Winona Laura Horowitz (born October 29, 1971), better known under her professional name
Winona Ryder, is an American actress. She started her career in 1986. Although Ryder made her screen debut in
Lucas (1986), her first significant role came in 1988 with
Beetlejuice as Lydia Deetz, a
Goth teenager, in a performance that gained her critical and commercial recognition. After making various appearances in film and television, Ryder continued her career with the
cult film Heathers (1989) in a prominent and critically acclaimed performance. Her subsequent roles have won her not only critical praise but numerous film awards. In 2000, Ryder received a star on the
Walk of Fame in
Hollywood,
California.
Ryder is known for her relationship with actor
Johnny Depp throughout the early 1990s. She also received noteworthy media attention for her participation in the investigation of the kidnapping and murder of
Polly Klaas in 1993, who was from Ryder's hometown of
Petaluma, California. Ryder also received worldwide attention after her arrest on December 12, 2001 for shoplifting from a
Saks Fifth Avenue store in
Beverly Hills, California.
Early life and education
Born Winona Laura Horowitz in
Olmsted County, Minnesota, she was named after the nearby city of
Winona.
She was given her middle name, Laura, because of her parents' friendship with
Aldous Huxley's wife,
Laura Huxley. Her mother, Cynthia Palmer (
née Istas), is an author, as well as a video producer and editor.
Her father,
Michael Horowitz, is an author, editor, publisher and antiquarian bookseller.
Ryder's mother is a
Buddhist and her father is an
atheist.
[Winona Ryder biography at Cranky Critic; accessed December 5, 2007.] Regarding her ancestry, Ryder has described herself as "Jewish",
her paternal grandparents were
Jewish immigrants from
Russia, and relatives of hers died in the
Holocaust. Ryder has one sibling, a younger brother, Uri, an older half-brother, Jubal, and an older half-sister, Sunyata. Ryder's family friends included her
godfather,
LSD guru
Timothy Leary,
beat poets Allen Ginsberg and
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and
science fiction novelist
Philip K Dick.
In 1978, when Ryder was seven years old, she and her family relocated to Rainbow, a
commune near
Elk, California, where they lived with seven other families on a 300-acre (1.2 km²) plot of land. As the remote property had no
electricity or television sets, Ryder began to devote her time to reading and became an avid fan of
J. D. Salinger's
Catcher in the Rye.
[Wills, Dominic (2006), "Winona Ryder biography", Tiscali.com, page 4. Retrieved December 6, 2007.] She developed an interest in acting after her mother showed her a few movies on a screen in the family barn. At age 10, Ryder and her family moved on again, this time to
Petaluma, California. During her first week at the Kenilworth Middle School, she was
bullied by a group of her peers who mistook her for an
effeminate, scrawny boy.
As a result, she ended up being
homeschooled that year. In 1983, when Ryder was 12, she enrolled at the
American Conservatory Theater in nearby
San Francisco, where she took her first acting lessons. Ryder graduated from
Petaluma High School with a 4.0
GPA in 1989.
She has also revealed that she suffers from
aquaphobia due to the
trauma caused by an incident in which she nearly drowned at age 12.
This caused problems when she had to act in some of the underwater scenes in
Alien: Resurrection (1997) and the scenes had to be reshot numerous times.
Career
Early works, 1985–1990
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".
[Winona Ryder at Book Rags.com; accessed December 7, 2007.] 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
Beetlejuice (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.
[Beetlejuice at Rotten Tomatoes.com; accessed on May 5, 2007.]
Ryder landed the role of Veronica Sawyer in the 1989
independent film Heathers. The film, a
satirical take on teenage life, revolves around Veronica, who is ultimately forced to choose between the will of society and her own heart after her boyfriend (
Christian Slater) begins killing popular high school students. Ryder's agent initially begged her to turn the role down, saying the film would "ruin her career".
Reaction to the film was mostly lukewarm,
[Heathers at Rotten Tomatoes; last accessed on May 5, 2007.] but Ryder's performance was critically embraced, with
The Washington Post stating Ryder is "Hollywood's most impressive inge'nue
[1] ... 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."
The film was a box office
flop, yet achieved status as a predominant
cult film.
