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Winona Ryder - Biography |
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Winona Ryder has built up a
reputation for being the actress to call on for difficult roles. Her
ability to see beyond the surface and to create characters that others
couldn't was built through a life spent outside of the mainstream. Winona
Laura Horowitz was born on October 29th, 1971 in Winona, Minnesota. She
was named after the town she was born in by her hippy parents Cindy and
Michael.
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. Her role as
the black-clothed, angst-ridden teenager 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.
Instead, the role was played by the totally-inadequate-for-the-task,
Sophia 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. 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. |
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Winona Ryder - Personal Quotes |
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When asked why is she always
playing teenagers, during a press junket for Mermaids (1990) in
1990: "Like, I'm nineteen. What am I supposed to do, play a judge?!"
"I read biographies of the greats, and they were so messed up that I
thought I'd better mess myself up. But I couldn't. I'm too small."
"For a long time I was almost ashamed of being an actress. I felt
like it was a shallow occupation. People would be watching my every
move."
On Heathers (1989): "It's a brilliant piece of literature, and I
call it literature because it really is. I held it up next to
'Catcher in the Rye' and all the great books that I've read."
"I don't feel threatened like Julia Roberts. Pretty Woman (1990)
turned her into an overnight celebrity rather than an actress. Now
her whole career is about box- office - - if her movies don't break
$l00-million. It's not a burden I'd ever want to carry."
"I couldn't hold my own against Sigourney Weaver and those special
effects. I still don't know what I was doing in that movie. I look
at it now and realize I really didn't belong. I'm just this little
girl running around."
"I still practice Buddhism to a certain extent and I believe in
karma."
"My father is an atheist. My mother is Buddhist. They encouraged my
siblings and me to take the best part of other religions to make our
own belief system."
"I live in San Francisco, I have an apartment in New York, but I'm
here all the time. Nobody knows. .. . You can't stay away. I'm a San
Franciscan to the bone."
"I love westerns. John Ford is one of the 10 best directors."
"Focus should be on the art of film, not on the business of film."
"My godfather Timothy Leary coined the phrase 'question authority',
it is one of my favorites. To question our government is the most
important thing people can do right now in the US."
Explaining why she never felt guilty about her shoplifting arrest:
"I didn't have this tremendous sense of guilt because I hadn't hurt
anyone. Had I physically harmed someone or caused harm to a human
being, I think it would have been an entirely different experience." |
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Winona Ryder - Filmography |
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Alpha Numeric (2008) .... Tea
Baker
Star Trek (2008) .... Amanda Grayson
The Informers (2008) .... Cheryl Laine
... aka Bret Easton Ellis' The Informers (USA: complete title)
The Last Word (2008) (completed)
Welcome (2007/II) .... Cynthia
Sex and Death 101 (2007) .... Gillian
The Ten (2007) .... Kelly LaFonda
A Scanner Darkly (2006) .... Donna Hawthorne
The Darwin Awards (2006) .... Siri
The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (2004) (uncredited) ....
Psychologist
... aka Livre de Jérémie, Le (France)
The Day My God Died (2003) (voice) .... Narrator
S1m0ne (2002) .... Nicola Anders
Mr. Deeds (2002) .... Babe Bennett
"Saturday Night Live" .... Host (1 episode, 2002)
... aka NBC's Saturday Night (USA: first season title)
... aka SNL (USA: informal title)
... aka SNL 25 (USA: alternative title)
... aka Saturday Night (USA: second season title)
... aka Saturday Night Live '80 (USA: sixth season title)
- Winona Ryder/Moby (2002) TV episode .... Host
"Friends" .... Melissa Warburton (1 episode, 2001)
- The One with Rachel's Big Kiss (2001) TV episode .... Melissa
Warburton
"Strangers with Candy" .... Fran (1 episode, 2000)
- The Last Temptation of Blank (2000) TV episode .... Fran
Lost Souls (2000) .... Maya Larkin
Autumn in New York (2000) .... Charlotte Fielding
Girl, Interrupted (1999) .... Susanna Kaysen
... aka Durchgeknallt (Germany)
... aka Durchgeknallt - Girl, interrupted (Germany: TV title)
Celebrity (1998) .... Nola
Alien: Resurrection (1997) .... Annalee Call
... aka Alien 4
The Crucible (1996) .... Abigail Williams
"Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist" .... Winona (1 episode, 1996)
- Monte Carlo (1996) TV episode (voice) .... Winona
Looking for Richard (1996) .... Lady Anne
Boys (1996) .... Patty Vare
How to Make an American Quilt (1995) .... Finn Dodd
Little Women (1994) .... Jo March
"The Simpsons" .... Allison Taylor (1 episode, 1994)
- Lisa's Rival (1994) TV episode (voice) .... Allison Taylor
Reality Bites (1994) .... Lelaina Pierce
The House of the Spirits (1993) .... Blanca Trueba
... aka Ĺndernes hus (Denmark)
... aka A Casa dos Espíritos (Portugal)
... aka Geisterhaus, Das (Germany)
The Age of Innocence (1993) .... May Welland
Dracula (1992) .... Mina Murray / Elisabeta
... aka Bram Stoker's Dracula (USA: complete title)
Night on Earth (1991) .... Corky
... aka Une nuit sur terre (France)
Mermaids (1990) .... Charlotte Flax
Edward Scissorhands (1990) .... Kim
Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael (1990) .... Dinky Bossetti
Great Balls of Fire! (1989) .... Myra Gale Brown
Heathers (1989) .... Veronica Sawyer
1969 (1988) .... Beth
Beetle Juice (1988) .... Lydia
Square Dance (1987) .... Gemma
... aka Home Is Where the Heart Is (USA: TV title)
Lucas (1986) .... Rina |
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Winona Ryder - Related Links |
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Wikipedia: Winona Ryder
YouTube: Winona Ryder
Winona Ryder at Babemania.com
Top Celebrities Sites:
The Celebrity
Cafe |
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