Alec Baldwin Early Life

Baldwin was born in Massapequa, Long Island, New York, to Catholic parents Alexander Rae Baldwin II, a high school history teacher, drama club director and football coach, and Carol Newcomb Martineau. His brothers are Daniel, Stephen and William Baldwin, all of whom are actors; he also has two sisters, Jane and Elizabeth. All attended Alfred G. Berner High School, in Nassau County. Alexander (Class of 1976) and Daniel (Class of 1979) played football there under Coach Bob Reifsnyder, a former All-American player for Navy who is in the College Football Hall of Fame.

Baldwin is frequently noted as being Irish American, though his background includes English and Irish ancestry on his father's side, and distant French and Canadian ancestry on his mother's. His maternal grandmother was born in Nova Scotia and his Irish ancestry comes from his paternal great-grandmother, Helen Irene McNamara.

When Baldwin was young, he worked as a busboy at the famous New York City disco Studio 54. Baldwin attended George Washington University (1976-1979) but transferred to New York University to study acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute under Elaine Aiken and Geoffrey Horne. Baldwin returned to NYU in 1994 and graduated with a BFA that year.