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Winona Ryder

Birthname:Winona Laura Horowitz
Birthday:10/29/1971
Birthplace:Winona, Minnesota, USA
Nickname: Noni
Father:Michael
Mother:Cindy
Godfather:Timothy Leary
Siblings:Sunyata, Jubal, Yuri
Hair/Eyes:Brown/Brown
Marital Status:Single
Height:5'4''
Education: 4.0 grade point avg. Graduate in High School in Petaluma - CA, in 1989.
Studied drama at American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco.
First role:'Rina' in Lucas (1986)

Biography

Winona Laura Horowitz is the daughter of Cindy and Michael Horowitz and was raised in Petaluma California. She dropped out of high school and opted for home schooling and graduated from high school with a 4.0 grade. She is very fond of J.D. Slanger's "Catcher In The Rye" and estimates that she read it about 50 times and carries it where ever she goes. She is very close to the Polly Klaas Foundation as she knew Polly and her family (Polly was kidnapped from her house and was later found murdered). She is one of the Directors of the Foundation.

Awards And Nominations:
Winona has been nominated for Oscars two times. First time as Best Supporting Actress for the movie " The Age Of Innocence" and second time as Best Actress for " Little Women". She was Also nominated for Grammy awards.
She won The Golden Globe Awards Two Times as Best Supporting Actress For "The Age Of Innocence" and was nominated for her performance in the "Mermaids".
She won the ShoWest Award two times, first in 1990 for the "Female Star Of Tomorrow" And second in 1997 for the "Female Star Of The Year".

Her parents were more involved with political activism at the height of the hippy movement than they were with drugs. This is not to say that they were completely divorced from the hallucinogenic side of the life. Her godfather was Dr. Timothy Leary, the L.S.D. guru who was influential in the drug counter-culture. Her father worked intimately with Leary, and for a time he ran a bookstore called "Flashback Books". They were more interested in protesting Agent Orange than in preaching the benefits of mind alteration, however.

Winona grew up in this atmosphere, sometimes living on electricity-free compounds. When she was eight, her parents moved back to the city. During her first week at the new school, the tom-boyish waif was jumped by a group of boys who mistook her for a gay boy rather than a girl. This pummeling resulted in something good. After some time spent learning at home, she was enrolled in the prestigious American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. It was while performing onstage at the Conservatory that she was discovered. Winona auditioned for the role of John Voight's daughter in Desert Bloom. She didn't get the part, but she got representation in the form of Triad Artists after they saw her tape.

Triad soon lined her up for her first role in Lucas. Lucas wasn't great but Winona's solid performance provided her a springboard into further films. It was also at this point that Winona Horowitz became Winona Ryder for the first time. When asked how she would like her name to appear in the credits, she chose the name Ryder from Mitch Ryder, who was one of her father's favorite musicians.

She followed Lucas with a string of decent but unmemorable movies. Then came her big break. She appeared in Tim Burton's Beetlejuice, and faster than you could say Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice she was on the map. Her role as the black-clothed, angst-ridden teenager (who had more in common with the ghosts in the attic than her flesh-n-blood yuppy parents!) captured the attention of late-eighties audiences. A year later, she played a similar character in the dark high school comedy, Heathers.

The fact that she could bring these darkly witty characters to life so beautifully guaranteed that when Burton was casting for Edward Scissorhands, she would be the first considered. While her role was less angst-filled than previous outings, she did an admirable role in this one as well. Wearing a blond wig, she played the beauty opposite then-fiance Johnny Depp's beast. This marked her last outing in the role of a teenager.

After a small role in the Indy film Night of Earth, her next role would have been her biggest to date, as Michael Corleone's daughter in Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather Part III. Unfortunately, she had to pull out at the last minute due to a respiratory infection brought on by exhaustion (or problems between her and Depp, depending on who you believe). Instead, the role was played by the totally-inadequate-for-the-task, Sopphia Coppola.

However, Winona Ryder and Francis Ford Coppola would work together yet. When Ryder found the screenplay for an adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, she approached Coppola and he signed on. The sexually and sensually charged adaptation provided Ryder with her first truly grown-up role. Not everyone liked the movie, but most people did like Ryder's portrayal of Mina Murray. She followed Dracula with Age of Innocence, which garnered her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Having made two costume dramas, she signed on for a third. Little Women had been one of Ryder's favorite novels and her performance as Jo March resulted in another Oscar nomination (this time for Best Actress).

After Alien 4: Resurrection, Winona retreated from the Hollywood limelight. She appeared in less and less films and was no longer part of the Hollywood party scene.

I suppose after working so steadily for so many years she needed a break. Winona is due back in theaters soon. Rested and relaxed she should be poised to take back her old stomping grounds. In fact, a Heathers sequel is in the pipeline.