Kim Basinger Movies
Kim Basinger was hardly the first successful model to head to Hollywood in hopes of a career on the big screen, but few have managed to achieve the same degree of public acclaim and professional recognition that she has earned. Born in Athens, GA, on December 8, 1953, Kim Basinger was raised in a family of entertainers; her father had been a jazz musician and her mother a dancer who was part of the "water ballet" chorus in a handful of Esther Williams musicals. Basinger's parents enrolled her in dance classes at an early age to help her overcome a strong case of shyness; in time, she discovered she enjoyed both dancing and singing, and began contemplating a career in show business. She began competing in beauty contests as a teenager, and won the Junior Miss Georgia pageant, which took her to the national competition in New York City. By this time a striking and statuesque blonde beauty, Basinger was spotted by a representative of the prestigious Ford Modeling Agency and offered a contract; while she had hoped to make her mark as a cabaret singer, she wisely decided moving to the Big Apple was a step in the right direction. Before long, Basinger was earning 1,000 dollars per day through modeling jobs, and had signed on as the Breck Shampoo girl; in her spare time, she studied acting and picked up occasional singing gigs.In 1976, Basinger decided to take a more serious stab at acting, and moved to Los Angeles. Within a year, she made her television debut as a female police detective in the pilot for a short-lived crime drama entitled Dog and Cat; in 1978, she landed the starring role in the made-for-TV movie Katie: Portrait of a Centerfold, appropriately playing a beautiful Southern girl who comes to Los Angeles in search of stardom. After being cast as Lorene Rogers in a TV remake of From Here to Eternity (a role she reprised in a subsequent series based upon the film), Basinger finally made her way to the big screen in the low-budget drama Hard Country. But while it (and Basinger) received good reviews, her screen career didn't take off in a big way until 1983, when she was cast opposite Sean Connery in the James Bond adventure Never Say Never Again. She also posed for a well-publicized layout in Playboy which, coinciding with the film's release, certainly didn't hurt her growing popularity.
While Basinger's career took off after Never Say Never Again, and she appeared in several major hits (including The Natural, 9 1/2 Weeks, and Batman, the latter of which led to a brief romance with pop star Prince), quality roles tended to elude her. But she generally fared well with the material given to her, and shined in several smaller films, including Fool for Love and Nadine. In 1991, Basinger was cast opposite Alec Baldwin in the comedy The Marrying Man, and the two hit it off -- so much so that some accused their romance of interfering with the production. The couple rode out the negative publicity, however, and married in 1993. (It was Basinger's second marriage after divorcing Ron Britton in 1989.)
The next several years were difficult for Basinger. Her decision to not appear in the film Boxing Helena after verbally committing to the project led to her being sued by the film's producers, who won an eight-million-dollar judgment against her. Although the ruling was eventually overturned on appeal, legal bills forced Basinger to declare bankruptcy. And after several undistinguished projects, the actress went three years without working, during which she and Baldwin had a child. However, Basinger's 1997 comeback in L.A. Confidential suggested her time away had been well spent; playing a high-priced call girl with a close resemblance to Veronica Lake, Basinger's assured performance won her an Oscar as best supporting actress. This triumph was followed by another three-year sabbatical, which was followed by her divorce from Baldwin and a pair of box-office flops, I Dreamed of Africa and Bless the Child. In 2002, Basinger re-teamed with L.A. Confidential director Curtis Hanson, and won rave reviews for her gritty performance as a troubled single mother in the acclaimed urban drama 8 Mile. A committed vegetarian, Basinger also became an outspoken animal-rights activist In her offscreen life during the '90s. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 1976
If for no other reason than its provocative title, this is the single most famous episode of Charlie's Angels. Our three heroines pose as lawbreakers in order to infiltrate a brutal and corrupt woman's prison farm in the Louisiana swamplands. Their mission: To solve the disappearance of one of the inmates, and to find out why so few prisoners leave the farm alive. Among its other virtues, "Angels in Chains" boasts an impressive supporting cast, including cult-film favorite Mary Woronov and future leading ladies Kim Basinger and Lauren Tewes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Farrah Fawcett-Majors, Kate Jackson, (more)