Later that year, she starred in
Great Balls of Fire!, playing the 13-year-old bride (and cousin) of
Jerry Lee Lewis. The film was a box office failure and received largley divided reviews from critics. In April 1989, she played the title role in the
music video for
Mojo Nixon's "Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant with My Two-Headed Love Child".
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.
[Edward Scissorhands at Rotten Tomatoes; last accessed May 5, 2007.] Later that year, she withdrew from a role in
Francis Ford Coppola's
The Godfather Part III (after traveling to
Rome for filming) due to
exhaustion.
Eventually, Coppola's daughter
Sofia Coppola was cast in the role. 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. Ryder's performance was also acclaimed; critic
Roger Ebert of the
Chicago Sun-Times wrote: "Winona Ryder, in another of her alienated outsider roles, generates real charisma."
For her performance, Ryder received a
Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.
Ryder then performed alongside Cher and Christina Ricci in the video for "
The Shoop Shoop Song", the theme from
Mermaids. Following
Mermaids she starred in the lead role in box office flop
Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael (1991).
1991–1995
In 1991, Ryder played a young
taxi driver who dreams of becoming a mechanic in
Jim Jarmusch's
Night on Earth. The film was only given a limited release at the box office, but received critical praise.
[Night on Earth at Rotten Tomatoes; last accessed on May 5, 2007.] 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.
In 1993, she starred in the melodrama
The House of the Spirits, based on
Isabel Allende's
novel. Ryder played the love interest of
Antonio Banderas' character. Principal filming was done in
Denmark and
Portugal. The film was poorly reviewed and a box office flop, grossing just $6 million on its $40 million budget.
[The House of The Spirits business information at Internet Movie Database; accessed January 2, 2007.] 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.
Ryder's next role was in the
Generation X drama
Reality Bites (1994), directed by
Ben Stiller, playing a young woman searching for direction in her life. Her performance received acclaim and the studio hoped the film would gross a substantial amount of money, yet it flopped.
Bruce Feldman, Universal Pictures' Vice-President of Marketing said: "The media labeled it as a Generation X picture, while we thought it was a comedy with broad appeal."
The studio placed TV ads during programs chosen for their appeal to 12–34-year-olds and in interviews Stiller was careful not to mention the phrase "Generation X".
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.
She also made a guest appearance in
The Simpsons episode "
Lisa's Rival" as
Allison Taylor, whose intelligence and over-achieving personality makes her a rival of
Lisa's. Her next starring role was in
How to Make an American Quilt (1995), an adaptation of the
novel of the same name by Whitney Otto, co-starring
Anne Bancroft. Ryder plays a college graduate who spends her summer hiatus at her grandmother's property to ponder on her boyfriend's recent marriage proposal. The film was not a commercial success, nor was it popular with critics.
[How to Make an American Quilt at Rotten Tomatoes; accessed January 10, 2007.][How to Make an American Quilt business information at Internet Movie Database, last accessed January 10, 2007.]
1996–2000
Ryder made several film appearances in 1996, the first in
Boys. The film failed to become a box office success and attracted mostly negative critical reaction. Roger Ebert of the
Chicago Sun-Times stated that "
Boys is a low-rent, dumbed-down version of
Before Sunrise, with a rent-a-plot substituting for clever dialogue."
Her next role was in
Looking for Richard,
Al Pacino's documentary on a production of
Shakespeare's
Richard III, which grossed only $1 million at the box office, but drew moderate critical acclaim.
[Looking for Richard business information at Internet Movie Database; accessed January 10, 2007.][Looking for Richard at Rotten Tomatoes; accessed January 10, 2007.] She also starred as the lead in
The Crucible, alongside
Daniel Day-Lewis and
Joan Allen. The film, an adaptation of
Arthur Miller's
play, centered on the
Salem witch trials. The film was expected to be a success, considering its budget, but became a large failure.
[The Crucible at Box Office Mojo; accessed January 10, 2007.] Despite this, it received acclaim critically, and Ryder's performance was lauded, with
Peter Travers of
Rolling Stone saying, "Ryder offers a transfixing portrait of warped innocence."
In December 1996, Ryder accepted a role as a humanoid robot in
Alien: Resurrection (1997), alongside
Sigourney Weaver, who had appeared in the entire
Alien trilogy. Ryder's brother, Yuri, was a major fan of the film series, and when asked, she took the role. The film became one of the least successful entries in the
Alien film series, but was considered a success as it grossed $161 million worldwide.
