Winona Ryder

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Winona Ryder (born Winona Laura Horowitz) is an American actress born on October 29, 1971 in Winona, Minnesota to Michael and Cindy Horowitz. She was named after her birthplace. Notable family friends included her godfather Timothy Leary and Beat poet Allen Ginsberg.

Childhood

When she was 7 years old she and her family resided at a commune in Elk, California, where they lived with 7 other families on a 300 acre (1.2 km²) plot of land. As the area had no electricity Ryder took to reading, particularly appreciating the novel Catcher in the Rye. Her mother did however show her some films on a screen in the barn, which perhaps lead her to develop an interest in what would later make up her career. At age 10 the family moved again to Petaluma, Sonoma County, California. She was harassed her first week of junior high school there when a group of bullies mistook her for a feminine, scrawny boy. This led her to be schooled at home that year, but she also spent time attending the American Conservatory Theater in nearby San Francisco where she started taking acting lessons.

Career and adult life

In 1985 she sent a video audition to appear in the film Desert Bloom, but was rejected. However, David Seltzer, a writer and director, soon noticed her and cast her for his 1986 film Lucas. When asked how she wanted her name to appear in the credits, she suggested Ryder as a Mitch Ryder album of her father's played in the background. Her breakthrough film is generally considered to be Tim Burton's 1988 film Beetlejuice, in which she played a depressed goth named Lydia who comes to live in a haunted house. She went on to play a primary role in another Burton project, the 1990 film Edward Scissorhands, alongside her then-boyfriend Johnny Depp. She withdrew from her role in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, Part III, after feeling exhausted from recent roles and afraid her performance would be sub-par. In 1992 she starred in that director's ''Bram Stoker's Dracula. The next year she appeared in The Age of Innocence, a film based on a novel by Edith Wharton and helmed by director Martin Scorsese, who Ryder named "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. She received yet another nomination in 1994 with Little Women'', based on the classic novel of the same name. In 1996 she starred in Al Pacino's debut as a director, Looking for Richard. Soon afterward she accepted a role in the 1997 film Alien: Resurrection. Having grown up on the Alien franchise, she signed before having even read a script. In 1999 she acted in and served as executive producer for Girl, Interrupted, based on the autobiography of Susanna Kaysen. She went on to portray the love interest of Richard Gere's character in the 2000 romance Autumn in New York.

She got into legal trouble in December 2001 when she was caught shoplifting $5,500 worth of designer clothes at Saks Fifth Avenue department store in Beverly Hills, California. On 6 December 2002 she was sentenced to 480 hours of community service, three years' probation, $3700 in fines, and $6355 in restitution.

Notable romances in the past include Johnny Depp, Christian Slater, David Pirner, David Duchovny, Gary Oldman, Matt Damon and Conor Oberst.

Filmography

- Lucas, (1986)
- Square Dance, (1987)
- Beetlejuice, (1988)
- 1969, (1988)
- Heathers, (1989)
- Great Balls of Fire, (1989)
- Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael, (1990)
- Edward Scissorhands, (1990)
- Mermaids, (1990)
- Night on Earth, (1991)
- ''Bram Stoker's Dracula, (1992)
- The Age of Innocence, (1993), (Oscar nomination, 1994)
- The House of the Spirits, (1993)
- Reality Bites, (1994)
- Little Women, (1994), (Oscar nomination, 1995)
- How to Make an American Quilt, (1995)
- Boys, (1996)
- Looking for Richard, (1996)
- The Crucible, (1996)
- Alien: Resurrection, (1997)
- Celebrity, (1998)
- Mr. Deeds, (2002)
- Girl, Interrupted, (1999)
- Autumn in New York, (2000)
- Lost Souls, (2000)
- Mr. Deeds, (2002)
- S1m0ne, (2002)
- The Day My God Died, (2003)
- The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things'', (2004)

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Winona Ryder

Childhood

Career and adult life

Filmography

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Winona Ryder