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 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 their eighteen years of partnership, Burnham and Root designed and built residential and commercial buildings. Their success was crowned with the coordination of the World's Columbian Exposition (World's Fair) in 1893. The two men met when they worked as apprentice draftsmen in the offices of Drake, Carter, and Wight in 1872. A year later they established their own architecture office and began work by building private residences for the wealthy