Boomer Oscar Nominees Their First Roles

Annette Bening, nominated for Best Actress, The Kids Are All Right. Its hard to imagine Bening, one of the most dignified women in Hollywood, as Dan Aykroyds wife in a yuk-yuk vacation comedy featuring the late John Candy and rampaging raccoons. But thats just what she was in The Great Outdoors (1988), playing a suburban yuppie learning that great Hollywood-movie lesson: money isnt everything.

Jeff Bridges, nominated for Best Actor, True Grit. Before he played middle-aged heartthrobs and grizzled old men, Bridges was a gutsy high-school student in the drama Halls of Anger (1970). The movie, which chronicled the conflict between black students and white students at an urban high school, wasnt a success. But with his next effort, The Last Picture Show (1971), Bridges took a giant step forward and got an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Geoffrey Rush, nominated for Best Supporting Actor, The Kings Speech. Even Rush, one of the most respected actors in the business, had to begin somewhere. In his first movie, an Australian crime drama called Hoodwink (1981), the character Rush played wasnt important enough to merit a name. He was simply "Detective No. 1." The cast had another Australian on her way to much higher recognition: Judy Davis.

?

Melissa Leo, nominated for Best Supporting Actress, The Fighter. Unlike most nominees, Leo has done a lot of her work on TV, appearing in everything from All My Children to Homicide: Life on the Street. Her movie career began with Always (1985), a typical family drama involving potential divorce and heart-to-heart talks. In 2008, she was nominated for Best Actress for her role in Frozen River, a drama about two women smuggling illegal immigrants from Canada to the U.S.