Kim Basinger

Born: 8 December 1953
Where: Athens, Georgia, USA

The former cover girl is famous for her part in the erotic thriller Nine ½ Weeks, her marriage to and divorce from Alec Baldwin and her triumphant, Oscar-winning performance in LA Confidential.

After modelling for five years, she began making guest appearances on shows like Starsky & Hutch and Charlie's Angels.

She landed a regular part in Dog And Cat in 1977 before taking the title role in TV movie Katie: Portrait of a Centerfold (1978) and starring in a mini-series remake of From Here To Eternity.

Her big-screen debut was promising: her Southern accent won Basinger the role of girlfriend to cowboy Jan-Michael Vincent in Hard Country (1981).

Her career gained momentum in 1983 after she appeared as (unofficial) Bond girl Domino Petachi in Never Say Never Again, and co-starred in a remake of The Man Who Loved Women.

A nude spread in Playboy the same year also hit the headlines and she began to attract better parts until her most infamous film - 9 ½ Weeks.

Her attempts at comedy, in Blind Date and My Stepmother Is An Alien, were not successes, but Basinger hit a peak again when she replaced an injured Sean Young as Vicki Vale in Batman.

Her next movie, The Marrying Man (1991), was a box office bomb but introduced her to Alec Baldwin, whom she married in 1993 and teamed up with for The Getaway the next year.

At the same time she faced legal battles over an alleged verbal contract to appear in the controversial film Boxing Helena.

When the court ordered her to pay in excess of $8m, the actress was forced to declare personal bankruptcy and sell her interest in the town of Braselton, Georgia. The ruling was overturned on appeal.

After a three-year hiatus - which included giving birth to a daughter - she made a triumphant return in Curtis Hanson's LA Confidential, with an Oscar-winning portrayal of a 50s-era Hollywood call girl.

Basinger filed for divorce from Baldwin in January 2001.

Meanwhile, she seemed unable to capitalise on her Oscar triumph, making only two tepidly received films from 1997 to 2001 - I Dreamed of Africa and Bless The Child.

But things changed in 2002 when she reteamed with Hanson to star as Eminem's trailer-trash mother in 8 Mile.

In 2004 she played the part of a kidnap victim in the enjoyable thriller Cellular opposite Chris Evans.

Recent work includes the role of a grieving mother in Tod William's John Irving adaptation The Door in the Floor.