Annette Bening
Born: 29th May 1958
Where: Topeka, Kansas
The three-time Oscar-nominated actress first attracted attention in Stephen Frears' gritty film noir The Grifters.
Other career highlights include American Beauty, for which was was nominated for an Academy Award for best actress.
After an intensive theatre course at school in San Diego, Bening furthered her dramatic education with a BA in Theatre from San Francisco University.
Her first showbiz job was as a dancer at San Diego's famed Old Globe Theatre and in 1980 she performed in the Colorado Shakespeare Festival.
After a few more theatre festivals, Bening moved to New York in 1986 and starred in the TV movie Manhunt for Claude Dallas, followed by some years of Broadway and off-Broadway work, culminating in a Tony-nominated performance in Coastal Disturbances.
Her big screen debut came opposite Dan Aykroyd in The Great Outdoors which she followed up with a starring role in Valmont and Postcards From The Edge.
An Oscar nomination came her way for her role in The Grifters and Bening garnered further acclaim in Regarding Henry and Bugsy, which paired her up with her future husband Warren Beatty.
After a three year break to marry and start a family, Annette and husband Warren co-starred in Love Affair.
Juggling motherhood and a career, Annette made sacrifices, relinquishing the coveted Catwoman role in Batman Returns when she first fell pregnant, and then dropping out of Disclosure due to her second pregnancy.
Bening played the wife of Kevin Spacey in American Beauty for which she received a Best Actress Oscar nomination.
Returning to the big screen after yet another break, she starred alongside Michael Gambon and Kevin Costner in Open Range.
In 2004, she starred opposite Jeremy Irons in the romantic drama Being Julia, and garnered her third Oscar nomination for the role.
