Baldwin

lexander Rae Baldwin III[6] was born on April 3, 1958,[7] in Amityville, New York,[6] and raised in the Nassau Shores neighborhood[8] of nearby Massapequa,[9][10] the eldest son of Carol Newcomb (née Martineau; December 15, 1929 – May 26, 2022)[11] from Syracuse[12] and Alexander Rae Baldwin Jr. (October 26, 1927 – April 15, 1983),[13] a high school history/social studies teacher and football coach from Brooklyn.[9] He has three younger brothers, Daniel (born 1960), William (born 1963), and Stephen (born 1966), who also became actors. He also has two sisters, Elizabeth “Beth” Baldwin Keuchler (born 1955)[14] and Jane Ann Baldwin Sasso (born 1965).[14][15]

Alec and his siblings were raised as Roman Catholics.[16] They are of Irish, French, and English ancestry.[17][18] Through his father, Baldwin is descended from Mayflower passenger John Howland, and through this line, is the 13th generation of his family born in North America and the 14th generation to live in North America.[19]

Baldwin attended Alfred G. Berner High School in Massapequa[18] and played football there under Coach Bob Reifsnyder. In New York City, Baldwin worked as a busboy at the famed discotheque, Studio 54. From 1976 to 1979, he attended George Washington University. In 1979, he lost the election for student body president and received a personal letter from former U.S. president Richard Nixon (with whom he had a common friend) encouraging him to use the loss as a learning experience.[20]