Winona Ryder Actress - Born October 29, 1971 in Winona, Minnesota, USA

Birth Name Winona Laura Horowitz

Nickname Noni

Height 5' 3½" (1.61 m)

Mini Bio (1) Winona Ryder was born Winona Laura Horowitz in Winona, Minnesota, USA and was named after a nearby town, Winona, Minnesota. She is the daughter of Cynthia (Istas), an author and video producer, and Michael Horowitz, a publisher and bookseller. Her father's family is Russian Jewish and Romanian Jewish. She grew up in a ranch commune in Northern California which had no electricity. She is the goddaughter of Timothy Leary. Her parents were friends of Beat poet Allen Ginsberg and once edited a book called "Shaman Woman Mainline Lady", an anthology of writings on the drug experience in literature, which included one piece by Louisa May Alcott. Ryder would later play the lead role of Josephine March in the adaptation of this author's novel Little Women (1994).

Ryder moved with her parents to Petaluma, California when she was ten and enrolled in acting classes at the American Conservatory Theater. At age 13, she had a video audition to the film Desert Bloom (1986), but did not get the role. However, director David Seltzer spotted her and cast her in Lucas (1986). When telephoned to ask how she would like to have her name appear on the credits, she suggested Ryder as her father's Mitch Ryder album was playing the background. Ryder was selected for the role of Mary Corleone in The Godfather: Part III (1990), but had to drop out of the role after catching the flu from the strain of doing the films Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael (1990) and Mermaids (1990) back to back. She said she did not want to let everyone down by doing a substandard performance. She later made The Age of Innocence (1993), which was directed by Martin Scorsese, whom she believes to be "the best director in the world".

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Pedro Borges

Trade Mark (3) 1. Frequently plays a character who writes. In most of her films, she has played a journalist, a reporter, a writer or just a teenager who writes in a journal or diary. 2. Dark hair, brown eyes and pale skin 3. Delicate high cheekbones

Winona Ryder (born Winona Laura Horowitz; October 29, 1971) is an American actress. One of the most profitable and iconic 1990s actresses, she made her film debut in the 1986 film Lucas. As Lydia Deetz, a goth teenager in Tim Burton's Beetlejuice (1988), she won critical acclaim and widespread recognition. After appearances in film and on television, Ryder continued her acting career with the cult film Heathers (1988), a controversial satire of teenage suicide and high school life that has since become a landmark teen film. She later appeared in the coming of age drama Mermaids (1990), earning a Golden Globe nomination, and in the same year appeared alongside Johnny Depp in Burton's dark fairy-tale Edward Scissorhands (1990), and shortly thereafter with Keanu Reeves in Francis Ford Coppola's gothic romance Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992).

Having played diverse roles in many well-received films in the mid to late 1980's and early 1990's, Ryder won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and an Academy Award nomination in the same category for her role in The Age of Innocence in 1993, as well as another Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her role in the literary adaptation of Little Women the following year. She later appeared in the Generation X hit Reality Bites (1994), Alien: Resurrection (1997), the Woody Allen comedy Celebrity (1998), and Girl, Interrupted (1999), which she also executive-produced. In 2000, Ryder received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, honoring her legacy in the film industry.

Ryder's personal life has attracted significant media attention. Her relationship with Johnny Depp in the early 1990's and a 2001 arrest for shoplifting were constant subjects of tabloid journalism. She has been open about her personal struggles with anxiety and depression.

In 2002, she appeared in the box office hit Mr. Deeds alongside Adam Sandler. In 2006, Ryder returned to the screen after a brief hiatus, appearing in high-profile films such as Star Trek. In 2010, she was nominated for two Screen Actors Guild Awards: as the lead actress in When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story and as part of the cast of Black Swan. She also reunited with Burton for Frankenweenie (2012). Since 2016, she has starred as Joyce Byers in the Netflix supernatural-horror series Stranger Things, for which she has garnered a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Television Series - Drama and a nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series in the 23rd Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Winona Laura Horowitz Born in Winona, Minnesota, USA 29 October 1971.

https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/film-and-television-biographies/winona-ryder