Biography

Adam is distantly related to the Baldwin brothers Alec Baldwin, Daniel Baldwin, William Baldwin, and Stephen Baldwin, who are from Long Island, New York (Adam is from the Chicago area). They share common Baldwin ancestry going back to the 1600s in England.

Is good friends with Jamie Lee Curtis and appeared in Molly & Roni's Dance Party (2005) as a favor to her.

Recorded his own version of the song "The Man They Call Jayne" for use as an easter-egg feature in the DVD collection of Firefly (2002).

Frequently participates in celebrity hockey games.

Alumnus of New Trier Township High School East, Winnetka, Illinois. Other New Trier graduates include Ralph Bellamy, Charlton Heston, Rock Hudson, Hugh B. O'Brien, Ann-Margret, William Christopher, Bruce Dern, Penelope Milford, Virginia Madsen, and Liz Phair.

It was never the fame or fortune that drove me to act. It was something I love and enjoy doing it. A lot of people identify who they are by what they do and that's not me. It's what I do but not who I am. Who I am is a parent. I'm a family man.

The inspiration for Jayne Cobb... I had just been trying to do Warren Oates from The Wild Bunch (1969) meets Eli Wallach from "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly." Guys like that. Those are guys I was trying to impersonate, mixed in with some Strother Martin. Those are great Western guys. I just always approached it as a Western, with that sensibility. You can shoot someone in the back and rationalize it, because you're out on the frontier, and survival of the fittest. No honor among thieves. It was up to Joss [Whedon] to infuse him with a little bit of a heart of gold and honor for [Nathan Fillion's character] Mal. The rest of them, he could take or leave them. And later I saw _Alien (1979)_ again, and it turns out I was just doing Yaphet Kotto.

I need my comfort zone. I think I blew out my ears listening to Led Zeppelin in my headphones, living in my basement apartment, so I don't hear too well in crowds. I like having conversations where I don't need to go, "Huh? What?"

We all felt unique and lucky working on a Kubrick movie, but everyone's human. It's not like we got there with these expectations that we'd be working with Kubrick, the master, the God. He's only human. Familiarity breeds contempt. We just wanted to know when it was gonna be done, and he would just say, "I don't know." We were young and unwise. We didn't know it would end at some point, but we should have realized. We should have enjoyed it while we were there.

What I try to do is to appreciate every job I have while I'm working on it. [Stanley] Kubrick taught me that on Full Metal Jacket. He said I wasn't patient enough. We were a bunch of cocky young actors. "We're in a Kubrick film! We've made it!" Big arrogant fat-headed idiots in green fatigues. I'll always reflect back on that. He showed me you should appreciate what you have while you have it.