Annette Carol Bening (born May 29, 1958) is an American actress. She began her career on stage with the Colorado Shakespeare Festival company in 1980, and played Lady Macbeth in 1984 at the American Conservatory Theatre. She was nominated for the 1987 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her Broadway debut in Coastal Disturbances. She is a four-time Academy Award nominee; for The Grifters (1990), American Beauty (1999), Being Julia (2004), and The Kids Are All Right (2010). In 2006, she received a motion pictures star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Other films include Bugsy (1991), The American President (1995), Mars Attacks! (1996), The Siege (1998), Open Range (2003), Running with Scissors (2006) and 20th Century Women (2016). She won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress for American Beauty, two Golden Globe Awards for Being Julia and The Kids Are All Right, and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for Mrs. Harris.