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,
Kate Lester Crosman, Julia Marlowe, Margaret Anglin and even James J Corbett. Her first silent features were in 1916. The film titles are "Molly Make-Believe", "Destiny's Toy", "The Social Secretary", "The Kiss", and "A Coney Island Princess". Lester's last films were released in 1925. They are "The Meddler", "Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman", and "The Price of Pleasure". She attained initial success in "emotional" roles. She began to develop her "grand dame" line of characters when her hair turned white prematurely. Lester died from burns she sustained during an explosion inside her dressing room at Universal Studios in Hollywood in 1924. She was