Actor Alec Baldwin started his career on the television dramas Doctors and Knots Landing, and he went on to a successful film career appearing in films such as Pearl Harbor and Running with Scissors.

Baldwin won an Emmy Award for Best Actor in a Comedy Series in 2009 for his role on 30 Rock.

Baldwin is featured in Playboy's July/August 2009 issue. In an interview with the magazine, Baldwin disclosed that he contemplated suicide after a 2007 controversial phone message to his daughter Ireland was exposed. In the message, Baldwin referred to Ireland as being a "rude little pig" who "needed to have her a** straightened out." The message was exposed during his custody battle with ex-wife Kim Basinger.

Baldwin studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York City. After making a name for himself on Knots Landing in the mid-1980s, he starred in a string of successful films including Beetlejuice, Working Girl and The Hunt for Red October. In 1992, Baldwin joined an all-star cast in the film adaptation of the David Mamet play Glengarry Glen Ross, performing a monologue written specifically for the film.

Other notable Baldwin films include the effects-heavy re-imagining of The Shadow, the medical thriller Malice, The Coole (a role for which Baldwin was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar) and back-to-back collaborations with director Martin Scorsese in The Aviator and The Departed.

He was nominated for an Emmy in 2007 for his role on 30 Rock, currently in its second season.

Baldwin met his ex-wife, actress Kim Basinger, in 1991 on the set of the film The Marrying Man. The two divorced in 2000 and have had a contentious relationship ever since.

On April 19, 2007, the website TMZ published an angry, ranting phone message left by Baldwin for his 12-year-old daughter with Basinger, Ireland Eliesse. Basinger denied that she had any involvement with leaking the tape and Baldwin publicly apologized for losing his temper claiming that he's suffering from parental alienation.

1. Eldest: Alec, 30 Rock
2. Second: Daniel, Life on the Street
3. Third: William, Backdraft
4. Youngest: Stephen, The Usual Suspects

• Adam Baldwin of Firefly is not related

Baldwin appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman in May of 2009, where he made the statement when asked about expanding his family, "I'm thinking about getting a Filipino mail-order bride at this point...or a Russian one," creating a frenzy of controversy. Philippino Sen. Ramon Ravilla reacted to the comment by stating that it was "arrogant" and "insensitive and uncalled for."E! Online: Alec Baldwin Cracks Wise, Starts International Incident (May 18, 2009) On May 20, 2009, Baldwin apologized for his mail-order bride remarks, which he characterized as an "obvious joke". He also clarified his controversial position on the fate of the automobile industry in Detroit.Huffington Post: An Apology Regarding My Letterman Appearance... (May 20, 2009)