Adam Baldwin (born February 27, 1962) is an American actor. He made his film debut in My Bodyguard (1980) and later appeared in films including Full Metal Jacket (1987), Predator 2 (1990), Independence Day (1996), The Patriot (2000), and Serenity (2005). On television, he is known for playing Jayne Cobb in Firefly, John Casey in Chuck, and Mike Slattery in The Last Ship. He has also worked as a voice actor, including as Superman in Superman: Doomsday (2007) and Dutch in Halo 3: ODST (2009).
Early life
Baldwin was born on February 27, 1962, in Winnetka, Illinois, and studied at New Trier Township High School in east Winnetka. Raised in the Chicago area, Baldwin played hockey as a youth.
Career
Baldwin began acting professionally as a teenager, landing the role of Ricky Linderman in the Chicago-set film My Bodyguard (1980). That same year he appeared in Robert Redford's Academy Award-winning drama Ordinary People as Kevin Stillman. In the early 1980s he continued with supporting roles in films including D.C. Cab (1983) and Reckless (1984).
By the late 1980s he had moved into higher-profile studio productions, including Stanley Kubrick's Vietnam War film Full Metal Jacket (1987), in which he played the Marine nicknamed "Animal Mother," and the crime thriller Next of Kin (1989). In the 1990s he appeared in a run of mainstream features including Predator 2 (1990), the western biopic Wyatt Earp (1994) portraying Tom McLaury, and the science-fiction blockbuster Independence Day (1996). He later played Captain Wilkins in Roland Emmerich's Revolutionary War film The Patriot (2000).
On television, Baldwin became a regular cast member of Joss Whedon's science-fiction series Firefly (2002–2003) as the mercenary Jayne Cobb, and reprised the role in the continuation film Serenity (2005). From 2007 to 2012 he played the National Security Agency agent John Casey on NBC's action-comedy series Chuck. His other television work includes a regular role on ABC's Day Break (2006–2007) and a lead role on the 1996–1997 drama series The Cape as Col. Jack Riles. He made a brief on-screen return to the schoolyard premise of My Bodyguard with a cameo in the comedy Drillbit Taylor (2008), noted as an explicit nod to his earlier film.
In 2012 he guest-starred on Castle as Detective Ethan Slaughter, reuniting on screen with Firefly co-star Nathan Fillion. He later joined the TNT action drama The Last Ship (2014–2018) as Mike Slattery, the destroyer's second-in-command. In film, he later appeared in the western The Kid (2019) as Bob Olinger, and the sports drama American Underdog (2021) as Terry Allen.
Baldwin has also worked as a voice actor, including voicing Superman in the animated film Superman: Doomsday (2007), and portraying Dutch in the video game Halo 3: ODST (2009). He provided additional voices for citizens and other miscellaneous characters in Half-Life 2: Episode Two (2007). Along with his Chuck co-star Yvonne Strahovski, he contributed voice work to Mass Effect 2 (2010), voicing the quarian marine Kal'Reegar.
Personal life
Baldwin is married to Ami Julius and has three children. In 2009, he participated in Ride 2 Recovery's "Don't Mess with Texas Challenge", a fundraising ride supporting rehabilitation programs for wounded service members and veterans.
GamerGate
In 2014, Baldwin became associated with GamerGate after using the hashtag "#GamerGate" during the controversy. Sources differed on how to characterize his role in the hashtag's origin: Time wrote that Baldwin "coined" the term, The Washington Post reported that its origin was disputed and that Baldwin claimed credit for it, and The New Yorker described it as having been popularized by him. The New Yorker also reported that Baldwin linked to a video making an allegation about game developer Zoë Quinn that the magazine said had since been "proved false". WIRED later described Baldwin as lending "high profile support" to the controversy, while the Columbia Journalism Review wrote that, in the absence of clear spokespeople for GamerGate, journalists sometimes interviewed "proxies like actor Adam Baldwin".
Filmography
Film
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
|rowspan="2"|1980
|My Bodyguard
|Ricky Linderman
|
|-
|Ordinary People
|Kevin Stillman
|
|-
|1983
|D.C. Cab
|Albert Hockenberry
|
|-
|1984
|Reckless
|Randy Daniels
|
|-
|rowspan="2"|1986
|3:15
|Jeff Hannah
|
|-
|Bad Guys
|Skip Jackson
|
|-
|rowspan="2"|1987
|Full Metal Jacket
|Sergeant "Animal Mother"
|
|-
|Hadley's Rebellion
|Bobo McKenzie
|
|-
|rowspan="2"|1988
|Cohen and Tate
|Tate
|
|-
|'
|John Carter
|
|-
|1989
|Next of Kin
|Joey Rosselini
|
|-
|1990
|Predator 2
|Agent Adam Garber
|
|-
|1991
|Guilty by Suspicion
|FBI Agent #1
|
|-
|rowspan="2"|1992
|Where the Day Takes You
|Officer Black
|
|-
|Radio Flyer
|Jack "The King" McKenzie
|
|-
|rowspan="3"|1993
|Eight Hundred Leagues Down the Amazon
|Koja
|
|-
|Treacherous
|Tommy Wright
|
|-
|Bitter Harvest
|Bobby
|
|-
|rowspan="2"|1994
|Cold Sweat
|Mitch
|
|-
|Wyatt Earp
|Tom McLaury
|
|-
|rowspan="2"|1995
|Digital Man
|Captain West
|
|-
|How to Make an American Quilt
|Mr. Dodd
|
|-
|rowspan="2"|1996
|Independence Day
|Major Mitchell
|
|-
|Lover's Knot
|John Reed
|
|-
|1997
|Starquest II
|Lee
|
|-
|1998
|Gargantua
|Marine Biologist
|
|-
|rowspan="2"|2000
|'
|Captain James Wilkins
|
|-
|'
|Captain Wagner
|
|-
| rowspan="6" |2001
|Pursuit of Happiness
|Chad Harmon
|
|-
|Above & Beyond
|Peter Clerkin
|
|-
|Jackpot
|Mel James
|
|-
|Farewell, My Love
|Jimmy
|
|-
|Double Bang
|Vinnie Krailes
|
|-
|'
|Chris Myers / Keyman
|
|-
|2002
|Hypersonic
|Christopher Bannon
|
|-
| rowspan="3" |2003
|Control Factor
|Lance Bishop
|
|-
|Betrayal
|Detective Mark Winston
|
|-
|Gacy
|John Gacy Sr.
