Born October 5, 1960 in Massapequa, New York, Daniel Leroy Baldwin is an American actor, producer and director.  He is the second oldest of the four Baldwin brothers, all of whom are actors.  During his career he collaborated with several production companies and won many awards or trophies.  Daniel is known for his role as Detective Beau Felton in the popular NBC TV series Homicide: Life on the Street.  Other films of his include Ned Blessing: The True Story of My Life (1992), Mulholland Falls (1996), Vampires (1998), The Pandora Project (1998), Stealing Candy (2002), Paparazzi (2004), and Grey Gardens (2009).

Baldwin is the son of Carol Newcomb, a breast cancer survivor who founded the Carol M. Baldwin Breast Care Center of the University Hospital and Medical Center at Stony Brook, and Alexander Rae Baldwin, Jr., a high school history/social studies teacher and football coach.  Baldwin was raised in a Catholic family of Irish, English and French descent.  In addition to his three famous actor brothers, Alec (born 1958), William (born 1963), and Stephen (born 1966), Baldwin has two sisters, Beth Baldwin Keuchler (born 1955) and Jane Baldwin Sasso (born 1965).  Baldwin was a standout high school football player and graduated in 1979 from Alfred G. Berner High School in Massapequa, New York.  He also attended McKenna Junior High School.

His acting debut was in the TV movie Too Good to Be True in 1988, which he followed with feature roles in the films Born on the Fourth of July (1989), Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man (1991) and Hero (1992).  He returned to television in 1990 for the short-lived sitcom Sydney, which starred Valerie Bertinelli.

NBC’s gritty Baltimore-based cop show “Homicide: Life on the Street” cast Baldwin as wise guy Detective Beau Felton.  Although he gained good reviews, he left the show after two seasons (1993-95) and his character was eventually a murder victim in a powerful two-part episode in 1997.  TV-movies like HBO’s “The Attack of the 50-Foot Woman” (as Daryl Hannah’s loutish husband) CBS’ “Family of Cops” (1995, playing Charles Bronson’s son) and NBC’s “Twisted Desire” (1996, opposite significant other Isabella Hofmann) continued to show him in a good light.  However, his big-screen career failed to ignite, despite nice contributions to Lee Tamahori’s “Mulholland Falls” and Steve Buscemi’s “Trees Lounge” (both 1996).

A string of direct-to-video releases followed before better roles began coming his way. Unfortunately, while in NYC in early 1998 to film the romantic comedy “It Had to Be You”, the recovering substance abuser fell off the wagon with an alarming thud, and the tabloid embarrassment that ensued put the actor’s career in serious jeopardy. (He was arrested and immediately replaced in the film by Michael Rispoli). Ironically, “John Carpenter’s Vampires” (1998, filmed before the incident) was released while Baldwin was undergoing treatment in a rehab center and contained perhaps his best feature work to date. As James Woods’ partner in tracking and killing the undead who becomes involved with a victim of a vampire’s bite, he displayed not only a tough guy persona but also a more tender side. Nevertheless, he has an uphill battle to dispel people’s image of him as “that crazy Baldwin who went nuts at the Plaza Hotel.”

First marriage was to his high school sweetheart Cheryl, with whom he had his daughter Kahlea. He and second wife Elizabeth had a daughter, Alexandra (who lives in London).  Both daughters are estranged from Daniel. He has recently improved his relationship with his son, Atticus.  Daniel and his new wife, Joanne Smith-Baldwin, became the parents of a girl, Avis Ann, on January 17, 2008 in Los Angeles.  Avis Ann weighted in at 7 lbs. 10 oz.  Daniel and Joanne met at a rehab facility where he was a patient and she worked as a chef at the treatment center.  He and his wife, Joanne Smith-Baldwin, are parents of a girl, named Finley Rae Martineau, born August 7, 2009 in Los Angeles.

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After the 51-year-old, Daniel Baldwin announced that his daughters from his 41-year-old wife, Joanne Baldwin were ‘removed’ from her home by social services on October 21, Joanne fires back by stating contradictions to the former’s statement.  She is just trying to do what is best for her kids.  In contradiction to Daniel’s claim that Oregon Department of Human Services had just up and transported 3-year-old Avis Ann and 2-year-old Finley Rae Martineau to a family friend’s house, Joanne said that it is not what happened.

She said in a statement that in response to the inflammatory claims made against her, yet again, she would like to say that there has not been a forced removal of her children from her home.  She added that the DHS has been involved with their case because of the original false restraint that had been filed against her back in July.  She has been under a lot of duress during all the media coverage, defamation of character, and Daniel being out of town for weeks on end.  After expressing herself to the DHS, they asked her and she agreed on a voluntary basis, if the girls should stay with their friends for a couple of days so she could have some time to regroup.  There has been no custody awarded to any party as of yet, until they go to court.  The girls are at her home spending time with their father until she return on Sunday.  Joanne confirmed that she has been alcohol free for three months and is staying on track with her sobriety.

Daniel returned to Oregon from Texas, where he had been shooting a film, last night.  A representative for the actor leaves a statement in response to Joanne’s latest allegations against Daniel.  He said that it is true that Joanne volunteered to surrender the children to a family friend approved by DHS because she was given the option to have DHS file the necessary paper work and come back and take the children or she could surrender the kids to the family friend.

The couple is currently in a divorce proceeding where irreconcilable differences were what the papers indicate.  Joanne was asking for sole custody of their daughters and million Dollar worth of Life Insurance Policy for the benefits of their kids plus HALF of all of Daniel’s earnings, including 50% of a $100k payday the actor is allegedly set to make in Australia.  She was also demanding for a $4k per month in child support for their two children.  She also demanded to be awarded all of the furniture that she owned prior to the marriage.

After Daniel filed for divorce and a restraining order in July, Joanne was sentenced to 10 days in jail for admittedly drinking alcohol while on probation for a DUI. Daniel withdrew his petition and the threat allegations in August; reports of their reconciliation were believed to be untrue.