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1980 was a very good year for Adam Baldwin. In that year, he starred in one of the most touching, influential, and seminal motion pictures of this or any age. He also appeared in Ordinary People.

Sure, Ordinary People won the Oscar for Best Picture, but the real triumph for Adam Baldwin in 1980 was his role as Ricky Linderman in My Bodyguard. For those sad, soul-bankrupt few of you who haven't seen this epochal film, Baldwin played a hulking, brooding loner with a mysterious and violent past. His protective services are retained by Chris Makepeace -- the spindly, afroed nerd -- in an effort to fend of Moody, a vicious school bully, played effectively by a then-unknown and too-young-to-shave Matt Dillon.

So Makepeace enlists Linderman, and then Moody gets his own bodyguard, this crazy guy, and then it turns out Linderman won't fight, and then the crazy guy throws Linderman's motorcycle in the lake...okay, now I'm going to start crying.

For anyone who saw this film -- especially anyone who may have been, I don't know, a Chris Makepeacean spindly nerd in his adolescent years -- Baldwin will forever be Linderman, sullenly stalking the halls of the high school of your psyche. Not that Baldwin's done a whole lot to erase the memory of that role, mind you. His next film, in 1983, was D.C. Cab, also starring Bill Maher and Mr. T. This did not portend well.

Ever since, Baldwin's been busy doing two things: (1) playing a string of nameless, towering toughs (he is 6'4", after all) in movies such as Predator 2, Wyatt Earp, and Independence Day, as well as appearing in countless lesser efforts (and you know we're veering into sketchy territory when we talk about "lesser efforts" to Predator 2 and Wyatt Earp) such as Cold Sweat, Deadbolt, and Sawbones. And (2) convincing people that he's not one of the Baldwin brothers. Because he's not. Seriously. It's Alec, Stephen, Billy, Daniel, Tito, Donnie, Ryan, "Ace," Stretchy, and Kip. No Adam.

So if you were not a Makepeacean nerd in high school (perhaps you were more the Moody type -- bastard!), or you were in diapers in 1980 (or not yet born), then you probably recognize Baldwin from his recurring role on The X-Files, or from his part as "Animal Mother" in Full Metal Jacket, or from his new role as "Jayne," the towering tough on Firefly.

If you were a Makepeacean nerd in 1980, however, I have four words for you: "You broke my nose!"

Okay, now I am crying.