As you know, real actresses are like good wine: they do not age, but acquire their own special charm, with age. American Annette Bening (Annette Bening) can be safely attributed to women of this sort. Despite the fact that she is almost sixty - she is full of charm and optimism.
Annette Bening: a biography of the early years
The future star was born in the small provincial town of Topeka, in Kansas.
Her parents were ordinary people, quite far from the world of show business. Annette's mother was a housewife raising four children, and in her free time she sang in a church choir. My father worked as an insurance agent. Our heroine was the youngest child in the family, because of this, parents often did not have enough time to educate her, so Annette was often left to herself.
From early childhood, Annette Bening showed artistic abilities. Inheriting from her mother a pleasant melodious voice, the girl successfully made her debut in the title role in the school production of “Sounds of Music”.
At seventeen, Annette went to study acting at the Patrick Henry High School. After the girl continued her studies at the College of San Diego Mesa and the University of San Francisco.
Theater career
At first, Annette Bening dreamed of being a good theater actress. To achieve this, after graduation, she participated in numerous productions.
The debut of the actress on the professional theater stage took place in 1980 at the Shakespeare Festival in Colorado. She later played at the San Diego Repertory Theater and at the stage of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.
In 1985-1986 Annette Bening performed at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. During this period, she participated in the productions of Pygmalion and The Cherry Orchard.
The following year, the talent of the actress was noticed, and she was invited to perform on Broadway. Here she made her very successful debut in Tina Howe's play Coastal Interferences.
The beginning of a career in film and television
As soon as Bening's career in the theater went uphill, the woman began to try herself as an actress in film and television.
Annette made her debut in the television movie “Claude Dallas Hunt”, after which there were several roles in episodes of various television series. In the movie, this actress first appeared in 1988 in the film "In the Lap of Nature."
The following year, Miss Bening received her first major role in the movie Valmont.
In this tape, she played the charming intriguer Marquis de Merteuil. The role of Bening succeeded so well that she was nominated for a prize by the Chicago Association of Film Critics as the best promising actress.
Best Actress Movies
The nineties were the most fruitful in the career of Annette Bening. In 1990, she starred in the movie "Scammers", for which she was first nominated for an Oscar and a British Academy Award. Critics praised her acting, and soon Benning began to invite famous directors to act in films.
In the following years, she proved that she is a diverse actress, Annette Bening. Films with her participation differed not only in the plot, but also in the genre. The heroines played by Bening were not alike. So, in “Something About Henry” with Harrison Ford, she played a loving and caring wife; in Bugsy, a fatal beauty who ruined her lover; in "American President" - a naive lobbyist with whom the US president fell in love.
The decade ended with an actress participating in the film American Beauty, for which she was again nominated for an Oscar.
Career Bening in the two thousandth
With the beginning of the new millennium, the actress again begins to star in television series, which she has not done for almost ten years. She is invited to the cinema less frequently, compared to the nineties. However, even the rare roles that she is invited to play, the actress performs with incredible skill that does not go unnoticed.
In 2003, Bening starred in Western Open Space with Kevin Costner. And next year, she plays in the film adaptation of Somerset Maugham’s novel Theater. Annette Bening, for the role of the aging actress Julia Lambert in this movie, is again nominated for an Oscar.
However, like the previous two times - to no avail.
In the following years, with her participation, such films as “On the Sharp Edge”, “Women”, “Mother and Child”, “Ruby Sparks”, “Search”, “Denny Collins”, “Rules do not apply”, “The Seagull” , "Kids are OK," and others.
For the last of the films, the actress was again unsuccessfully nominated for an Oscar. But for the role in this film she was awarded the Golden Globe and the Prize of the Association of Gays and Lesbians.
Today, Bening is not so much in demand in the profession as in past years, but she has enough time to spend it with her family.
Annette Bening: family and children
At the beginning of her career, the actress quite often started novels. So, while studying at college, she met with Ned Bellamy. Later, she had a short relationship with Ed Begley and Andrew Lack.
In 1984, Annette married J. Stephen White, a famous choreographer. Unfortunately, this marriage lasted only seven years, after which the couple peacefully filed for divorce.
On the set of the Bugsy movie, Bening met the famous actor Warren Beatty and married him in 1992. Despite 22 years of age difference, this union turned out to be truly happy. Annette and Warren had four children.
Entertaining facts about the actress
- Although Bening is considered a full-fledged debut on the stage in the school production of the musical Sounds of Music, Annette's first acting experience was in the Spanish-language production of Three Little Pigs in high school.
- Being a very smart girl, Annette graduated from school a year earlier than expected. The "saved" time the actress spent on work as a cook to raise money for college.
- Despite the fact that the actress has not won a single Oscar, she is the owner of two Golden Globes (Theater, Kids in Order), as well as other lesser-known film awards.
- Annette Benning is fond of yoga. These exercises help the actress relieve the nervous tension that builds up during filming.
- In real life, the actress is not like her heroines. She is calmer and a little shy.
- In 2010, the eldest daughter, Bening Kathleen, changed sex through surgery, thus becoming Stephen. The parents of the new Stephen were shocked by the act of his daughter. However, over time, they were forced to come to terms. Fearing problems with her other children, Annette Bening has been spending a lot of time with children since then.
- The actress is an ordained minister of the monastery of the Ecumenical Church of Life.
During his career, Bening has achieved a lot. She starred in many beautiful films. Despite the great love of the audience and the respect of film critics, so far she has not got the coveted Oscar. However, admirers of the talent Annette Bening still hope that she will be awarded this award, because Leonardo DiCaprio received his Oscar only on the fifth attempt.