Actress Annette Bening is the Oscar-nominated star of 1999's American Beauty and the 2010 film The Kids Are Alright. She's also known for her high-profile marriage to fellow actor Warren Beatty. Annette Bening began her career on the stage in San Diego, San Francisco and New York. She was nominated for a Tony for her performance in the play Coastal Disturbance (1987), and early in her movie career she received rave reviews and an Oscar nomination for her role in The Grifters (1990, starring John Cusack). During the 1990s she appeared in big-budget dramas and comedies, including Regarding Henry (1991, opposite Harrison Ford), Bugsy (1991, starring Warren Beatty), The American President (1995, with Michael Douglas) and Mars Attacks! (1996, with Jack Nicholson). Since then she's spent her time raising four kids with Beatty (they were married in 1992) and making the occasional film, including Open Range (2003, starring Kevin Costner) and The Women (2008, with Meg Ryan). Annette Bening was nominated for an Oscar as best actress in the 2010 family-life drama The Kids Are Alright.
There's no truth to the rumor that Annette Bening was the model for the Columbia Pictures logo; the model was Jennifer Joseph.
Although some of her recognition may stem from her 1992 marriage to Warren Beatty, Annette Bening has established herself as an actress capable of far more than domesticating one of Hollywood's most notorious playboys. After winning raves for her role in 1990's The Grifters, Bening turned in a series of strong performances in films ranging from The American President to Richard III to American Beauty.
Born in Topeka, Kansas, on May 29, 1958, Bening moved with her family to San Diego, California when she was very young. It was there that she began to pursue her career, first as a dancer in various productions at a local college. Eventually graduating from San Francisco University (an education she paid for by working as a cook on a charter boat), Bening acted with San Francisco's American Conservatory Theatre before moving to New York to further her stage experience. Her career in New York had its auspicious moments, such as winning a Tony Award nomination and a Clarence Derwent Award for Outstanding Debut Performance for her performance in Coastal Disturbances, but Bening endured a five-year struggle before breaking into film.
She made her debut as Dan Aykroyd's irritable wife in The Great Outdoors in 1988; more substantial work followed in the form of Milos Forman's Valmont, a 1989 adaptation of Chodleros de Laclos' Les Liaisons Dangereuses that featured Bening as the scheming, manipulative Marquise de Merteuil. The film suffered in comparison to Stephen Frears's Dangerous Liaisons, which had been released the previous year; fortunately, the same couldn't be said of Bening's next major effort, 1990's The Grifters.
Frears's gripping, stylish adaptation of Jim Thompson's novel of the same name, The Grifters met with almost unanimous critical acclaim, much of which was aimed at the performances of Anjelica Huston, John Cusack, and Bening as the film's protagonists. Bening won special praise for her portrayal of an ill-fated con artist, accruing Best Supporting Actress nominations from the Academy, the New York Film Critics Circle, and the British Academy.
Her performance also won the attention of Warren Beatty, who was so impressed with her work that he cast her as his love interest in his 1991 Bugsy. Although the film proved a relative disappointment, it did result in both a Golden Globe nomination for Bening and a 1992 marriage for her and Beatty. The two could be seen collaborating again onscreen two years later in Love Affair, a remake of the 1957 An Affair to Remember. Unfortunately, the film fared poorly, both at the box office and at the hands of disapproving critics. Bening had more luck with her subsequent role as Michael Douglas' presidential love interest in Rob Reiner's The American President (1995), and then went on to explore politics of a different sort with Richard Loncraine's 1996 adaptation of Richard III. Her starring turn as the embattled Queen Elizabeth drew praise, and the attention she garnered for her performance helped to lighten the load of antipathy directed toward Tim Burton's Mars Attacks!, the actress' other film that year.
Following lead roles in 1998's underperforming The Siege and 1999's ill-fated In Dreams, Bening could be seen in American Beauty (also 1999) as Kevin Spacey's status-obsessed, control-freak wife. As part of the film's superb ensemble cast, which also featured Chris Cooper, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, and Mena Suvari, the actress won praise for her work, and the added distinction of being part of what many hailed as one of the best films of the year. Her first Best Actress Oscar nomination followed, although Bening's near-lock on the award was stolen away from her by Hilary Swank, a newcomer almost as auspicious as she once was.