Weaver's and Ryder's performances drew mostly positive reviews, and Ryder won a
Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Best Actress. Ryder then starred in
Woody Allen's
Celebrity (1998), after
Drew Barrymore turned down Ryder's role, in an ensemble cast.
The film satirizes the lives of several celebrities.
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. Ryder was deeply attached to the film, considering it her "child of the heart".
Ryder starred as Kaysen, who has
borderline personality disorder and was admitted to a
mental hospital for recovery. Ryder starred alongside
Whoopi Goldberg and
Angelina Jolie. While Ryder was expected to make her comeback with her leading role, the film instead became the "welcome-to-
Hollywood coronation" for Jolie,
[IMDb Movie of the Day. IMDb. March 7, 2003. Accessed April 14, 2007.] who won an
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. Jolie thanked Ryder in her acceptance speech.
["Angelina Jolie: Hollywood's Child, She Wins An Oscar"; accessed January 10, 2007.] The same year, Ryder was parodied in
South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut. The following year, she starred in the
romantic comedy Autumn in New York, alongside
Richard Gere. The film revolves around a relationship between an older man (Gere) and a younger woman (Ryder).
Autumn in New York received mixed reviews, but was a commercial success, grossing $90 million at the worldwide box office.
[Autumn in New York at Rotten Tomatoes; accessed January 10, 2007.] Ryder then played a
nun of a secret society loosely connected to the
Roman Catholic Church and determined to prevent
Armageddon in
Lost Souls (2000), which was a commercial failure. Ryder refused to do commercial promotion for the film.
Later in 2000, she was one of several celebrities who made a small cameo appearance in
Zoolander. 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.
Hiatus, 2001–2005
Ryder had a moderate hiatus after her shoplifting incident in 2001 (see below). The book
Conversations with Woody Allen reports that in 2003 film director
Woody Allen wanted to cast
Robert Downey Jr. and Ryder in his film
Melinda and Melinda, but was unable to do so because "I couldn't get insurance on them ... We couldn't get bonded. The completion bonding companies would not bond the picture unless we could insure them. [...] We were heartbroken because I had worked with Winona before
Celebrity and thought she was perfect for this and wanted to work with her again."
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.
[Mr. Deeds box office gross at Box Office Mojo; accessed January 10, 2007.] She played a cynical reporter for an unscrupulous television program. The second film was the
science fiction drama
S1m0ne in which she portrayed a glamorous star who is replaced by a
computer simulated actress due to the clandestine machinations of a director, portrayed by her
Looking For Richard costar
Al Pacino.
2006–present
In 2006, after her hiatus, Ryder appeared in
Richard Linklater's
A Scanner Darkly, a
science fiction film based on
Philip K. Dick's critically acclaimed 1977 novel. Ryder starred alongside
Keanu Reeves,
Robert Downey Jr, and
Woody Harrelson. Live action scenes were transformed with
rotoscope software and the film was entirely animated.
A Scanner Darkly was screened at the 2006
Cannes Film Festival and the 2006
Seattle International Film Festival. Critics disagreed over the film's merits; Carina Chocano of the
Los Angeles Times found the film "engrossing" and wrote that "the brilliance of
film is how it suggests, without bombast or fanfare, the ways in which the real world has come to resemble the dark world of comic books."
Similarly, Matthew Turner of
ViewLondon, believing the film to be "engaging" and "beautifully animated", also praised the film for its "superb performances" and original, thought-provoking screenplay.
Ryder also recently appeared in the comedy
The Darwin Awards, starring alongside
Joseph Fiennes. The film premiered at the
Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2006.
Ryder also confirmed in an interview with
Entertainment Weekly she is reuniting with
Heathers screenwriter Daniel Waters for the surreal
black comedy Sex and Death 101 (2007).
The story follows the sexual odysseys of successful businessman Roderick Blank, played by
Simon Baker, who receives a mysterious e-mail on the eve of his wedding, listing all of his past and future sex partners. "We will be doing a sequel to
Heathers next." Ryder stated. "There's
Heathers in the real world! We have to keep going!"
. In a more recent interview Ryder was quoted as saying on the speculation of a
Heathers sequel: "I don't know how much of the movie is official; it's a ways away. But it takes place in Washington and
Christian Slater agreed to come back and make an
Obi-Wan-type appearance. It's very funny."
