Winona Ryder facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Winona Ryder
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Ryder in 2024
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Winona Laura Horowitz
October 29, 1971 Winona County, Minnesota, U.S.
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| Alma mater | American Conservatory Theater |
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| Years active | 1986–present |
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| Awards | Full list |
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Winona Ryder is an American actress born on October 29, 1971. She became famous for playing unique characters in the late 1980s. Later, she gained even more success with her serious acting roles in the 1990s.
Winona Ryder has won many awards, including a Golden Globe. She has also been nominated for two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, and a Grammy Award.
She started her film career in Lucas (1986). She became very well known after starring in the comedy Beetlejuice (1988). She then had big roles in movies like Heathers (1989), Edward Scissorhands (1990), and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992).
Winona Ryder received two Oscar nominations in a row. One was for her role in The Age of Innocence (1993). The other was for playing Jo March in Little Women (1994). She also starred in Reality Bites (1994), Alien Resurrection (1997), and Girl, Interrupted (1999).
After a break from acting in the early 2000s, Ryder returned to films. She appeared in Star Trek (2009) and Black Swan (2010). Since 2016, she has played Joyce Byers in the Netflix series Stranger Things. This role earned her another Golden Globe nomination. She also appeared in the miniseries The Plot Against America (2020) and the movie Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024).
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Winona Ryder's Early Life
Winona Laura Horowitz was born on October 29, 1971, in Winona County, Minnesota. Her parents, Cynthia Palmer and Michael D. Horowitz, were both authors and editors. Her father also worked for psychologist Timothy Leary, who was Winona's godfather. Her family has Russian Jewish and Romanian Jewish roots.
Winona was named after Winona, Minnesota. Her middle name, Laura, came from her parents' friend, Laura Huxley. Her stage name, Ryder, was inspired by the singer Mitch Ryder, whom her father liked. Winona has a younger brother, Urie, and two older half-siblings. Her family friends included famous writers like Allen Ginsberg and Philip K. Dick.
In 1978, when Winona was seven, her family moved to a commune in California. They lived with seven other families on a large piece of land. Since there was no electricity or TV, Winona spent her time reading. She became a big fan of J. D. Salinger's book The Catcher in the Rye.
When she was ten, her family moved to Petaluma, California. In 1983, at age 12, Winona started taking acting lessons at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. That same year, she almost drowned. This experience made her afraid of water, which caused problems during underwater scenes in her later film Alien Resurrection. In 1989, Winona graduated from Petaluma High School with excellent grades.
Winona has said her natural hair color is brown. But as a child, she was very blonde. When she was 11 or 12, she started dying her hair blue and purple. For her audition for the 1986 film Lucas, her hair was black. The filmmakers asked her to keep it that way.
Becoming an Actress
First Roles and Big Break
In 1985, Winona Ryder sent an audition tape for the film Desert Bloom. Even though she didn't get that role, writer/director David Seltzer cast her in his high school drama Lucas (1986). When asked how she wanted her name in the credits, she suggested "Ryder." This was because a Mitch Ryder album was playing in the background.
Her next film was Square Dance (1987). In this movie, she played a teenager who connected two different worlds: a quiet farm and a big city. Critics praised her performance, calling it a "remarkable debut." However, both Lucas and Square Dance did not earn much money.
After seeing her in Lucas, director Tim Burton chose Winona for his film Beetlejuice (1988). Winona played a goth teenager whose family moved into a haunted house. The movie was a big hit and critics loved Winona's acting. In 1988, she also appeared in 1969, a drama about the Vietnam War.
Winona then starred in the independent film Heathers (1989). This movie was a funny and sharp look at teenage life. Critics liked it, and Winona's performance was well-received. Even though Heathers didn't make much money at first, it later became a cult film. Her other 1989 role was in Great Balls of Fire!, where she played the young wife of rock star Jerry Lee Lewis. This film was not a success.
Success in the 1990s
Winona Ryder started the 1990s with three main roles. In the fantasy film Edward Scissorhands (1990), she worked with director Tim Burton again. She played the main female role alongside Johnny Depp. The movie was a huge success and critics loved it.
Her second role that year was in the family comedy-drama Mermaids (1990). She starred with Cher and Christina Ricci. Mermaids did fairly well at the box office, and Winona's acting was highly praised. Critic Roger Ebert said she had "real charisma." For this role, Winona was nominated for a Golden Globe Award. After Mermaids, she played a troubled teenager in Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael (1990), which did not do well. In 1990, she also appeared in a music video and received the 'ShoWest's Female Star of Tomorrow' award.
In 1991, Winona played a young taxi driver in the film Night on Earth. This movie was praised by critics. Winona then starred in three big movies based on classic books. The first was Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Winona played two roles: Mina Murray and Count Dracula's past love. The film was a success with both critics and audiences.
Ryder continued her work in historical films with Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence (1993). This movie was based on Edith Wharton's novel. Winona played May Welland and won a Golden Globe Award. She also received nominations for an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award. Critics praised her performance.
Winona then starred in The House of the Spirits (1993). This film did not get good reviews and lost money. Ryder was next set to star in Broken Dreams with actor River Phoenix, but the project stopped after his death.
Winona's next film, Reality Bites (1994), was a change from historical movies. Directed by Ben Stiller, she played a recent college graduate looking for direction in life. Her acting was praised, but the film did not meet box office expectations. Later that year, Winona returned to historical films. She played Jo March in Little Women, based on Louisa May Alcott's novel. The film received wide praise. Winona received her second Oscar nomination for this role, this time for Best Actress.
