Biography

Annette Carol Bening (born May 29, 1958) is an American actress. In a career spanning more than four decades, she has received many accolades, including a BAFTA Award and two Golden Globes as well as nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award, two Tony Awards, and five Academy Awards.

Bening began her career on stage with the Colorado Shakespeare Festival company in 1980, and played Lady Macbeth in 1984 at the American Conservatory Theater. She made her Broadway debut in the Tina Howe play Coastal Disturbances (1987) for which she received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. She played the title role in a Geffen Playhouse production of Hedda Gabler (1999). She returned to Broadway in the revival of Arthur Miller's All My Sons (2019) earning another Tony nomination for Best Actress in a Play.

Bening won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for playing a materialistic wife in American Beauty (1999), and received nominations for five Academy Awards for her roles in The Grifters (1990), American Beauty, Being Julia (2004), The Kids Are All Right (2010), and Nyad (2023). She was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for playing the title role in the television film Mrs. Harris (2005). Her other notable films include Postcards from the Edge (1990), Bugsy (1991), Richard III (1995), The American President (1995), 20th Century Women (2016), Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool (2017), The Seagull (2018), The Report (2019), Captain Marvel (2019), and Death on the Nile (2022).