Kim BasingerKimila Ann "Kim" Basinger (born December 8, 1953) is an Academy Award-winning American film actress and former fashion model.
Basinger was born in Athens, Georgia in 1953. Her father, Don Basinger, was a big band musician and loan manager who landed in Normandy on D-Day. Her mother, Ann, was a model, actress, and swimmer who appeared in Esther Williams films. The third of five children, she has two brothers, Mick and Skip, and two sisters, Ashley and Barbara. Basinger has German, Swedish and Cherokee ancestry and was raised Methodist.
When Basinger was sixteen, she started her modeling career by winning the Athens Junior Miss contest. She followed that by winning the title “Junior Miss Georgia”. Basinger then competed in the national Junior Miss pageant. It was there that Basinger was offered a modeling contract with Ford Modeling Agency. Initially turning down the offer in favor of singing and acting, Basinger reconsidered and went to New York to become a Ford model.