|
|-
|rowspan="2"|2004
|'
|Dr. Viades
|
|-
|Evil Eyes
|Jeff Stenn
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |2005
|Molly & Roni's Dance Party
|Principal
|
|-
|Serenity
|Jayne Cobb
|
|-
|2006
|'
|Lenny
|
|-
|2007
|Superman: Doomsday
|Superman (voice)
|Direct-to-video
|-
|rowspan="2"|2008
|Gospel Hill
|Carl Herrod
|
|-
|Drillbit Taylor
|Disgruntled Bodyguard
|
|-
|2009
|Little Fish, Strange Pond
|Tommy
|
|-
|2010
|Browncoats: Redemption
|Phone Operator
|Uncredited
|-
|2011
|InSight
|Dr. Graham Barrett
|
|-
|2012
|War of the Worlds: Goliath
|Wilson (voice)
|
|-
|2015
|Vault of the Macabre II
| rowspan="2" |Narrator (voice)
| rowspan="2" |Short film
|-
|2017
|Vault of the Macabre: The House Upon the Hill
|-
|rowspan="2"|2019
|The Kid
|Bob Olinger
|
|-
|The Legend of 5 Mile Cave
|Sam Barnes
|
|-
| 2021
| American Underdog
| Terry Allen
|
|}
Television
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! width=11% | Year
! width=25% | Title
! width=29% | Role
! width=33% scope="col" class="unsortable" | Notes
! width=2% scope="col" class="unsortable" |
|-
|1984
|Pigs vs. Freaks
|Mickey South
|Television film
| style="text-align: center;" |
|-
|rowspan="2"|1985
|Special Treat
|Otto Frommer
|Episode: "Out of Time"
| style="text-align: center;" |
|-
|Poison Ivy
|Ike Dimick
| rowspan="4" |Television film
| style="text-align: center;" |
|-
|1986
|Welcome Home, Bobby
|Cleary Biggs
| style="text-align: center;" |
|-
|rowspan="2"|1992
|Cruel Doubt
|Det. John Taylor
| style="text-align: center;" |
|-
|Deadbolt
|Alec Danz
| style="text-align: center;" |
|-
|1993
| data-sort-value="Last Shot" |The Last Shot
|Mark Tullis Jr.
|TV short
| style="text-align: center;" |
|-
|1994
|Blind Justice
|Sgt. Hastings
|Television film
| style="text-align: center;" |
|-
|rowspan="5"|1995
|Fallen Angels
|Ralph
|Episode: "Good Housekeeping"
| style="text-align: center;" |
|-
|VR.5
|Scott Cooper
|Episode: "Pilot"
| style="text-align: center;" |
|-
|Trade-Off
|Thomas Hughes
| rowspan="4" |Television film
| style="text-align: center;" |
|-
|Sawbones
|Burt Miller
| style="text-align: center;" |
|-
|Shadow-Ops
|Dalt
| style="text-align: center;" |
|-
|1996
|Smoke Jumpers
|Don Mackey
| style="text-align: center;" |
|-
| 1996–1997
| data-sort-value="Cape, The" |The Cape
|Col. Jack Riles
|Main role; 18 episodes
| style="text-align: center;" |
|-
|1997
|The Visitor
|Michael O'Ryan
|4 episodes
| style="text-align: center;" |
|-
|1997–1999
|Firehawks
|Morgan Dalton (voice)
|26 episodes
| style="text-align: center;" |
|-
|rowspan="4"|1998
|From the Earth to the Moon
|Fred Haise
|Episode: "For Miles and Miles"
| style="text-align: center;" |
|-
|Gargantua
|Jack Ellway
| rowspan="2" |Television film
| style="text-align: center;" |
|-
|Indiscreet
|Jeremy Butler
| style="text-align: center;" |
|-
| data-sort-value="Outer Limits" |The Outer Limits
|Major James Bowen
|Episode: "Phobos Rising"
| style="text-align: center;" |
|-
| rowspan="2" |2000
|Recess
|B.O.E. Agent (voice)
|Episode: "All the Principal's Men"
| style="text-align: center;" |
|-
|Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
|Dr. Henry Jekyll / Mr. Edward Hyde
|Television film
| style="text-align: center;" |
|-
| rowspan="2" |2000–2001
|Static Shock
|York (voice)
|2 episodes
|-
| 2024
|S.W.A.T.
|Calvin Webb
|Episode: "Family Man"
|-
| TBA
|Firefly: The Animated Series
| Jayne Cobb (voice)
| Main role
| style="text-align: center;" |
|}
Video games
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
| 2003
| Kill.switch
| Archer
|
|-
|rowspan="2"| 2007
| Halo 3
| Marines
|