5. Annette Bening
Nomination and Year: Best Actress in a Leading Role: The Kids Are All Right (2011) Best Actress in a Leading Role: Being Julia (2005) Best Actress in a Leading Role: American Beauty (2000) Best Actress in a Supporting Role: The Grifters (1991) Despite only being the modest height of 56, Annette Bening has a formidable screen presence, which has led her to an impressive to four Oscar nominations. Benings breakthrough role was in
TheGrifters, a crime thriller starring Anjelica Huston and John Cusack, where she played a sassy and seductive con-artist. The nineties were a bit of dry spell for Bening until 1999, where she landed the role of Carolyn Burnham in the modern masterpiece
American Beauty. Her turn as the pushy real estate agent and struggling mother of a dysfunctional family was critically well-received, and the film went on to win Best Picture.