Mention ‘9 ½’ Weeks’ in any connotation and what springs to mind is a hot and bothered Kim Basinger getting it on with an equally hot and sweaty Mickey Rourke in the 1986 movie of the same name.

But that’s not all Kim is known for.

Even prior to her appearance in one of the all time steamiest movies 9 ½ Weeks, Kim had been a Bond Girl in the 1983 007 movie, Never Say Never Again, where she starred with Sean Connery and another Playboy model Barbara Carrera. The movie saw her as the only Bond Girl to receive an Oscar, and as such attracted the attention of Playboy entrepreneur Hugh Hefner who created a new Playboy model by the name of Kim Basinger.

Not only did Kim pose naked for Playboy but she was also the only celebrity to do so as an Oscar winner!

With her much publicized marital issues with actor Alec Baldwin, the 55 year old Kim’s other achievements are often overlooked. A model, actress, mother and an active environmentalist, in 1989 she purchased a small village not far from her home town of Athens, Georgia, and by doing so attempted to pump up the local economy.

But more controversy was to follow Basinger after a verbal agreement to appear in the film Boxing Helena was declared legal and binding she was ordered by a judge to pay $8,000,000 in damages to the film’s producers after she pulled out of her contract.

But Kim wasn’t about to disappear from the movie business and she went on to surprise everyone with a monumental comeback in her role as a prostitute in L.A. Confidential, which again saw her winning both an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress.