Annette Bening's Marriage History: Archival Photos and Relationship Milestones
In 1991, director Barry Levinson cast Bening opposite Warren Beatty in the stylish mob drama Bugsy. Beatty was Hollywood's most notorious bachelor, whose romantic rolodex had generated international headlines for thirty years. Bening was signed to play Virginia Hill, the sharp-tongued, fiercely independent mob moll who matched gangster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel blow for blow.
Beatty later acknowledged that he fell in love with Bening during an initial business lunch before filming even began. On set, both maintained rigorous professional boundaries. They refrained from dating until production officially wrapped, conscious of the potential media circus. When their relationship became public, industry skeptics treated the romance with cynicism, expecting another fleeting chapter in Beatty's well-documented dating ledger.
The skeptics were wrong. In January 1992, the couple welcomed their first child, Stephen Ira Beatty. Two months later, on March 3, 1992, they married in a private, unannounced ceremony in Los Angeles. The swift wedding surprised Hollywood executives who had long assumed Beatty would never marry.