist is even less easily explained.
Of the six Baldwin children, all four brothers became actors. Here, Alec, the eldest, is pictured with Stephen, William, and Daniel at sunset at Stephen’s wedding. (Note the signature Baldwin blue eyes and smirks.) When pressed to choose a favorite sibling, Alec has said, “It changes on a six-month cycle. We all pick one member of our family and trash that person, and then it rotates.”
After a breakout, five-film year in 1988 (She’s Having a Baby, Beetlejuice, Married to the Mob, Working Girl, and Talk Radio), Baldwin attends the New York premiere of Glory, in December 1989, as a bona-fide film star. He dresses the part in a tuxedo and sleek double-breasted overcoat.
In one of his final leading-man roles of the 90s—he’d return to form in 2009’s It’s Complicated—Baldwin stars in Heaven’s Prisoner opposite Kelly Lynch as a former detective whose family is endangered after a suspicious plane crash occurs nearby. Here distressed husband and wife are shown in a moment of mid-undress.
At Sardi’s in New York, the strapping actor sweeps Glenn Close off her feet at the Tony Awards nominees’ brunch in 1992.
Pre-dating Grey’s Anatomy by more than a decade, Baldwin pioneers the “McDreamy” look in a baggy leather jacket and jeans during a 1991 Saturday Night Live appearance. His second time hosting the show, he appears here with the night’s musical guest, a similarly clad Whitney Houston.
Baldwin channels Brando in this still from a 1995 television adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire. For his portrayal of Stanley Kowalski opposite Jessica Lange—with whom he’d starred in a Broadway staging of the play three years before—Baldwin earned both Emmy and Golden Globe nominations.
