By Annabella Ramirez
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Kimila Ann Basinger (/ˈbeɪsɪŋər/ BAY-sing-ər; born December 8, 1953) is an American actress. She has garnered acclaim for her work in film, for which she has received various accolades including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Initially a TV starlet, she shot to fame as a Bond girl in 1983 and enjoyed a long heyday over the next two decades. In 2011 Los Angeles Times Magazine ranked her third on the “50 Most Beautiful Women In Film”.
Basinger began her career as a model and switched to acting in 1976. She appeared in several television productions, including a remake of From Here to Eternity (1979), before making her feature debut in the rural drama Hard Country (1981). Hailed as a sex symbol of the 1980s and 1990s, Basinger first gained widespread attention for her performance of Domino Petachi in the James Bond entry Never Say Never Again (1983). She went on to receive a Golden Globe nomination for her role in The Natural (1984), starred in the erotic drama 9½ Weeks (1986), and played Vicki Vale in Tim Burton‘s Batman (1989), which remains the highest-grossing film of her career.
For her femme fatale portrayal in L.A. Confidential (1997), Basinger won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her other films include No Mercy (1986), Blind Date (1987), My Stepmother Is an Alien (1988), Cool World (1992), The Real McCoy (1993), I Dreamed of Africa (2000), 8 Mile (2002), The Door in the Floor (2004), Cellular (2004), The Sentinel (2006), The Burning Plain (2009), Grudge Match (2013), and Fifty Shades Darker (2017). Basinger’s portrayal of Elena Lincoln in the lattermost earned her a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress after five previous nominations.
Divorced from makeup artist Ron Snyder and actor Alec Baldwin, Basinger cohabitates with her longtime hairdresser, Mitch Stone. She had a high-profile relationship between marriages with musician Prince, and is the mother of social media influencer Ireland Baldwin from her marriage to Baldwin.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
Question of the Day
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Puzzle of the Day
Born
- Eli Whitney (inventor) –
- Diego Rivera (artist) –
- Elzie Crisler Segar (Popeye creator) –
- Sammy Davis, Jr. (entertainer) –
- Flip Wilson (comedian) –
- Jim Morrison (lead singer of The Doors) –
- Kim Basinger (actress) –
- Dominic Monaghan (actor) –
- Ian Somerhalder (actor) –
- Utkarsh Ambudkar (actor) –
- AnnaSophia Robb (actress) –
Died
- Major Robert Lawrence (the first African American astronaut, was killed during training exercises) –
- John Lennon (musician, founding member of The Beatles) –
- John Glenn (astronaut, first American to orbit Earth) –
- Caroll Spinney (puppeteer; best known for Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch) –
- Ryan O’Neal (actor) –
Events
- American Federation of Labor is organized at Columbus, Ohio, with Samuel Gompers as first president –
- American Bird Banding Association formed, first such society in U.S. –
- The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra gave its first concert –
- John McCrae’s In Flanders Fields poem was published –
- U.S. declared war on Japan (WW II) –
- Nine N.Y.C. newspapers shut down when International Typographical Union workers strike –
- Musician and former Beatle John Lennon was shot and killed in New York City –
- Russian leaders announced the dissolution of the Soviet Union –
- Element 111, roentgenium, first created –
- At three Anheuser-Busch properties (Merrimack, New Hampshire; St. Louis, Missouri; and Fort Collins, Colorado) 896 couples gathered to kiss under the mistletoe, setting a new Guinness World Record –
Weather
- Icefalls at Gay Hill, Texas, averaged four to six inches in diameter –
- 92 degrees Fahrenheit, Ojai, California –
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