Adding insult to injury, Bening lost the Oscar at the same time she could be seen in theaters alongside Garry Shandling in the much-derided sci-fi comedy What Planet Are You From? Perhaps as a result of this -- or due to her decision to spend more time with her four children -- the actress chose her parts very carefully in the coming years. She re-emerged in a leading role in 2003 opposite Kevin Costner in the sleeper-hit western Open Range, and followed that comeback with a triumphant diva turn as the title character in Being Julia, an adaptation of M. Somerset Maugham's back-stabbing, backstage comic melodrama Theater. Though little-seen, the film garnered immense praise for Bening -- including a Best Actress nod from the National Board of Review -- and an eventual Best Actress Oscar nomination. However, in a moment of Hollywood irony that echoed both her character's situation in Being Julia and the fate of the 2000 awards ceremony, Bening was denied the award in favor of Hilary Swank's tour-de-force as a doomed boxer in Oscar favorite Million Dollar Baby. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
Annette Carol Bening
May 29, 1958 (1958-05-29)(age 53) Topeka, Kansas, U.S.
Occupation
Actress
Years active
1986–present
Spouse
J. Steven White (m. 1984–1991) «start: (1984)–end+1: (1992)»"Marriage: J. Steven White to Annette Bening" Location:(linkback://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annette_Bening) Warren Beatty (m. 1992) «start: (1992)»"Marriage: Warren Beatty to Annette Bening" Location:(linkback://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annette_Bening)
Bening was born in Topeka, Kansas, the youngest of four children. Her mother, Shirley (née Ashley), was a church singer and soloist, and her father, Arnett Grant Bening, was a sales training consultant and insurance salesman.[2][3][4] Her parents, natives of Iowa, were practicing Episcopalians and conservativeRepublicans.[5][6] Her sister and two brothers are Jane, Bradley and Byron. The family moved to Wichita, Kansas, in 1959, where she spent her early childhood. In 1965, her father took a job with a company in San Diego, California, and they moved there. She began acting in junior high school, playing the lead in The Sound of Music. She graduated in 1975, from Patrick Henry High School where she studied drama.
She then spent a year working as a cook on a charter boat taking fishing parties out on the Pacific Ocean, and scuba diving for recreation. She attended San Diego Mesa College, then completed an academic degree in theatre arts at San Francisco State University. Bening joined the acting company at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco while studying acting as part of the Advanced Theatre Training Program. During this time she established herself as a formidable acting talent in roles like Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth.
Bening moved to New York City, where she debuted off-Broadway at Second Stage Theatre (McGinn-Cazale Theatre) in the role of 'Holly Dancer' in Tina Howe's widely acclaimed Coastal Disturbances (1986) opposite Tim Daly, and for which she earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play. However, despite the praise and recognition, it took some time for that success to translate to her film career.
Career
After playing four brief parts on television, Bening made her film debut with a supporting role in The Great Outdoors (1988) opposite Dan Aykroyd and John Candy. Her next role was as the Marquise de Merteuil in Valmont (1989) opposite Colin Firth.
She was one of the lead actresses in the poorly received 2008 film Women, TheThe Women, opposite Meg Ryan and Eva Mendes. The following year she received strong reviews for her performance in the independent filmMother and Child (2009).[9] Her 2010 film, The Kids Are All Right was her most critically acclaimed performance since American Beauty, with several reviewers noting that she "deserves an Oscar" for her "sublime" performance [10][11] which garnered her a second Golden Globe, as well as Academy Award and Screen Actors Guild nominations.
In February 2011, it was announced that Bening will star opposite Morgan Freeman in a new film directed by Rob Reiner titled The Third Act.[12]
Personal life
In 1985, Bening and her first husband, choreographer J. Steven White, moved to Denver, Colorado, to work at the Shakespeare Festival[13] in Boulder, Colorado. They separated the following year.[citation needed]
Bening and actor Warren Beatty began a relationship during the filming of Bugsy (1991).[citation needed] Bening has said, "When Warren and I were first together and I was pregnant, we would get followed around by photographers. But it was nothing like what celebrities have to endure these days."[14] They married on March 10, 1992, and have four children.[14]
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