All About Actors Stephen, William and Daniel

Like the Arquettes, the Skarsgårds, the Cusacks and more, the Baldwin brothers are one of Hollywood’s sibling dynasties.

The four brothers — Alec, Daniel, Billy and Stephen — went from posing shirtless in their family’s living room to working as actors (with varying degrees of success).

Alec Baldwin, the oldest, has had a notable film, television and theater career, winning Emmy Awards for his roles on 30 Rock and appearances on Saturday Night Live. And his little brothers have followed in his footsteps, acting (combined) in more than 100 films and television shows over the past three-plus decades.

In 2008, all four brothers were on television — with Alec on 30 Rock, Billy on ABC’s Dirty Sexy Money, Stephen on Celebrity Apprentice and Daniel on Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, NBC reported.

“We’re still kind of pinching ourselves,” Stephen told Vanity Fair of the family’s fame in 2012. “From my perspective, we’re just four dumb jocks from Long Island.”

Their talents on-screen have also cemented the Baldwin brothers’ pop culture status. Their names popped up in Clueless and a South Park episode, plus they were a clue in a The New York Times crossword puzzle, Vanity Fair reported.

From their humble beginnings to their success and status in Hollywood, here’s everything to know about Alec Baldwin’s three little brothers: Daniel, William and Stephen Baldwin.

They grew up in Long Island, New York

The Baldwin brothers hail from Massapequa, New York — a Long Island suburb about an hour outside of New York City — which Alec described as “a checkered neighborhood.”

Their father, also named Alec (he died from lung cancer in 1983), was a high school social studies and history teacher while their mother, Carol (who died in 2022), was a stay-at-home mom, The New Yorker reported.

Born Alexander Rae Baldwin III on April 3, 1958, Alec is the oldest son. Daniel Leroy Baldwin came next on Oct. 5, 1960, followed by William Joseph Baldwin — more famously known as Billy — on Feb. 21, 1963. The youngest of the Baldwin brothers is Stephen Andrew, born on May 12, 1966. Their childhood was “an Irish-Catholic, rowdy, rambunctious upbringing,” Billy told The New Yorker.

The four Baldwin boys had a strict upbringing, according to Alec.

“My father was tough,” he told The New Yorker about his childhood. “My father wasn’t a violent or mean-spirited person, but he was a very strict disciplinarian in school.”

Alec added, “The older I got, I learned to behave as he did, which was to not be afraid of anybody. And I’m not afraid of anybody.”

The Baldwin brothers also have two sisters

While the Baldwin brothers may be a household name, the four boys also have two sisters. Elizabeth Baldwin Keuchler is the eldest Baldwin child, born on Oct. 15, 1955. She is married with six children.

Elizabeth’s brothers have made a family business out of show business, but she works for the family in a different capacity: She serves as executive director of The Baldwin Fund, a breast cancer research charity founded by Carol Baldwin after her own struggle with the disease.

Their other sister is Jane Baldwin Sasso, the second-youngest of the six children, was born on Jan. 8, 1965. She is married with two children.

Alec opened up on Instagram in February 2022 about growing up with five siblings.

“We were four boys growing up. Two sisters,” the actor captioned the photo of two of his sons. “Hilaria and I have four boys. Two girls. The best of times (and the worst of times) were shared with my brothers.”

Alec continued: “Brothers. It’s real.”

The Baldwins are direct descendants of the Mayflower

The Baldwin family can trace its lineage back to the Mayflower. According to the Associated Press, the Baldwins are directly related to John Howland — a servant to John Carver, the first governor of New Plymouth County.

Howland and his wife, Elizabeth Tilley, were passengers aboard the Mayflower and arrived in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620. Howland and Tilley went on to have 10 children and more than 80 grandchildren. The Associated Press reported that more than 2 million Americans have Howland in their family trees.

The Baldwins aren’t the only celebrities who are descendants of the Mayflower: Matt Damon, Ellen DeGeneres, Jane Fonda, Meryl Streep and Taylor Swift all have ancestors who came over to the United States as pilgrims, according to a database of Mayflower ancestors.

Alec inspired his brothers to pursue acting

Alec was the first of the Baldwin brothers to pursue acting. Originally, he attended George Washington University with ambitions to study law and pursue a political career, The New Yorker reported. However, at the end of his junior year, Alec transferred to New York University, where he began to study theater. By 1983, he had his debut role on the daytime soap opera The Doctors.

Within a few years, Alec’s younger brothers followed suit and launched their acting careers. Daniel’s debut role came in 1988 on the made-for-TV movie Too Good to Be True; the same year, Stephen had his film debut in The Beast of War. Billy, who was first a Calvin Klein model, made his small screen debut in 1989 in the TV movie The Preppie Murder.

According to Billy, Alec always believed his brothers followed in his footsteps.

“I think he thinks we felt, ‘If that idiot can do it, I’ll give it a shot,’ ” Billy told The New Yorker. “And on some level that’s sort of true.”

All four Baldwin brothers appeared on-screen together in the 2020 documentary My Promise to PJ

Though the Baldwins have been working in Hollywood for more than three decades, they’ve only appeared on-screen together one. In 2020, all four Baldwin brothers appeared in the documentary My Promise to PJ (which Daniel directed), Newsday reported.

The film was inspired by a promise Daniel made to a family friend, P.J. Raynor, vowing that if Raynor got sober, they would both go to Pamplona, Spain, and participate in the Running of the Bulls. When Raynor died of a heroin overdose after three years of sobriety, Daniel kept his promise in honor of his late friend. The film chronicled Daniel’s intensive training for the race and his carrying Raynor’s ashes during the annual running in July 2019.

