Baldwin, Adam

(February 27, 1962– )

   No relation to actors Alec and brothers, Adam Baldwin, who portrayed Animal Mother in FULL METAL JACKET, grew up in Winnetka, Illinois, where he attended New Trier High School, the alma mater of such showbiz luminaries as Rock Hudson, Charlton Heston, Ann-Margret, Ralph Bellamy, and Bruce Dern. (Indeed, Rock Hudson was in the same high school class as Baldwin’s father, Bill. ) Baldwin’s first two films were both helmed auspiciously by firsttime directors in 1980: My Bodyguard (Tony Bill) and Ordinary People (Robert Redford). Baldwin found it “both refreshing and challenging to work with a first-time director. There’s a certain excitement and energy revolving around that debut. ” In the mid-1980s, when Baldwin’s agents approached him about playing a role in STANLEY KUBRICK’s next film, Full Metal Jacket, he jumped at the chance. “I had always been a huge fan of Stanley’s ever since I saw A CLOCKWORK ORANGE,” he said, and he was also attracted to what he saw as the story’s strong ANTIWAR THEME. “War is for fools,” he told Interview. “If I had been eighteen when the Vietnam War began, I wouldn’t have fought. ” Hardly the words one would expect from Baldwin’s character, the bloodthirsty marine recruit known as “Animal Mother. ” “There were guys like that,” he explained to the New York Times, “and they had to be portrayed. I don’t think by playing the part I’m making a right-wing statement at all. There were guys like that who believed in the war, and once they got over there, it was a whole different thing. ” Like virtually everyone who ever worked with Kubrick, Baldwin found the experience to be grueling but ultimately rewarding, as he told the Hollywood Reporter: “I spent ten months working fifteen-hour days, six days a week, slogging through dirt and rubble, with bombs going off and everything. It was long and hard, but it was great. I’d do it again in a second. ”

   In addition to Full Metal Jacket, Baldwin’s films have included D. C. Cab (1983), 3:15 (1986), The Chocolate War (1988, directed by Keith Gordon), Cohen & Tate (1989), Next of Kin (1989), Predator 2 (1990), Radio Flyer (1992), How to Make an American Quilt (1995), Independence Day (1996), and The Patriot (2000), as well as numerous TV movies and miniseries, including From the Earth to the Moon.

   References

   ■ “Adam Baldwin: Heir to an Impressive Tradition,” in press kit for My Bodyguard, Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation, 1980;

   ■ “After ‘Metal Jacket,’” New York Times, September 4, 1987, p. C6; Baldwin, Adam, interview with the Hollywood Reporter, January 1989, p. 37;

   ■ Baldwin,Adam, interview with Interview Magazine, September 1987, p. 39.