Winona Ryder Wiki, Biography, Age, Spouse, Height, Net Worth, Fast Facts

After Ryder’s film debut in Lucas (1986), she gained attention with her performance in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice (1988). She further rose to prominence with major roles in Heathers (1988), Great Balls of Fire (1989), Mermaids (1990), Edward Scissorhands (1990), and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992). She garnered critical acclaim and two consecutive Academy Award nominations for her portrayals of socialite May Welland in Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence (1993) and Jo March in the fifth film adaptation of Little Women (1994). Her other films during this period were Reality Bites (1994), How to Make an American Quilt (1995), The Crucible (1996), Alien Resurrection (1997), Celebrity (1998), and Girl, Interrupted (1999), which she also executive-produced.

In 2002, Ryder starred in the critically panned box office hit Mr. Deeds, after which her career declined and she took a break from films. In 2009, she returned in the high-profile film Star Trek. In 2010, she was nominated for two Screen Actors Guild Awards: as the lead actress in the television film When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story and as part of the cast of Black Swan.^[2] She also reunited with Burton for Frankenweenie (2012). Since 2016, she has starred as Joyce Byers in the Netflix science fiction horror series Stranger Things, for which she has received Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations; while in 2020, she starred in the HBO drama miniseries The Plot Against America.

Ryder’s relationship with Johnny Depp from 1989 to 1993 and a 2001 arrest for shoplifting were both subjects of tabloid journalism. She has been open about her personal struggles with anxiety and depression. In 2000, Ryder received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.^[3]

Winona Ryder Wiki, Biography

Winona Laura Horowitz was born on October 29, 1971, in Winona, Minnesota,^[4] to Cynthia Palmer (née Istas) and Michael D. Horowitz.^[5] Her mother is an author, video producer, and editor, and her father is an author, editor, publisher, and antiquarian bookseller.^[6][7][8] He also worked as an archivist for psychologist Timothy Leary (who was Ryder’s godfather).^[9] Her father is from a Russian Jewish and Romanian Jewish family.^[10][11] Growing up, she visited her paternal grandparents in Brooklyn for Passover every year.^[12]

Named after her hometown, Ryder was given her middle name, Laura, because of her parents’ friendship with Laura Huxley, writer Aldous Huxley’s wife.^[6] Her stage name derives from Mitch Ryder, a soul and rock singer^[13] of whom her father was a fan.^[14] Ryder’s father is an atheist and her mother is a Buddhist.^[13] Ryder has a younger brother, Urie (named in honor of the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin), and two older half-siblings from her mother’s prior marriage: half-brother Jubal Palmer and half-sister Sunyata Palmer. Ryder’s family friends were her godfather Timothy Leary, the Beat Movement poets Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and the science fiction novelist Philip K. Dick.^[6] In 1978, when Ryder was seven years old, she and her family relocated to Rainbow, a commune near Elk, Mendocino County, California, where they lived with seven other families on a 300-acre (120 ha) 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 The Catcher in the Rye.^[6][15]

When she was ten, Ryder and her family moved to Petaluma, California. During her first week at Kenilworth Junior High, she was bullied by children who mistook her for an effeminate boy.^[6] In 1983, 12-year-old Ryder enrolled at the American Conservatory Theater in nearby San Francisco, where she took her first acting lessons. During the same year she nearly drowned, which caused her to develop aquaphobia.^[6] This psychological trauma caused problems later in her life during the underwater scenes in Alien Resurrection (1997), some of which had to be reshot numerous times.^[6] Ryder’s bullying experiences continued through high school, when she achieved early film success with Beetlejuice: “I remember thinking, ‘Ooh, it’s like the number-one movie. This is going to make things great at school.’ But it made things worse. They called me a witch.”^[16] In 1989, Ryder graduated from Petaluma High School with a 4.0 GPA.^[17]

Ryder has stated that her natural hair color is brown, but she was “really blonde as a kid”,^[18] and when she was 11 or 12 she started dying her blonde hair blue and purple. At the time of her audition for the 1986 film Lucas, her hair had been dyed black and the filmmakers asked her to keep it.^[19]

1985–1990: Early roles and breakthroughs

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. Although the role went to Annabeth Gish,^[6][15] writer/director David Seltzer cast her in his high school drama Lucas (1986), which starred Corey Haim, Charlie Sheen, and Kerri Green. When asked how she wanted her name to appear in the credits, she suggested “Ryder” as her surname because a Mitch Ryder album that belonged to her father was playing in the background.^[15] Ryder’s next film 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. She won acclaim for the performance, with the Los Angeles Times calling it “a remarkable debut.”^[21] Both films, however, were only marginally successful commercially.

