Born April 3, 1958, Alec grew up in Massapequa, Long Island where his father was a high school teacher for twenty-eight years and his mother raised six children, including his sisters, Beth and Jane. Alec is the eldest of his brothers, Daniel, William, and Stephen Baldwin, all of whom are actors in film and television.

Alec attended George Washington University and planned to attend law school, when he auditioned for the New York University Undergraduate Drama Program on a dare. He was accepted, and in 1979 began what would become his professional training. In 1980, he was cast in the daytime TV series "The Doctors" on NBC and has worked in nearly every venue as a professional actor ever since.

Whether in regional theater or on Saturday Night Live, blockbuster movies or Broadway, literary festivals or television mini-series, Alec has always attempted to balance his love of communicating with an audience with the demands of a motion picture and television career.