Annette Bening

This three-time Oscar nominee is an indisputable A-list movie star, yet for years the comely blonde was dismissed as Mrs. Warren Beatty. After appearing in regional theater, Bening moved to New York and earned a Tony nomination for her Broadway debut in Coastal Disturbances. But since she was over 30 when she began landing significant screen roles, she was too old to play the ingenue. Instead, Bening took on vampy supporting parts, including deliciously wicked turns in Valmont and The Grifters, the latter of which earned her an Academy Award nod. In 1991 she signed on to the project that would change her career and her life. Although Bugsy wasn't a commercial success, it offered Bening her first genuine leading role, as a gangster's moll. It also introduced her to notorious ladies' man Warren Beatty, who ended up abandoning his wild ways to wed and raise a family with Bening. For the next three years, the actress chose family over films, and her 1994 return to cinema, the tepid romance Love Affair opposite her husband, was far from triumphant. But the plucky player kept plugging away, appearing in one big project per year, and while some of them were misses (The Siege, In Dreams), many were hits — her emotionally raw performance in American Beauty and her comical turn in Being Julia were both rewarded with Oscar nominations. Her mid-forties found her at the top of her game, with a happy home life to boot.