After seeing her in Lucas, director Tim Burton decided to cast Ryder in his film Beetlejuice (1988).^[22] Ryder starred as a goth teenager whose family moves to a haunted house populated by ghosts played by Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin, and Michael Keaton. The film was a success at the box office, and the film as well as Ryder’s performance received mostly positive reviews from critics.^[23][24] Also in 1988, Ryder appeared alongside Kiefer Sutherland and Robert Downey Jr. in 1969, a drama about the Vietnam War and the tensions it created in American families. Ryder next starred in the independent film Heathers (1988). The film, a satirical take on teenage life, featured Ryder and Christian Slater as high school sweethearts who begin killing off popular students. Ryder’s agent initially begged her to turn the role down, saying the film would “ruin her career”.^[6] Critical reaction to the film was largely positive,^[25] and Ryder’s performance was positively received, with The Washington Post stating Ryder is “Hollywood’s most impressive ingénue…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.”^[26] Despite its critical success, Heathers was a box office flop, but has achieved the status of a cult film in the following decades.^[27]

In 1989, Ryder had a starring role in the biopic Great Balls of Fire!, in which she played the 13-year-old bride (and cousin) of rock’n’roll idol Jerry Lee Lewis. The film was a box office failure and received mixed reviews from critics.^[28] In addition to films, Ryder also appeared in 1989 in the music video for Mojo Nixon’s “Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant with My Two-Headed Love Child”.^[29]

Ryder began the 1990s with three starring roles. In the fantasy film Edward Scissorhands (1990), she reunited with director Tim Burton to play the female lead alongside her then-boyfriend Johnny Depp. The film was a significant box office success, grossing US$86 million and receiving much critical devotion.^[30][31] Ryder’s second role of the year was in the family comedy-drama Mermaids (1990), which co-starred Cher, Bob Hoskins and Christina Ricci. Mermaids was a moderate box office success and Ryder’s performance was acclaimed; critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote: “Winona Ryder, in another of her alienated outsider roles, generates real charisma.”^[32] For her performance, Ryder received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role,^[33] and a National Board Review award for the same category.^[34] Following Mermaids, Ryder had the lead role as a troubled teenager in the comedy-drama Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael (1990). The film co-starred Jeff Daniels and was deemed a commercial flop. In 1990, Ryder also made a cameo in Roy Orbison’s music video, “A Love So Beautiful” with Matthew Modine,^[35] and was awarded ‘ShoWest’s Female Star of Tomorrow’ by The National Association of Theatre Owners.^[34] She was next slated to appear as Mary Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather Part III, but withdrew from the project in the beginning of filming in 1990 due to nervous exhaustion.^[36][37]

1991–1995: Major roles

In 1991, Ryder played a young taxicab driver in Jim Jarmusch’s independent film Night on Earth. The film was given a limited release, but received critical praise.^[38] Ryder then starred in three big-budget adaptations of literary classics. The first was Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), directed by Francis Ford Coppola and featuring Ryder in the dual role of Mina Murray and Count Dracula’s past lover, Princess Elisabeta.^[6] The script was originally intended for a television adaptation but Ryder liked it so much she brought it to Coppola’s attention. The film premiered in November 1992 to critical and commercial success.^[39]

Ryder continued her work in period films with Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence (1993), an adaptation of Edith Wharton’s novel which co-starred Michelle Pfeiffer and Daniel Day-Lewis. Ryder considers Scorsese “the best director in the world”.^[40] For her portrayal of May Welland, the fiancée of Newland Archer (Day-Lewis), Ryder won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress^[33] as well as received Academy Award and BAFTA award nominations.^[41] Although not a commercial success, the Age of Innocence received critical praise upon its release in October 1993. Vincent Canby in the New York Times wrote; “Ms Ryder is wonderful as this sweet young thing who’s hard as nails, as much out of ignorance as of self-interest.”^[42] Ryder next starred alongside Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons, Antonio Banderas, and Glenn Close in the melodrama The House of the Spirits (1993), based on Isabel Allende’s novel. Also released in October 1993, the film was poorly reviewed and a box office flop, grossing just $6 million on its $40 million budget.^[43] Roger Ebert wrote that Ryder ”seems an unlikely casting choice but she is more convincing, with more abandon and passion, and she makes her character work.”^[44]

Ryder was next set to star in Broken Dreams^[45] with actor River Phoenix. The project was put on hold due to his death on Halloween day in 1993.^[46] In 1993, Ryder also appeared on the music video “Without a Trace” by Soul Asylum, whose member David Pirner was her boyfriend at the time.^[47]

Ryder’s next film, the Generation X drama Reality Bites (1994), marked a departure from period films. Directed by Ben Stiller and co-starring Ethan Hawke, the film featured Ryder as a recent college graduate searching for direction in her life. According to Hawke and Stiller, the film only got greenlit due to Ryder’s star status.^[49] Her performance received acclaim but the film did not meet its studio’s expectations in the box office.^[50] Ryder returned to period films later that year, appearing as 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 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.”^[51][52] Ryder received her second Best Actress Oscar nomination for the role.^[41] In 1994, Ryder also made a guest appearance in The Simpsons episode “Lisa’s Rival” as Allison Taylor, whose intelligence and over-achieving personality makes her an adversary of Lisa.