The documentary also chronicled Daniel’s own struggles with addiction. It featured interviews with his three brothers, Alec, Stephen and Billy.

“[I sat] in front of my brother, Billy, and had him tell me some of his very unfavorable recollections of my path of destruction while I was [struggling with] addiction,” Daniel told Long Island Press of working with his family on the documentary film.

“When you compile that with the fact that I’m editing the film, so I’m spending hundreds of hours going over footage and watching and having to relive and rethink and re-feel those recollections of my family members, that was tough,” he continued. “That was really hard.”

The documentary might have marked the first time all four Baldwin brothers appeared on-screen together — but that wasn’t for lack of trying. The brothers hoped to remake the World War II film, The Fighting Sullivans, and play the four Sullivan brothers, Vanity Fair reported in 2012. They also shopped a Western flick, in which they would also play brothers on-screen; nothing came of that project, either.

Stephen is a grandfather — and Justin Bieber’s father-in-law

Stephen has been married to Brazilian graphic designer Kennya Baldwin since 1990. The couple share two daughters together: Alaia Baldwin Aronow and Hailey Bieber. Both Alaia and Hailey are models.

Hailey married Justin Bieber in September 2018 in a secret New York City courthouse ceremony, making Stephen Bieber’s father-in-law. A year later, the two had a larger, star-studded wedding in Bluffton, South Carolina.

Stephen, who called the nuptials a “very fun wedding,” revealed he had one role in the wedding planning.

“My only job is just walking my princess down the aisle,” he told TMZ in 2019.

Stephen also spoke proudly about his new son-in-law in August 2019, telling PEOPLE the singer had “grown leaps and bounds in the past year as far as taking time to himself and making sure he’s spending time with his wife, and they’re having fun.”

Stephen isn’t only a father-in-law, though; he’s also a grandfather. His elder daughter, Alaia, who married Andrew Aronow in 2017, welcomed a daughter they named Iris Elle in August 2020.

Billy has been married to Chynna Phillips since 1995

Billy and Chynna Phillips — of the music group Wilson Phillips — have been married since 1995. The couple have three adult children (daughters Jameson and Brooke and son Vance), but Billy recognized early on how quickly childhood flies by.

“The thing that concerns me most as a parent is can I slow everything down? It’s going too fast,” he told PEOPLE in 2007, when Jameson was 7, Vance was 5 and Brooke was only 2. “We’re having the time of our lives.”

But Billy and Chynna still experienced ups and downs over their near-30-year marriage,  including Chynna filing and subsequently withdrawing divorce papers in 2010 and their son Vance battling cancer as a teen.

However, a source told PEOPLE in 2010 that the couple were deeply “committed” to each other.

“Billy and Chynna have an incredibly deep and profound love,” the source told PEOPLE.

Daniel has been married three times and is a father of five

Daniel, who has struggled with substance abuse issues and run-ins with the law over the years, has married and divorced three times.

Daniel’s first marriage came in the 1980s to his high school sweetheart, Cheryl. The couple had one child together, a daughter named Kahlea.

In 1990, he married his second wife, Elizabeth; they have a daughter named Alexandra.

After Daniel and Elizabeth split in 1996, he had a relationship with his Homicide: Life on the Street costar Isabella Hoffman. Though they never married, they share one child together (a son named Atticus).

Daniel married for a third time to former British model Joanne Smith,and hey have two daughters: Avis and Finley. Daniel and Joanne announced plans to split in 2011, and though they reconciled briefly, Joanne filed for divorce.

Following his divorce with Joanne, Daniel became engaged to entrepreneur Robin Sue Hertz Hempel in 2014 — however, it is unknown if they ever wed.

Daniel’s addiction issues led to strained relationships with his children. In 2007, he revealed to ABC’s Primetime that he had no contact with his two oldest daughters because of his substance abuse.

But in 2019, Daniel told a New York news station he had been sober for more than a decade — and hoped to open treatment centers to help others struggling with addiction.

Politics has put a strain on Alec and Stephen’s relationship

Though the Baldwin brothers grew up close, politics drove a wedge between two of the brothers. Following the 2016 election, Stephen, who was vocal in his support of former President Donald Trump, and Alec, an outspoken Democrat who famously impersonated Trump on Saturday Night Live, were not on speaking terms, Stephen revealed in a radio interview at the time.

“I still haven’t talked to my brother Alec since the election. And I’m cool with that,” Stephen said of his older brother. “I love him to death … That’s his choice, and he plays Trump on SNL, great. Is it funny? Yeah. But it goes too far.”

Despite their political differences, Stephen spoke out on Instagram after Alec accidentally shot and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust in 2021.

“Asking for prayers tonight friends not much can be said other than please pray for all involved in the wake of this tragic accident thank you 🙏🏻,” Stephen wrote in an Instagram post following the incident.

The Baldwin brothers support one another, even in the face of controversy

Stephen’s support for Alec following the accidental Rust shooting is just one example of the Baldwin brothers being there for one another.

Billy and Phillips expressed their sympathy for Alec and his wife, Hilaria Baldwin, following her appropriation controversy in January 2021.

“This is probably an awkward and embarrassing time for Alec and Hilaria,” Billy told Page Six in an interview. “I’ve been texting Alec the whole time to make sure he’s OK and if he needs anything.”

And it’s not just in controversy that the brothers have each other’s backs: When Daniel announced plans to open a rehab center in central New York for those battling addiction, his brothers were his biggest supporters.

“All my brothers right away were, ‘How can I help you? What can I do?’ ” Daniel told a New York news station.