- 1977
A wiseacre, world-wise gumshoe teams up with a greenhorn policewoman and begin investigating the murder of his partner in this crime drama that was a pilot for a TV series. Their search leads them into the darkest corners of the city's thriving porno industry. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1978
Based on a book by John C. Fuller, the made-for-TV Ghost of Flight 401 is predicated on the "actual events" surrounding a real-life plane crash. In December of 1972, Flight 401 nose-dived into the Florida Everglades, killing its flight officer (played herein by Ernest Borgnine). Though damaged beyond repair, the plane is cannibalized for its parts, which are recycled to newly built aircraft. On each of these new planes, it is reported that the ghost of 401's flight officer has made unexpected appearances, to warn the crews of impending disasters. OoooOOOOOOoooooooo..... Those who dared first watched The Ghost of Flight 401 on February 18, 1978. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1978
Kim Basinger was best known as a model when she starred in the made-for-TV Katie: Portrait of a Centerfold. She plays a green-as-grass Texas teenager who wins a beauty contest. Armed with nothing more than delusions, Basinger heads to Hollywood to become a star. As given away by the film's title, Ms. Basinger ends up as posing au naturel. While it received surprisingly good review in 1978, Katie: Portrait of a Centerfold is no more artistically advanced than those Kroger Babb VD exploitation movies of the 1940s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kim Basinger
- 1979
Having previously spawned an Academy Award-winning film, which starred Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, and Frank Sinatra, James Jones' best-selling military novel From Here to Eternity was adapted into a six-hour miniseries in 1979. Set in Honolulu in 1941 in the days prior to the December 7 attack, the film concerns four principal characters: Sergeant Milt Warden (William Devane), who yearns for a promotion; Karen Holmes (Natalie Wood), the restless wife of Warden's CO, who enters into a torrid affair with the sergeant; Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt (Steve Railsback), a sensitive soul who loves the army but instinctively rebels against everyone wearing stripes; and prostitute Lorene Rogers (Kim Basinger), with whom Prewitt falls in love. The TV version is able to sidestep the censorship restrictions of the original movie, which means that the Warden/Holmes affair is conducted in bed as well as on the beach, and that Jones' indictments of military iniquities isn't subject to "official" approval. Originally telecast on three consecutive weeks in February 1979, From Here to Eternity led to a brief weekly series in 1980, with Devane and Basinger carried over from the miniseries, but with Don Johnson as Prewitt (who dies in the original novel) and Barbara Hershey as Karen Holmes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Natalie Wood, William Devane, (more)
- 1980
When Sgt. Warden, on Honolulu, hears of high numbers of casualties he attempts to join his men. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1980
While Hawaii is under military alert due to the bombing of a ship, a man's mysterious death is investigated by his brother. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1980
Sgt. Warden, while having an affair with a major's wife, begins a personal vendetta against the major. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1980
When Sgt. Warden is transferred to a combat unit, he turns down his officer's commission, putting himself in danger. ~ All Movie Guide
Jan-Michael Vincent stars as Kyle Richardson, who works at a dead-end job in a Texas chain-link fence factory. In the tradition of such earlier films as Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, Richardson enjoys himself only on weekends when he whoops it up with his buddies at the local saloon. His carousing exacts a toll on his relationship with Jodie Lynn Palmer (Kim Basinger, in her film debut). Finally, Jodie delivers an ultimatum: either settle down and get married, or she'll skeedaddle to California, there to try her luck as a country-western singer. Real-life C&W star Tanya Tucker co-stars as Jodie's best friend and role model. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jan-Michael Vincent, Kim Basinger, (more)
- 1981
Set in a city hospital, this film is essentially a whodunit -- with the resident pathologist investigating -- but was quite probably intended as a pilot for a possible series, so it plays more like a murderous version of E.R. ~ Mark Hockley, All Movie Guide
- 1982
- PG
