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Winona Ryder was born in Olmsted County, Minnesota. She was named after the nearby city of Winona, and given her middle-name, Laura, because of her parent's friendship with Aldous Huxley's wife, Laura Huxley. Her mother is author Cindy Horowitz (née Istas) and her father is author and editor Michael Horowitz. Her paternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Russia and her maternal grandparents from Romania. Records show her father's family were originally named Tomchin when they arrived on the Kroonland at Ellis Island in 1906 but went under the name Horowitz when they resided in Manhattan. She is the goddaughter of Timothy Leary and her parents were friends of beat poet Allen Ginsberg. She grew up in a ranch commune in Northern California, and later moved with her parents to Petaluma (near San Francisco).
In 1985, Ryder sent a videotaped audition, where she recited a monologue from the novel Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger, to appear in the film Desert Bloom. She was rejected and the part went to Annabeth Gish. Despite her rejection, David Seltzer, a writer and director, soon noticed her talent and cast her in his 1986 film Lucas. When asked how she wanted her name to appear in the credits, she suggested "Ryder" as her surname as a Mitch Ryder album which belonged to her father was playing in the background. Her next movie was Square Dance (1987), where her teenage character creates a bridge between two different worlds — a traditional farm in the middle of nowhere and a large city. Ryder won acclaim for her role, and The Los Angeles Times called her performance in Square Dance "a remarkable debut". Both films, however, failed to gain Ryder any notice, and were only marginally successful commercially.
Director Tim Burton decided to cast Ryder in his film Beetle Juice (1988), after being impressed with her performance in Lucas. In the film, she plays gothic teenager Lydia Deetz. Lydia's family moves to a haunted house populated by ghosts played by Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin, and Michael Keaton. Lydia quickly finds herself the only human with a strong empathy toward the ghosts and their situation. The film was a success at the box office, and Ryder's performance and the overall film received mostly positive reviews from critics.
Ryder landed the role of Veronica Sawyer in the 1989 independent film Heathers. Ryder's agent initially begged her to turn the role down, saying the film would "ruin her career", but Ryder's performance was critically embraced, with The Washington Post stating Ryder is "Hollywood's most impressive inge'nue [sic] ... Ryder ... makes us love her teen-age murderess, a bright, funny girl with a little Bonnie Parker in her. She is the most likable, best-drawn young adult protagonist since the sexual innocent of Gregory's Girl."
In 1990, Ryder was selected for four film roles. In Edward Scissorhands (1990), she played the leading female role alongside her then-boyfriend Johnny Depp. The film reunited Tim Burton and Ryder, who had previously worked together on Beetlejuice in 1988. Edward Scissorhands was a significant box office success, grossing US$56 million at the United States box office and receiving much critical devotion.
Ryder's third role was in the family comedy-drama Mermaids (1990), which co-starred Cher and Christina Ricci. Mermaids was a moderate box office success and was embraced critically. Following Mermaids she starred in the lead role in box office flop Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael (1991). Ryder then starred in the dual roles of Count Dracula's reincarnated love interest Mina Murray and Dracula's past lover Princess Elisabeta, in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), a project she brought to director Francis Ford Coppola's attention.
Ryder also starred in The Age of Innocence with Michelle Pfeiffer and Daniel Day-Lewis, a film based on a novel by Edith Wharton and helmed by director Martin Scorsese, whom Ryder considers "the best director in the world". Her role in this movie won her a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress, as well as an Academy Award nomination in the same category.
In 1994, Ryder was handpicked to play the lead role of Josephine March in Little Women, an adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's novel. The film received widespread praise; critic Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that the film was the greatest adaptation of the novel, and also remarked on Ryder's performance: "Ms. Ryder, whose banner year also includes a fine comic performance in 'Reality Bites,' plays Jo with spark and confidence. Her spirited presence gives the film an appealing linchpin, and she plays the self-proclaimed 'man of the family' with just the right staunchness." She also received an Best Actress Oscar nomination the following year.
In December 1996, Ryder accepted a role as a humanoid robot in Alien Resurrection (1997), alongside Sigourney Weaver, Weaver's and Ryder's performances drew mostly positive reviews, and Ryder won a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Best Actress.
In 1999, she performed in and served as an executive producer for Girl, Interrupted, based on the 1993 autobiography of Susanna Kaysen. The film had been in project and post-production since late 1996, but it took time to surface.
On October 6, 2000, Ryder received her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located directly in front of the Johnny Grant building next to the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel on Hollywood Boulevard. She was the 2,165th recipient of this honor.
In 2002, Ryder appeared in two films. The first was a romantic comedy titled Mr. Deeds with Adam Sandler. This was her most commercially successful movie to date, earning over $126 million in the United States alone.
She has also signed up to appear as a newscaster in the upcoming movie version of The Informers,will join Robin Wright and Julianne Moore in Rebecca Miller's The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, which is scheduled to start filming in April 2008 in Connecticut, and will appear in Paramount Pictures' and director J. J. Abrams's Star Trek (2009), as Spock's mother Amanda Grayson.
| VITAL STATS |
| Eye color: Brown | | Height: 5' 4'' | | Nickname(s): Noni | Education: Petaluma High School in Petaluma, CA. Graduated in 1989 with 4.0 GPA.
Studied drama at American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, CA. | Family:
Parents: Michael and Cindy Horowitz
Siblings: Sunyata (half-sister), Jubal (half-brother), Yuri (brother) | | Personal interests/hobbies: Her favorite book is J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye." She says she owns every paperback edition and translations. She is also into music and plays the guitar. Her favorite band at one point was 'The Replacements', but she also loves Tom Waits, Cocteau Twins, Wilco and many others. She owns some of Hollywood's stars' most priceless possessions (Louis Armstrong's bongo drums among others). She also has a collection of vintage Hollywood costumes, including Russ Tamblyn's jacket from West Side Story (1961), Leslie Caron's dress from An American in Paris (1951), Claudette Colbert's gown from It Happened One Night (1934), Olivia de Havilland's blouse from Gone with the Wind (1939), and Sandra Dee's bikini from the "Tammy movies". | Charities/Causes:
Dedicated the film Little Women (1994) to Polly Klaas, a young girl from her hometown of Petaluma, California, who was kidnapped and brutally murdered. She offered a $200,000 reward for anyone with information on the subject, and remains a strong supporter of the Polly Klaas Foundation.
Raised money and organised a benefit night for a clinic her mother runs in San Francisco.
"It is the only clinic that does not turn anyone away - regardless of lack of money or insurance. Its patients mostly consist of young people with HIV, and the homeless." - Winona Ryder
| Other:
Famously dated and was engaged to Johnny Depp. Courtney Love once remarked, "You're no-one in music until you have feuded with me or until you sleep with Winona," referring to the number of musicians Ryder has dated. Suffers from insomnia, and aquaphobia due to a trauma she received when she nearly drowned at the age of 12.
Dropped out of The Godfather: Part III (1990). She said in an interview later that year that she arrived in Rome to film and simply could not get out of bed. A doctor was called and ordered her to return home and sleep. | | |
SFG71posted 26 days ago
