Adam Baldwin

Actor Adam Baldwin has been in the game for a long time in flicks like Full Metal Jacket and fan-favorite series like Firefly.

For much of his career, he has been cast as the bad guy. He just has that face, ya know? But in his lengthy career, he has also been given roles that have shown his better side.

So, what’s the bad and good Adam Baldwin has been up to lately? Not much, and there’s a very specific reason he seems to have stopped getting work.

ADAM BALDWIN HAD LESS ACTING WORK BECAUSE OF HIS POLITICAL VIEWS

Adam Baldwin has sometimes gotten in trouble for his political views since he’s open about not being a liberal.

Baldwins says that after he read the book Radical Son he changed his mind on liberalism and now considers himself a “small government conservative libertarian.”

He also courted outrage when he became involved in the politically complex Gamergate controversy. Actually, it’s believed that Adam Baldwin was the person who originally started the #gamergate hashtag in the first place by repeating allegations against popular video gaming figures.

As a result, he has been banned from appearing in some quarters, by those who don’t share his political views.

As Adam Baldwin has become more and more open about his conservative political views, he has worked less and less. Previously it had been 40 years of consistent work, being the man you’d love to hate or hate to love.

But he hadn’t done anything since early 2019 until a role in American Underdog, playing Terry Allen in the movie about NFL quarterback Kurt Warner. That movie featured former Chuck star Zachary Levi in the lead role. Baldwin and Levi had worked together on that hit series.

One of Adam Baldwin’s last roles was reunited in a recurring role with his Firefly/Serenity co-star Nathan Fillion in the series Castle. His final significant job was as Mike Slattery in the pandemic-related TV series The Last Ship, which ended in 2018.

More recently though, Adam Baldwin has been picking up more acting work. He has a one-episode arc in 9-1-1: Lone Star as a detective. It was something of a reunion for Baldwin seeing as how he was acting again with Firefly’s Gina Torres.

ADAM BALDWIN IS NOT ONE OF THE BALDWIN BROTHERS

First things first. It must be noted that no, Adam Baldwin is not related to the famous Baldwin brothers of Alec, Daniel, William, and Stephen.

It’s something that’s oft been confusing for the actor, mostly because of the popularity of that particular last name in Hollywood.

Now that we have that cleared up, Adam Baldwin made a big impact with his very first role in his career when he appeared as Ricky Linderman in the 1980 movie My Bodyguard.

The film starred Chris Makepeace (Meatballs) and a very young Matt Dillon, who played the bully. The story was about a new kid in school who constantly is getting bullied and extorted. He decides to hire the most feared kid in school (Baldwin) as his bodyguard.

After his initial film, roles came at a regular clip for Adam Baldwin in the ‘80s. He was seen in Mr. T’s vehicle D.C. Cab, as well as Reckless. This brought him to a supporting role in the classic war film, Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, where he made his name as Animal Mother. He followed that with a role as Tate, opposite Roy Scheider of Jaws fame in Cohen and Tate.

Not to say that Adam Baldwin was typecast early on in his career, but perhaps he was. He took on another memorable, but very creepy and brutal role in the movie Radio Flyer, where he played “The King”, a name he forced his two stepsons to call him, who was an alcoholic that beat one of the boys. These were the type of roles Adam Baldwin played so well, as much of his career can attest to.

ADAM BALDWIN PLAYED JAYNE COBB IN FIREFLY

Adam Baldwin wasn’t only a feature film actor, he has also done plenty of TV work. One role he is well-known for is his portrayal of mercenary Jayne Cobb in the one-season wonder Firefly.

Again, he played a character with rough edges and a rough persona, but also with a hint of sensitivity he tries to hide from the rest of the crew. It was a role perfect for Baldwin, one he would play again in the movie Serenity, the follow-up to Firefly.

That same year Baldwin appeared in Serenity, he also appeared in the remake of The Poseidon Adventure as Mike Rogo, a character first played by Ernest Borgnine (McHale’s Navy) in the original The Poseidon Adventure. But it was the character of Jayne on Firefly that would come to define his career.

ADAM TOOK ON OTHER ROLES INCLUDING A BIG PART IN CHUCK

For Adam Baldwin, if it wasn’t broken, he didn’t fix it. He continued to play the character you hated. Sometimes he’d appear as the hero, only to be the actual bad guy. Sometimes there would be no doubt in who he was, bad all the way. But it worked for Adam Baldwin.

Baldwin tried his hand at a couple of TV series in the late ‘90s, first appearing in the series The Cape. That lasted two seasons and he then jumped ship to be seen in another short-lived series The Visitor.

He also made appearances in Men in Black: The Series, The X-Files, Stargate: SG-1, and Angel. He did have a long run in the series Chuck, one that lasted him five seasons and all 91 episodes.

Adam Baldwin expanded his acting chops by doing some voice work both on animated shows and video games. He was in the voice cast for Justice League Unlimited, Jackie Chan Adventures, and Transformers Prime.

His video game work includes Halo 3, Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Halo 3: ODST, Mass Effect 2, DC Universe Online, where he played Superman, and Injustice: Gods Among Us, where he was the voice of Hal Jordan aka Green Lantern.

Unfortunately, though, Adam Baldwin doesn’t have many (or any) confirmed projects on the horizon. Maybe those political views are still standing in his way where Hollywood is concerned.