The McGee brothers--Silas and Ian (Charlton Heston in a dual role)--are Scottish miners with a gold fortune hidden in British Columbia. Two bush pilots (Nick Mancuso, Ricky Zantolas) and a girl (Kim Basinger) travel to the province to seek the gold. The film is also known as Search for the Mother Lode. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlton Heston, Nick Mancuso, (more)
This remake of François Truffaut's 1977 comedy misses out on Truffaut's subtext that delves into the nature of love and instead simply recounts the sexual and romantic exploits of David, a sculptor who is an incurable womanizer (Burt Reynolds). In order to come to grips with his obsession for women, David goes to see a psychiatrist, Marianna (Julie Andrews), and sure enough, she later joins him on the couch. His tale is told by Marianna, as flashbacks reveal their relationship and other loves of David's life, most notably Louise (Kim Basinger), a married woman hooked on intimacy in odd, if not dangerous, places. In all these relationships, David is as much attracted to the women as they are to him. Unfortunately, with flat dialogue and uninspired comedy, David fares better than the film as a whole. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Reynolds, Julie Andrews, (more)
The title of the 1983 James Bond adventure Never Say Never Again is a self-mocking reference to star Sean Connery's insistence back in 1971 that he would never play Bond again. Reportedly, the huge salary offered Connery was but one consideration that brought him back to the 007 fold; the other was the producers' assurance that Connery would have full control over all aspects of production, a promise that was not kept often enough to the star's liking. Essentially, this film is a remake of the 1965 Bond flick Thunderball (the producers were able to get away with this due to a legal tangle involving the original 1961 Ian Fleming novel). Bond emerges from cozy retirement to cross swords with Largo (Klaus Maria Brandauer), a megalomaniacal business exec who steals several nuclear missiles, intending to bring the World Powers to their knees. Kim Basinger plays Domino, Largo's mistress, whose loyalty Bond secures when she learns that Largo was responsible for the death of her brother. In addition to Basinger, the film boasts a toothsome villainess by the name of Fatima Blush (played by Barbara Carrera). After wrapping Never Say Never Again, Sean Connery swore that this was his absolutely final performance as James Bond; thus far, he's kept his word. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sean Connery, Klaus Maria Brandauer, (more)
The film version of The Natural pulls off the neat trick of conveying the spirit of the Bernard Malamud novel upon which it is based, even while changing both the outcome and the meaning of Malamud's closing chapters. In his first film appearance in four years, Robert Redford plays Roy Hobbs, a farm boy with a hankering to be a great baseball player. With his faithful homemade bat "Wonderboy" in hand, Roy heads to the big city. En route, he arouses the fascination of the mysterious Harriet Bird (Barbara Hershey). Luring the boy to a hotel room, Harriet asks Roy what he wants out of life. Roy brashly responds he wants to be "the best there is," whereupon Harriet whips out a gun and shoots Roy down. Sixteen years later, a humbler Roy Hobbs emerges from the bush leagues to become a 35-year-old "rookie" on the 1939 lineup of the New York Knights. He soon becomes the team's star player, and in so doing once more attracts enigmatic woman Memo Paris (Kim Basinger), the glamorous niece of the Knights' manager Pop Fisher (Wilford Brimley) and the mistress of Rothstein-like gambler Gus Sands (a curiously unbilled Darren McGavin). Roy's fascination with Memo compromises his ability to play, but this time he finds salvation in the form the angelic Iris Gaines (Glenn Close), his childhood sweetheart. From this point forward, the script for The Natural bears very little resemblance to the Malamud original. Without giving anything away, it can be said that Roy Hobbs is given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to compensate for the mistakes of his youth, despite the demonic intrusion of inexplicably spiteful sports writer Max Mercy (Robert Duvall). The Natural elevates the art of slow-motion photography to new heights; while this technique would become precious and boring in later baseball films, it works beautifully here, as does the decision by director Barry Levinson and cinematographer Caleb Deschanel to convey the symbolism inherent in the story in purely visual rather than blatantly verbal terms. (If the characters told you that the story was a retelling of the Camelot legend in baseball terms, would you have watched?) Another plus is the pastoral theme music by Randy Newman, which has been well utilized on sports broadcasts and "human interest" TV documentaries ever since. The baseball scenes in The Natural were staged at War Memorial Stadium in Buffalo, New York. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, (more)
