Revered by film directors for her ability to take characters into deep, unexpected, emotional places, Annette Bening was a Tony-nominated stage actress before parlaying her dramatic intensity into award-worthy film performances. Early in her movie career, she made an impression as a wise-beyond-her-years sex kitten in “The Grifters” (1990) before exploding onto the scene as sultry mob moll, Virginia Hill, in the biopic, “Bugsy” (1991). And though she never lost that sly, brainy, sex appeal, she became more often associated with complex, professional women on the verge of self-destruction in
