US Magazine, September 2nd, 1980.

My Bodyguard's star is a towering overnight success who always fights back - by Christopher Stone

If you ever doubted that luck - like lightning - can strike anyone, anywhere, anytime, then talk to Adam Baldwin, who makes his movie debut in My Bodyguard. Released this month, the film should bring the 18-year-old - who was selling tools in Winnetka, Illinois, only last summer - instant acclaim.

Now, sitting behind a desk in a 20th Century-Fox office, his brawny 6'4" frame sprawled over a swivel chair, the fledgling star speculates that he'd still be hawking hardware if director Tony Bill had lucked into finding the "big, ugly, sloppy guy" he wanted to cast in the role of the teenage terror turned protector of the underdog, Ricky Linderman.

"Tony was looking for a big, ugly guy who was really a nice, sweet guy on the inside," explains Adam. "He wanted to show that people are not always what they appear to be. But the hundreds of big, ugly people he talked to weren't gentle inside; they were what they appeared to be."

Although the director and Adam had "an immediate rapport," Bill couldn't convince producer Don Devlin to cast the clean-cut, self-described "sweet guy" as the motley menace until Adam was transformed into a besmeared and brooding hulk for a screen test: "The dirtier they made me, the better they liked me."

Born in Winnetka, the actor was the youngest of three boys in a middle-class family. His father, Bill, a police officer in Kenya during the 1950s' Mau Mau uprising, wrote a book, Mau Mau Manhunt, published in the early '60s. A former writer for the Chicago Sun-Times, Bill Baldwin is now a public relations executive. Adam's mother, Roberta, is a seventh-grade public school teacher.

The acting bug bit early. As a child, Adam imitated the actors he and his brothers watched on TV. By the time he reached fifth grade, he was taking a drama class. "It was nice being onstage and having people laugh with you, and not at you. I made a lot of friends that way."

He attended New Trier High in Winnetka, a school whose alumni include Rock Hudson, Charlton Heston, Ann-Margaret, and Bruce Dern. He began singing lessons after bagging a role in the school's production of Bye, Bye Birdie. "My voice is very nice because I've got a big voice box," he says. "It got me into all the choral groups, anyway." Would he like to do a movie musical? "Sure," he grins, "...if they dub in Sinatra's voice."

Adam was still in High School - he graduated last January - when he heard that Tony Bill was in Chicago talent-scouting for Bodyguard.

How does it feel to go from high school and hardware to Hollywood overnight? "It's a dream come true," he says, his blue eyes wide. Then he adds: "Actually, Hollywood came to me. The movie was shot in Chicago, which was nice because I could stay at home cooking."

Adam's second movie, to be released this fall, is also for a novice director: Robert Redford. "Tony Bill was finishing My Bodyguard at the same time that Redford arrived in Chicago to prepare Ordinary People. He just phoned Redford and said, 'Hey, I'd like you to look at a few of my people.' He sent me along with five other guys and I got the part."

In Ordinary People, based on Judith Guest's 1975 best-seller, Adam's character is the direct opposite of Linderman. "Stillman is good-looking and confident," Adam says. "He has girls and money. He has the world by the cojones. But he's a jerk. He's insensitive. I got into the character right away because I know people like that."

Currently enjoying his success, he does confess, "It may have spoiled me a bit in the beginning. I let myself fall into the 'I'm going to act like a star! syndrome. I was dying of a terminal disease - sarcasm. People didn't like that and it didn't take me long to realize it.

"Now, I'm back to being my old self - a nice guy."

Few girls would argue the point. Right now, Adam's girl is a young actress named Jennifer, whom he met while filming Bodyguard. He won't reveal her last name because, "God, I don't want us to become an item." Then it's not a serious relationship? "I think any relationship with a friend is serious," he answers playfully.

"I really care for her, but I'm not considering marriage or anything. How could I at the age of 18? It's unhealthy. Maybe in ten years, but, now," he practically shouts, "I'm very available!"

Although Bodyguard was shot at working-class school, Adam experienced the problems the film explored at his own upper-middle-class school. "There are bullies everywhere. I was too big for the kids my own age to bully, so my bullies were older than me. I would always fight back, whether I'd get my face smashed, or whatever. Sometimes I'd win; sometimes I'd lose. I tried not to go out looking for trouble."

His advice to people who are being bullied: "Fight back! Everyone feels intimidated by someone - a boss, a classmate, a co-worker."

But he adds: "Fight back within reason - and don't get yourself killed!"