Annette Bening
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Annette Bening (born May 29, 1958) is an American actress.
She was born in Topeka, Kansas, the daughter of Arnett Grant Bening (born 1926) and Shirley (born 1930). Her sister and two brothers are Jane (born 1953), Bradley (born 1955) and Byron (born 1957). Her father worked for an insurance company. The family moved to Wichita in 1959, where she spent her early childhood.
In 1965, Annette's 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 studied drama at Patrick Henry High School and graduated in three years.
She then spent a year working as a cook on a charter boat taking fishing parties out on the Pacific, and scuba diving for recreation. She attended San Diego Mesa College, then completed a degree in theatre arts at San Francisco State University. Bening then joined the acting company at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.
In 1985, she and her first husband, Stephen White, moved to Denver to work at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. They separated the following year. Bening moved to New York, where she debuted on Broadway in the role as Holly Dancer in Coastal Disturbances (1987).
Bening was nominated for a Tony Award for her performance in Coastal Disturbances, and won a Clarence Derwent Award for Outstanding Debut Performance. However, she endured a five-year struggle before breaking into motion pictures.
Her debut was the made-for-TV movie Manhunt for Claude Dallas (1986). Her first major role in a theatrical feature was in The Great Outdoors (1988), playing Kate Craig, the wife of Dan Aykroyd, with co-stars John Candy and Stephanie Faracy. Her next role was as the Marquise de Merteuil in Valmont (1989) opposite Colin Firth. Bening's next major feature, Stephen Frears's The Grifters (1990) starring Angelica Huston and John Cusack, met with critical acclaim. She and Warren Beatty met on the set of Bugsy (1991), in which she played Virginia Hill, and the two began a secret romance.
She has had two husbands, choreographer J. Stephen White (married 1984-divorced 1991) and actor Warren Beatty (married 1992-present). She and Beatty have four children, Kathlyn (born 1992), Benjamin (born 1994), Isabel (born 1997), and Ella (born 2000).
Bening received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for The Grifters (1990). She received nominations for Best Actress in a Leading Role for American Beauty (1999) and for Being Julia (2004).
She won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy for Being Julia, in which she played a 1930s stage actress in a mid-career crisis.
She has also done voice work for animation, such as that of Abigail Adams in the TV series Liberty's Kids: Est. 1776 (2002).
Annette Bening lives with her husband, Warren Beatty, and family in Los Angeles.
Filmography
- The Great Outdoors (1988) ... Kate Craig
- Valmont (1989) ... Merteuil
- Postcards from the Edge (1990) ... Evelyn Ames
- The Grifters (1990) ... Myra Langtry
- Guilty by Suspicion (1991) ... Ruth Merrill
- Regarding Henry (1991) ... Sarah Turner
- Bugsy (1991) ... Virginia Hill
- Love Affair (1994) ... Terry McKay
- Richard III (1995) ... Queen Elizabeth
- The American President (1995) ... Sydney Ellen Wade
- Mars Attacks! (1996) ... Barbara Land
- The Siege (1998) ... Elise Kraft/Sharon Bridger
- In Dreams (1999) ... Claire Cooper
- American Beauty (1999) ... Carolyn Burnham
- What Planet Are You From? (2000) ... Susan Anderson
- Open Range (2003) ... Sue Barlow
- Being Julia (2004) ... Julia Lambert
Trivia
- Bening was offered the role as Catwoman in Batman Returns (1992), but chose to be pregnant and the role went to Michelle Pfeiffer.
- Bening played a real-estate agent in three different movies: Regarding Henry, American Beauty and What Planet Are You From?.
- Bening has appeared in three different Mike Nichols movies, Postcards from the Edge, Regarding Henry and What Planet Are You From?
External links
de:Annette Bening es:Annette Bening fr:Annette Bening nl:Annette Bening sv:Annette Bening zh:安妮特·班寧