Though there are several actors in Fool for Love, two share the majority of screen time: Sam Shepard as Eddie, and Kim Basinger as May. May toils away at a fleabag motel; Eddie is her former love, long absent. Unexpectedly re-entering May's life, Eddie picks up where he left off, and soon the couple is alternately bickering violently and making love with equal fervor. Peripheral characters include Harry Dean Stanton as a boozed-up bum, Martha Crawford as an aristocratic would-be murderer, and Randy Quaid as the current man in the heroine's life. This one-two punch of iconoclastic playwright Sam Shepard and unconventional director Robert Altman proved a failure at the box-office and with critics. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sam Shepard, Kim Basinger, (more)
High-powered gangsters move this crime drama along at a fast pace. When two cops, Eddie Jillette (Richard Gere) and Joe Collins (Gary Basaraba), hear about a contract out on local crime boss Losado (Jeroen Krabbe), they go undercover posing as hitmen, and the result is murder. Collins and the man who hired them, Paul Deveneux (Terry Kinney) are killed, and Jillette goes looking for the assassin. He ends up in New Orleans where he locates Michel Duval (Kim Basinger), the girlfriend of Deveneux now virtually held a prisoner by Losado. Jillette has his work cut out for him. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Gere, Kim Basinger, (more)
The title refers to the duration of the relationship between self-absorbed Wall Street shark Mickey Rourke and divorced art gallery owner Kim Basinger. Kim is looking for true love, while Mickey is searching for...gosh knows what. His notions of lovemaking include blindfolds, ice cubes, chocolate syrup, and rolling around on spent peanut shells. When the alotted 9 1/2 weeks are up, Kim has finally come to realize that Rourke has been using her. We could have told her that twenty minutes into the film. One of the definitive works in the Mickey Rourke ouevre, 9 1/2 Weeks is deliciously awful, and as such will probably endure as a Camp Classic for the next hundred years. The film is available in both R-rated and unrated versions; either way, it's a hoot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mickey Rourke, Kim Basinger, (more)
A woman trying to keep a momentary indiscretion quiet finds herself in more trouble than she ever imagined in this comedy written and directed by Robert Benton. Nadine Hightower (Kim Basinger), who is significantly more beautiful than intelligent, is fast-talked into posing for some cheesecake pictures by sleazy photographer Raymond Escobar (Jerry Stiller). When Nadine learns that Escobar plans to use the pictures for a set of racy playing cards, Nadine decides to steal the photos back, and she enlists the help of her soon-to-be-former husband Vernon (Jeff Bridges), who is already engaged to the winner of a local beauty pageant. In the midst of the robbery, intruders shoot and kill Escobar in the next room; Nadine and Vernon grab an envelope marked "Nadine" and make tracks. But the envelope doesn't contain any photos; instead, there are plans for a road to be built in town that reveal dirty dealings by local politicians, and now Nadine and Vernon are on the run from both Escobar's killers and land baron Buford Pope (Rip Torn). Popular country and western group Sweethearts of the Rodeo perform several tunes for the film's soundtrack. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Bridges, Kim Basinger, (more)
When speaking of Laurel and Hardy's first feature film Pardon Us, Stan Laurel described it as "a three-story building on a one-story base"-in other words, a 2-reeler stretched and bloated into 6 reels. Much the same could be said of Blake Edwards's Blind Date, though one wonders if Stan Laurel could have even gotten two reels out of its wafer-thin premise. At the outset, yuppie Bruce Willis is warned not to let his blind date, southern belle Kim Basinger, drink anything stronger than lemonade. So what does Willis do the first chance he gets? That's right, kids; he plies poor Basinger with champagne. And then he wonders why his life rapidly goes to hell in a handbasket. In his first starring movie role, Bruce Willis manages to find all sorts of nuances in his one-note role, while Kim Basinger is very funny when she's blotto-at least, for the first five minutes or so. John Laroquette costars as a character straight out of a 1920s bedroom farce; he's also pretty good, even though his dialogue is numbingly unamusing. Blake Edwards is famous for his ability to make a lot out of a little...but there has to be a limit somewhere. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kim Basinger, Bruce Willis, (more)
