Early Life
Basinger was born in Athens, Georgia on 8 December 1953. Her mother, Ann (née Cordell), was a model, an actress, and a swimmer who appeared in several Esther Williams films. Her father, Donald Wade Basinger, was a big band musician and loan manager who as a U.S. Army soldier landed in Normandy on D-Day (June 6, 1944). The third of five children, she has two brothers, Mick and Skip, and two sisters, Ashley and Barbara. Basinger's ancestry includes German, Swedish, and Native American, and she was raised a Methodist. The relationship between her parents was tenuous and her father's critical nature affected her emotionally from a young age. She has said "I just couldn't please him enough. He never complimented me ever. And I saw a lot of silence. Children always read into silence as something terrible." She confesses to have been extremely shy and lonely and faced a lot of hardship during her school years.
She studied ballet from about age three to her mid-teens. By her mid teens she grew in confidence and successfully auditioned for the school cheerleading team. She was suspended from her elementary school talent show after she stripped down to a bikini and sang "The Game of Love." When Basinger was 16, she started modeling by winning the Athens Junior Miss contest. She then won the title “Junior Miss Georgia”. She competed in the national Junior Miss pageant and was offered a modeling contract with Ford Modeling Agency. She turned it down in favor of singing and acting, and enrolled at the University of Georgia, but soon reconsidered and went to New York to become a Ford model. Despite earning $1000 a day, Basinger never enjoyed modelling, saying "It was very hard to go from one booking to another and always have to deal with the way I looked. I couldn't stand it. I felt myself choking." Basinger has said that even as a model, when others relished looking in the mirror before appearing, she abhorred it and would avoid mirrors out of insecurity.
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