Annette Bening Gets Another Shot to Go the Distance at the 2024 Oscars

Latest News: Annette Bening Notches Fifth Oscar Nomination

Fourth time could be the charm for acclaimed actor Annette Bening. Her turn as long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad in the 2023 Netflix biopic Nyad earned the 65-year-old another chance at the Academy Award for Best Actress. If she wins the Oscar on March 10, it would mark Bening’s first trophy from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences despite having received at least one nomination every decade since the 1990s. Also on the actor’s resume is a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nod for her performance in The Grifters (1990).

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Who Is Annette Bening?

Actor Annette Bening is a five-time Academy Award nominee known for her performances in the movies American Beauty, Bugsy, Being Julia, and The Kids Are All Right. She worked on the San Francisco and New York stage before starting in movies in the late 1980s. Rave reviews for her turn as a con artist in The Grifters led Bening to costar in Warren Beatty’s Bugsy. The couple married in 1992 and have four children. Most recently, Bening earned her fifth Oscar nomination for her starring role in the 2023 biopic Nyad about long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad.

Quick Facts

FULL NAME: Anne Francine Bening
BORN: May 29, 1958
BIRTHPLACE: Topeka, Kansas
SPOUSES: J. Steven White (1984-1991) and Warren Beatty (1992-present)
CHILDREN: Stephen, Benjamin, Isabel, and Ella
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Gemini

Young Life and Early Career

Anne Francine Bening, better known as Annette Bening, was born on May 29, 1958, in Topeka, Kansas, to insurance salesman A. Grant Bening and church singer Shirley Bening. The youngest of four children, Annette has two brothers and one sister. The family grew up in San Diego, where Annette completed studies at Patrick Henry High School in just three years.

Bening was studying drama at a San Diego college when she got a job as a dancer in The Green Show outside San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre. This experience led to a walk-on in a Shakespeare production and several plays with the San Diego Repertory Theatre.

She then moved to San Francisco to attend San Francisco University. After graduation, Bening was accepted by the American Conservatory Theatre, where she trained and later joined the acting company. Her next stop was New York City, where she continued her theater career before transitioning to the film industry.

Movies

Bening made her movie debut in The Great Outdoors (1988), a forgettable comedy starring Dan Aykroyd and John Candy. The following year, she brilliantly portrayed the Marquise de Merteuil in Milos Forman’s Valmont (1989), attracting the eye of director Stephen Frears who had released Dangerous Liaisons—his own version of the same story—just six months before.

Frears cast Bening as a young hustler in his stylish film noir, The Grifters (1990). Although Bening’s nude scenes got the lion’s share of publicity, the movie and Bening’s performance were critically acclaimed. She earned her first Academy Award nomination, for Best Supporting Actress, as well as a National Society of Film Critics Award.

Actor Warren Beatty was so impressed that he sought her out for the role of Virginia in Bugsy (1991). Their professional relationship soon developed into a romantic one as well, with the couple marrying in 1992.

Bening took a three year break from her acting career to settle down with Beatty and start a family. When she returned, she costarred with Beatty in the 1994 remake of the 1939 tearjerker Love Affair. She gained notice as a comedic performer in The American President in 1995 with Michael Douglas, and portrayed Queen Elizabeth I in Ian McKellen’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s Richard III (1995).

Bening joined the wacky ensemble cast for Mars Attacks! in 1996. Next came a leading role in the terrorist thriller The Siege (1998), reportedly earning her $3 million, then the 1999 dark psychological thriller In Dreams, for which Bening portrayed a woman who develops a psychic link with a serial killer (played by Robert Downey Jr.).

Also in 1999, she turned in a great performance as a materialistic suburban real estate agent in the darkly funny hit movie American Beauty, earning an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. The role of Carolyn Burnham remains one of her most memorable to date.

In 2000, Bening starred in What Planet Are You From? as a woman who marries an extraterrestrial invader, played by Garry Shandling. After three prior nominations, she won a Golden Globe, for Best Actress, in 2005 for her performance in the comedy Being Julia. The part also earned Bening her third Academy Award nod.

Bening received another Golden Globe and a fourth Oscar nomination for her leading role as Nic in the 2010 movie The Kids Are All Right. Her next lauded performance was as a single mom in 20^th Century Women (2016), a semi-autobiographical comedy-drama written and directed by Mike Mills. Bening earned her eighth Golden Globe nomination for the part.

2024 Oscar Nomination for Nyad

Following 2018’s The Seagull and 2022’s Death on the Nile, Bening anchored the 2023 Netflix biopic Nyad, based on the true story of long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad’s quest to swim from Cuba to Florida. The actor prepared for the role by training with former Olympic swimmer and coach Rada Owen. Coincidentally, Bening was 64 years old during the movie’s filming—the same age as Nyad on her fifth and final attempt at the 110-mile swim.

Once again, Bening’s talents earned her nominations at the Golden Globes and Academy Awards. The 2024 recognitions represent her fourth consecutive decade of receiving nominations at the prestigious ceremonies.

Theater Work

Early on in her career, Bening joined the New York City theater scene. She earned a Tony Award nomination and won the Clarence Derwent Award in 1986 for Outstanding Debut Performance of the Season for her work in Tina Howe’s Coastal Disturbances. Not long after, she made her foray into film, but in recent years, Bening has returned to the stage.

She starred the comedy The Female of the Species at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles in 2010 and costarring with John Lithgow in the Public Theatre’s King Lear at Shakespeare in the Park in New York in 2014. Bening then garnered a 2019 Tony nomination for her leading part in the play Arthur Miller’s All My Sons.

Husband Warren Beatty and Children

Bening has been married to fellow actor Warren Beatty since February 1992. Despite a nearly 21-year age gap, the couple fell in love during the making of the 1991 movie Bugsy. Their long-lasting partnership dispelled Beatty’s prior reputation as a commitmentphobe.

Bening and Beatty have four children: Stephen, born in 1992; Benjamin, born in 1994; Isabel, born in 1997; and Ella, born in 2000. Benjamin and Ella have both followed in the footsteps of their parents by pursuing acting careers. Meanwhile, Stephen made headlines for sharing his journey as a trans man.

Beatty is Bening’s second husband. She previously married J. Steven White. Their divorce was finalized in 1991.

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