In 1995, Winona starred in How to Make an American Quilt. This movie made good money and received positive reviews. The same year, Winona read Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl for an audiobook. She was nominated for a Grammy Award for her reading.
In 1996, Winona appeared in several films. Boys was not a success and received negative reviews. She also appeared in Looking for Richard, a documentary about William Shakespeare's Richard III. She then starred in The Crucible, a film about the Salem witch trials. Even though it didn't make much money, her performance was highly praised. Winona later said this role was the hardest of her career.
Winona next played an android in Alien Resurrection (1997), alongside Sigourney Weaver. The film earned $161 million worldwide. Winona's and Weaver's performances received mostly positive reviews. Winona won a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Best Actress.
In 1998, Winona starred in Woody Allen's Celebrity. This film made fun of the lives of famous people. In 1999, Winona starred in and helped produce Girl, Interrupted. She played Susanna Kaysen, a young woman admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Critics praised Winona's ability to show her character's thoughts and feelings.
In April 2000, Winona received the Peter J. Owens Award at the San Francisco Film Festival. Her next film, Autumn in New York, was a commercial success, earning $90 million. She then played a nun in Lost Souls (2000), which did not do well. On October 6, 2000, Winona Ryder received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Taking a Break and Coming Back
Early 2000s Hiatus
In 2001, Winona Ryder took a break from acting for four years. She made a guest appearance on the TV show Friends and a brief cameo in the comedy Zoolander (2001). She was supposed to be in another film but had to withdraw due to a health issue.
In 2002, Ryder appeared in two movies that were filmed before her break. The first was the romantic comedy Mr. Deeds with Adam Sandler. It earned over $126 million in the United States. The second film was the science fiction drama Simone. In this movie, she played a glamorous star who is secretly replaced by a computer-generated actress.
Return to Film
Winona Ryder returned to acting in 2006 and 2007 with several independent films. She appeared in The Darwin Awards (2006) and A Scanner Darkly, an animated film based on a novel by Philip K. Dick. The next year, she was in the comedy The Ten.
In 2008, Winona played the main female role in the romantic drama The Last Word. She also appeared as a newscaster in The Informers. She then played Spock's human mother, Amanda Grayson, in director J. J. Abrams's Star Trek (2009). Many news outlets noted her return to film during this time.
The next year, Winona had an important supporting role in Black Swan (2010), playing an older ballet star. She also starred in the TV movie When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story. For her role as Lois Wilson, whose husband helped start Alcoholics Anonymous, Winona was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award. Winona then appeared in a main role in The Dilemma (2011).
Ryder then played Deborah Kuklinski, the wife of a contract killer, in the thriller The Iceman (2012). She also appeared in The Letter (2012). She worked with director Tim Burton again, who directed her in a music video and cast her in the animated film Frankenweenie (2012).
In 2013, Winona appeared in the action thriller Homefront. She also starred in a segment of the TV series ... History (2013). In 2014, she appeared in the British TV film Turks & Caicos.
In 2015, Winona was a judge at the Sundance Film Festival. She continued her TV work in the HBO miniseries Show Me a Hero (2015). She then starred in the film Experimenter, playing the wife of Stanley Milgram. Experimenter received good reviews.
Stranger Things and Recent Work
Since 2016, Winona Ryder has starred in the Netflix science fiction-horror series Stranger Things. She plays Joyce Byers, a single mother whose son, Will, mysteriously disappears. The show's creators said Winona has a very strong and unpredictable energy that they wanted to use. The series was a big hit, and Winona received praise for her acting. The cast also won a SAG Award for Best Ensemble in a Drama Series.
In 2018, Winona appeared in the film Destination Wedding with Keanu Reeves. In 2020, she starred in The Plot Against America, an HBO series based on a novel. The creator of the series, David Simon, said Winona is a "remarkable actor."
In 2021, Winona Ryder played her role as Kim Boggs again in an advertisement for Cadillac. Her next film was Gone in the Night. Winona has long expressed interest in a sequel to Beetlejuice. The sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, was filmed in 2023 and released in 2024.
Winona Ryder's Personal Life
Winona Ryder has homes in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City. She is Jewish and has faced challenges because of her background. She sometimes has trouble sleeping and has dealt with people bothering her.
She has said that director Tim Burton helped her career a lot.
Winona Ryder has also been involved in charity work since she was in her twenties. She supports the American Indian College Fund, which helps Native American students go to college.
Relationships
Winona Ryder dated actor Johnny Depp from 1990 to 1993. She also dated musicians Dave Pirner and Page Hamilton. From 1998 to 2000, she dated actor Matt Damon. Since 2011, she has been in a relationship with fashion designer Scott Mackinlay Hahn.
Filmography and Awards
Winona Ryder has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for her acting:
- 66th Academy Awards (1994): Nominated for Best Supporting Actress for The Age of Innocence
- 67th Academy Awards (1995): Nominated for Best Actress for Little Women
She has been nominated for three Golden Globe Awards (winning one), one British Academy Film Award, and seven Screen Actors Guild Awards (winning one). She also received a Grammy Award nomination.
Images for kids
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Ryder in 2024
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Winona Ryder's signature
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Ryder received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on October 6, 2000.
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Ryder in 2009
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Ryder (center) with Ray Liotta and Michael Shannon, promoting The Iceman in 2012
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Ryder promoting Black Swan in 2010
See also
In Spanish: Winona Ryder para niños
