Debra Winger facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Debra Winger
Winger in 1984
Born	Debra Lynn Winger (1955-05-16) May 16, 1955 (age 70) Cleveland Heights, Ohio, U.S.
Alma mater	California State University, Northridge
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1976–present
Spouse(s)	Timothy Hutton ​ ​ (m. 1986; div. 1990)​ Arliss Howard ​ ​ (m. 1996)​
Children	2

Debra Lynn Winger (born May 16, 1955) is an American actress. She is famous for her roles in many movies and TV shows. Some of her most well-known films include An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), Terms of Endearment (1983), and Shadowlands (1993). For each of these, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress, which is a very big honor in the film world.

Debra Winger won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress for her role in Terms of Endearment. She also received the Tokyo International Film Festival Award for Best Actress for A Dangerous Woman (1993). Her other popular movies include Urban Cowboy (1980), Legal Eagles (1986), and Rachel Getting Married (2008). In 2012, she started acting on Broadway, which is the highest level of theater acting in New York City. She also received a special award for her long career at the Transilvania International Film Festival in 2014. From 2016 to 2020, she starred in the Netflix TV series The Ranch.

Early Life

Debra Winger was born in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. She grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family. Her father, Robert Winger, worked with meat, and her mother, Ruth, was an office manager.

When she was younger, Debra often mentioned that she spent time volunteering on an Israeli Kibbutz. A kibbutz is a special community in Israel where people live and work together. She sometimes said she even trained with the Israel Defense Forces. However, in a later interview, she clarified that she was on a regular youth trip that included a visit to a kibbutz.

At 18, after returning to the U.S., Debra was in a serious car accident. This accident caused a brain injury that left her partly unable to move and see for 10 months. Doctors initially thought she might never see again. During her recovery, she had a lot of time to think about her future. She decided that if she got better, she would move to California and become an actress.

Her Acting Career

Starting Out

Winger in 1978

Debra Winger's early roles included playing Drusilla, who was Wonder Girl, in three episodes of the TV series Wonder Woman. The show's creators wanted her to appear more often, but she chose not to. She was worried that playing a superhero might limit her future acting choices. After this, she had a guest role in the TV show Police Woman in 1978. She also played a supporting role in the 1979 film French Postcards.

Her first big movie role was in Thank God It's Friday. Then, in 1980, she starred in Urban Cowboy. For this movie, she was nominated for a BAFTA award and two Golden Globe awards. These nominations were for Best Supporting Actress and Best New Star.

Big Roles and Awards

In 1982, Debra Winger starred with Nick Nolte in Cannery Row. She also acted alongside Richard Gere in An Officer and a Gentleman. For her performance in An Officer and a Gentleman, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. This is one of the most important awards in movies.

She received two more Academy Award nominations for Best Actress. The first was for Terms of Endearment in 1983. In this film, she played the daughter of a character played by Shirley MacLaine, who won the award that year. Her third nomination was for Shadowlands in 1993, which also earned her a second BAFTA nomination. Her acting in A Dangerous Woman also earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress.

Over the years, Debra Winger became known for being very dedicated to her projects and for speaking her mind. She has sometimes shared her honest opinions about her films and co-stars. Famous actress Bette Davis once said about Debra, "I see a great deal of myself in Debra Winger, who has already acquired a reputation for being difficult, because she cares about the project." This shows that her strong opinions came from her passion for acting.

Debra Winger was supposed to star in the movie Peggy Sue Got Married. However, she had to leave the project just before filming began because she injured her back in a bicycle accident. The role then went to Kathleen Turner. This injury made it hard for Winger to work for several months. She was also cast in A League of Their Own but later left the film. Other starring roles during this time included Legal Eagles, Black Widow, and The Sheltering Sky.

Taking a Break and Coming Back

In 1995, Debra Winger decided to take a break from acting. She explained in 2002 that she had wanted to step away for a while. She felt she needed a change and stopped reading scripts. She returned to acting in 2001 with the film Big Bad Love. This movie was written and directed by her husband, Arliss Howard. It was also the first time Winger worked as a producer.

During her break from films, Debra Winger also acted on stage. She played the main female role in a play called Ivanov from November 1999 to January 2000.

In 2002, a documentary film called Searching for Debra Winger was released. It was made by actress Rosanna Arquette and received good reviews. After returning to film, Winger starred in movies like Radio and Eulogy. She also received positive feedback for her role as Anne Hathaway's mother in Rachel Getting Married.

On Television

Winger (right) at Transilvania International Film Festival 2014

Debra Winger earned an Emmy Award nomination for her role in the 2005 TV movie Dawn Anna. In this film, she played the mother of a victim from the Columbine High School Massacre. Her husband, Arliss Howard, directed the movie. In 2010, she returned to TV with a guest appearance in an episode of Law & Order. She also joined the cast of HBO's In Treatment for its third season.

From 2016 to 2020, Winger starred in the Netflix comedy series The Ranch. She acted alongside Sam Elliott and Ashton Kutcher in this show. In 2017, she had a small role as Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan in the TV miniseries When We Rise. The same year, she played a main romantic role in the film The Lovers. She continues to take on roles in various films and TV shows.

Other Interests

In 1995, Debra Winger performed in The Wizard of Oz in Concert: Dreams Come True. This was a TV musical performance of the famous 1939 movie. It was done to help the Children's Defense Fund. She narrated the "Cyclone" part and played the Wicked Witch of the West.

During her break from the film industry, Winger spent a semester as a teaching fellow at Harvard University. In 2008, she wrote a book called Undiscovered, which shared her personal memories. She has also shown her support for peace between Arabs and Jews in Israel. She visited the Hand in Hand schools, which teach both Jewish and Arab children. In 2008, she said she would "dedicate the next bit of my life to these schools."

In 2010, Winger was a co-executive producer for the documentary Gasland, which was nominated for an Academy Award. She was also an executive producer for the 2012 documentary Bel Borba Aqui. This film was about the life and art of Brazilian artist Bel Borba.

Family Life

Debra Winger was married to actor Timothy Hutton from 1986 to 1990. They had a son named Noah Hutton, who was born in 1987 and is now a documentary filmmaker. Their marriage ended in divorce.

In 1996, Debra Winger married actor and director Arliss Howard. They met while working on the film Wilder Napalm. Their son, Gideon Babe Ruth Howard, was born in 1997. Debra is also a stepmother to Sam Howard, who is Arliss's son from a previous marriage.

Films and TV Shows

Film

Television

See also

In Spanish: Debra Winger para niños