Ryder also appeared in
David Wain's comedy
The Ten, alongside
Jessica Alba,
Paul Rudd,
Justin Theroux,
Famke Janssen,
Oliver Platt, and
Adam Brody. The film centers around ten stories, each of them inspired by one of the
Ten Commandments. The film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival 2007 on January 10, 2007,
with a theatrical release on August 3, 2007. Ryder will play the female lead opposite
Wes Bentley and
Ray Romano in Geoffrey Haley's offbeat romantic drama
The Last Word.
[Winona Ryder news archive; last accessed on May 5, 2007] 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, a role originally played by
Jane Wyatt.
Ryder was briefly hospitalized on November 13, 2008 "as a precaution" but released with no problems.
Personal life
Relationships
Ryder has had many high-profile relationships with actors. She was engaged to actor
Johnny Depp for three years beginning in July 1990. She met Depp at the
Great Balls of Fire! premiere in June 1989, two months later they began dating.
During their relationship, Depp had a
tattoo placed on his arm reading "Winona Forever", which he had altered to "Wino Forever" after their separation.
Ryder later had serious relationships with
Soul Asylum's
Dave Pirner,and actor
Matt Damon.
Ryder also told
W Magazine in a June 2002 issue that she is close friends with comedian and actor
Jimmy Fallon.
She was also close friends with actress
Gwyneth Paltrow, until they reportedly "grew apart" in the late 1990s.
Recently she split with her boyfriend
Blake Sennett, whom she had dated since 2007.
Polly Klaas
In 1993, Ryder became involved in the
Polly Klaas kidnapping case.
Klaas lived in
Petaluma, the same town where Ryder grew up. Ryder offered a $200,000 reward for the 12-year-old kidnap victim's safe return.
After the girl's death, Ryder starred in the 1994 film adaptation of
Little Women by
Louisa May Alcott and dedicated it to her memory.
Little Women was one of Klaas's favorite novels.
During a sentencing hearing related to the 2001 shoplifting incident (see below), Ryder's attorney,
Mark Geragos, referred to her work with the Polly Klaas Foundation and other charitable causes. In response, Deputy District Attorney Ann Rundle said: "What's offensive to me is to trot out the body of a dead child."
Ryder was visibly upset at the accusation and Rundle was admonished by the judge. Outside the courthouse, Polly's father Mark Klaas defended Ryder and expressed outrage at the prosecutor's comments.
2001 shoplifting incident
On December 12, 2001, Ryder was arrested on
shoplifting charges in
Beverly Hills, California; she stood accused of stealing $5,500 worth of designer clothes and accessories at a
Saks Fifth Avenue department store.
Los Angeles District Attorney
Stephen Cooley produced a team of eight prosecutors. Cooley filed four felony charges against her in what was described by
British newspaper
The Guardian as a "show-trial".
Ryder hired noted celebrity defense attorney
Mark Geragos. Negotiations for a plea-bargain failed at the end of summer 2002.
As noted by Joel Mowbray from the
National Review, the prosecution was not ready to offer the actress what was given to 5,000 other defendants in similar cases, an open door to a no-contest plea on misdemeanor charges.
Ryder agreed under signature to pay two Civil Demands, as permitted under California's Statute for Civil Recovery for Shoplifting, from Saks Fifth Avenue that would completely reimburse Saks Fifth Avenue for the stolen and surrendered merchandise while detained in the Security Offices of the Saks Fifth Avenue store, and before she was
mirandized and arrested by the Los Angeles Commissioned Police.
[The Smoking Gun archive; accessed January 16 2008]
During the trial, she was also accused of using drugs without valid prescriptions. Ryder was convicted of
grand theft and
vandalism, but was acquitted on the third felony charge,
burglary.
In December 2002, she was sentenced to three years' probation, 480 hours of
community service, $3,700 in fines, and $6,355 in
restitution to the Saks Fifth Avenue storendash and was ordered to attend psychological and drug counseling.
After reviewing Ryder's probation report, Superior Court Judge Elden Fox noted that Ryder served 480 hours of community service and on June 18, 2004, the felonies were reduced to misdemeanors. Ryder remained on probation until December 2005.
Filmography
