Kim is the middle child between two older brothers and two younger sisters. Both her parents came from entertainment backgrounds. Her father studied at Chicago's American Conservatory of Music and her mother was a champion swimmer and model who performed water ballet in several Esther Williams movies.

 As a child she was so shy it was hard to imagine she would eventually follow in her mother's footsteps to pursue modeling. At sixteen she entered the Athens Junior Miss contest, and sang her way to a win. A trip to New York to compete in the national Junior Miss pageant, brought her to the attention of modeling magnate Eileen Ford, who offered Kim a contract with her renowned Ford Modeling Agency. Over the next few years Kim appeared on dozens of magazine covers and in hundreds of ads, but she never abandoned her desire to become an actress, and made sure to make time in her busy schedule for acting classes at the Neighborhood Playhouse.

Kim's dream prompted her to move to Los Angeles in 1976, and after only six months she broke into television doing episodes of "Charlie's Angels" and "The Six Million Dollar Man". In 1983 Kim took it all off for an eight-page Playboy layout in hopes of heightening her public profile. That same year would also prove a breakthrough year in film for Kim, holding her own opposite Sean Connery in "Never Say Never Again". But it was the controversial film "9 1/2 Weeks" co-starring Mickey Rourke, that practically made Kim an overnight success, establishing her as a highly bankable star.

In 1994 Kim married actor Alec Baldwin and fellow co-star of "The Marrying Man", and in 1995 they welcomed a baby girl, Ireland Eliesse, into the world. After taking a couple of years off to stay at home with her newborn child, Kim made a huge comeback to the entertainment scene with her Oscar-winning performance in 1997's "L.A. Confidential".

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