Ryder’s 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, Maya Angelou, and Ellen Burstyn. The film grossed nearly four times its budget and received mixed to positive reviews from critics.^[53] The same year, Ryder narrated Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl, for which she received a Grammy Award nomination. A review by Audiofile praised her performance, saying “Winona Ryder is the perfect narrator for this work. Her voice sounds very young, matching the 14-year-old’s enthusiasm and frustrations.”

Personal life

Ryder maintains homes in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Williamsburg in New York City. Although she was raised in a secular household, she identifies as Jewish. She has experienced antisemitism in the past. She suffers from insomnia and has been a victim of stalking.^{[124][125][126]}

She credits her career to director Tim Burton. Ryder has been involved in philanthropic work for the American Indian College Fund since her twenties, which sends low-income Native Americans to universities.

Relationships

Ryder was engaged to actor Johnny Depp for three years beginning in July 1990. She met him at the Great Balls of Fire! premiere in June 1989, and they began dating two months later, before she turned 18.^[131][132] From 1993 to 1996, she dated Soul Asylum band member Dave Pirner.^[124] She dated Matt Damon from 1998 to 2000, and she has been in a relationship with Scott Mackinlay Hahn since 2011.^[133]

Polly Klaas

In 1993, Ryder offered a reward in the hope that it would lead to the return of kidnapped child Polly Klaas.^[134] Klaas lived in Petaluma, the town where Ryder grew up. Ryder offered a $200,000 reward for the 12-year-old kidnap victim’s safe return.^[135] After the girl’s death, Ryder dedicated her performance as Jo in the 1994 film adaptation of Little Women, one of Klaas’s favorite novels, to Klaas’s memory.^[136]

During a sentencing hearing related to the 2001 shoplifting incident, 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.”^[137] Ryder was visibly upset at the accusation and Rundle was admonished by the judge. Outside the courthouse, Polly’s father Marc Klaas defended Ryder and expressed outrage at the prosecutor’s comments.^[137][138]

2001 arrest

On December 12, 2001, Ryder was arrested on shoplifting charges in Beverly Hills, California, accused of stealing $5,500 worth of designer clothes and accessories at a Saks Fifth Avenue department store.^{[139][140][141]} She signed two civil demands in the security offices of the store, before she was arrested by the Beverly Hills Police Department, binding her to pay for the stolen and surrendered merchandise, as permitted under California’s Statute for Civil Recovery for Shoplifting.^[142] Los Angeles District Attorney Stephen Cooley assembled a team of eight prosecutors and filed four felony charges against her.^{[143][failed verification]} Ryder hired celebrity defense attorney Mark Geragos. Negotiations failed to produce a plea bargain at the end of summer 2002.^[144] Joel Mowbray from National Review noted that the prosecution was not ready to offer her a no-contest plea on misdemeanor charges.^[145]

She was accused of using drugs during the trial, including oxycodone, diazepam, and Vicodin without valid prescriptions. She was convicted of grand theft,^[146] shoplifting, and vandalism but was acquitted on the charge of burglary.^[147] In December 2002, she was sentenced to three years of probation, 480 hours of community service, $3,700 in fines, and $6,355 in restitution to the Saks Fifth Avenue store, and she was ordered to attend psychological and drug counseling.^[148] On June 18, 2004, Superior Court Judge Elden Fox reviewed Ryder’s probation report and observed that she had served 480 hours of community service, and the felonies were reduced to misdemeanors. She remained on probation until December 2005.^[149]

Ryder explained to Interview magazine that the incident occurred during a difficult time in her life when she was clinically depressed. She also stated the heavy pain-killing medication that a physician practicing quackery had prescribed for her significantly clouded her judgment.^[150][151] The doctor who prescribed the medication subsequently had his medical license revoked by the Medical Board of California for unethically catering to “the demands of wealthy and/or famous drug-seekers for prescription narcotics which would otherwise have to be obtained on the street”.^[152]

Filmography and awards

Ryder has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the following performances:

Ryder has been nominated for three Golden Globe Awards, one British Academy Film Award, seven Screen Actor Guild Awards, and one Grammy Award.

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Net Worth

The Estimated Net worth is $80K – USD $85k.