American Beauty (1999 film) and "Magnolia"). In 2006, the Writers Guild of America ranked the screenplay number 38 on its list of the 101 greatest screenplays. Annotations Footnotes Bibliography American Beauty (1999 film) American Beauty is a 1999 American drama film written by Alan Ball and directed by Sam Mendes in his feature film directorial debut. Kevin Spacey stars as Lester Burnham, a 42-year-old advertising executive who has a midlife crisis when he becomes infatuated with his teenage daughter's best friend, Angela (Mena Suvari). Annette Bening co-stars as Lester's materialistic wife, Carolyn, and Thora Birch plays their insecure daughter, Jane. Wes Bentley, Chris Cooper,
Burnham and Root short period the tallest building in the world at 22 stories. It is then that Burnham's architectural talent became the driving force of the business, resulting in such iconic buildings such as the Flatiron Building in New York City. Burnham was unable to maintain the architectural progress made by Root, but he demonstrated great versatility in his style. Burnham died in a car accident in 1912 while vacationing in Germany. Burnham and Root Burnham and Root was one of Chicago's most famous architectural companies of the nineteenth century. It was established by John Wellborn Root and Daniel Hudson Burnham. During