An astrophysicist falls in love with a beautiful woman who is actually a disguised extraterrestrial in this high-concept comedy. Dan Aykroyd plays Steven Mills, a dedicated and harmlessly odd scientist researching ways to send radio signals to deep space. Unbeknownst to him, one of his experiments works better than expected, attracting the attention of an alien in need of help. She travels to Earth and poses as a human, assuming the name Celeste and the body of Kim Basinger. Celeste's lack of knowledge about humanity causes her to act bizarrely at times, but her odd behavior unexpectedly causes Mills to fall in love with her. The confused Celeste decides to play along for her planet's sake, but she finds her plan threatened by Mills' teenage daughter Jessie (Alyson Hannigan), who has become suspicious of Celeste after witnessing some odd behavior. The culture clash between Celeste's planet and Earth serves as an excuse for broad slapstick and sitcom-style humor, such as Celeste's fumbling efforts to enact the human ritual of "kissing." ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dan Aykroyd, Kim Basinger, (more)
Behind the black cowl, Gotham City superhero Batman is really millionaire philanthropist Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton), who turned to crimefighting after his parents were brutally murdered before his eyes. The only person to share Wayne's secret is faithful butler Alfred (Michael Gough). The principal villain in Batman is The Joker (Jack Nicholson) who'd been mob torpedo Jack Napier before he was horribly disfigured in a vat of acid. The Joker's plan to destroy Batman and gain control of Gotham City is manifold. First he distributes a line of booby-trapped cosmetics, then he goes on a destruction spree in the Gotham Art Museum while the music of Prince blasts away in the background, and finally he orchestrates an all-out campaign to win the hearts and minds of the Gothamites, hoping to turn them against the Cowled One. Meanwhile, reporter Vicki Vale (Kim Basinger) becomes the love of Batman's life-which of course plays right into the Joker's hands. Photographed by Roger Pratt, designed by Anton Furst, and scored by Tim Burton's favorite composer Danny Elfman, Batman was a monstrous box-office hit, making $100 million in the first ten days of release--$82,800,000 in North America alone. Incidentally, Billy Dee Williams' comparatively small role as DA Harvey Dent was originally designed to set up the sequel, wherein Dent was to convert into master criminal Two-Face; but by the time the producers got around to that character in 1995's Batman Forever, Two-Face was played by Tommy Lee Jones. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, (more)
Neil Simon forgoes his typical urban East Coast kvetchers and replaces them with sunny Californian kvetchers in The Marrying Man, a film which became a beacon of gossip in 1991 due to the alleged shenanigans of stars Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger), who fell in love during production. Simon based his script on a true story concerning the love affair between shoe tycoon Harry Karl and actress Marie (The Body) McDonald during the 1950s. Married to each other four times, McDonald still managed to carry on an affair with mobster Bugsy Siegel. In this Simon-ized version, Baldwin plays Charley Pearl, a sharp and handsome Hollywood millionaire, engaged to Adele Horner (Elisabeth Shue), the daughter of dyspeptic movie studio executive Lew Horner (Robert Loggia). The day before their wedding, Charley heads off to Las Vegas for a bachelor party, and in a sleazy casino on the outskirts of town, he sets his eyes on sexy singer Vicki Anderson (Basinger) and falls for her hard. He wants her immediately and even though she warns him she's the property of Bugsy Siegel (Armand Assante), he crawls into her bedroom window to be with her. Caught with his pants down by Siegel, Bugsy, instead of killing him, forces him to marry Vicki ("I was about to dump her anyway," he says). But after their marriage, Charley and Vicki discover they're more attracted to the danger of their relationship than in each other. Charley's friends -- Phil (Paul Reiser), Sammy (Fisher Stevens), Tony (Peter Dobson), and George (Steve Hytner) -- form a Greek chorus commenting on the crazed love affair and are reportedly inspired by Phil Silvers, Sammy Cahn, Tony Martin, and Leo Durocher. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kim Basinger, Alec Baldwin, (more)
In Final Analysis, Richard Gere stars as Isaac Barr, a San Francisco psychiatrist whose alluring patient Diana Baylor (Uma Thurman) is being treated for traumatic memories. In order to find out more about her trauma, Diana suggests that Isaac speak to her sister and question her about what went on between them in the past. But when Isaac sets eyes on Diana's sister Heather (Kim Basinger), they become involved in a torrid and steamy sex affair. Unfortunately, Heather is married to psychotic sadist Jimmy Evans (Eric Roberts). ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Gere, Kim Basinger, (more)
