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Winona Ryder

Winona RyderAKA Winona Laura Horowitz

Born: 29-Oct-1971
Birthplace: Winona, MN

Gender: Female
Religion: Jewish
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Edward Scissorhands

Winona Ryder is an American film actor whose films include Heathers, Edward Scissorhands, Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula, Reality Bites, and Girl, Interrupted. She was Oscar-nominated for Little Women and The Age of Innocence. Her film career has sputtered in recent years, but Ryder has remained tabloid fodder since she was caught shoplifting at a Saks Fifth Avenue store in Beverly Hills in 2001, and convicted of felony grand theft for trying to steal approximately $5,500 of merchandise. She claimed she was "doing research" for a role.

She was born Winona Horowitz, named for the town where she was born out of wedlock, Winona, Minnesota. She was raised in an upscale hippie commune, where there was no electricity but celebrities occasionally visited. Her godfather was Timothy Leary, and poet Allen Ginsberg was a family friend. Her parents, who married when their daughter was 11, co-edited the 1982 book, Shaman Woman, Mainline Lady: Women's Writings on the Drug Experience. She reportedly fell in love with cinema when she was seven, when her mother gained access to a barn near the commune -- wired for electricity -- and began screening old movies with a 16mm projector.

In high school, she was a straight-A student. She studied drama at American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, made her film debut at 15, in Lucas, and found fame two years later playing the troubled teen daughter in Beetlejuice. In 1991, she voluntarily spent five days in a psychiatric hospital for what was then described as "sleep deprivation." Later reports said she had suffered from depression, anxiety attacks, and exhaustion from making several consecutive films with little time off.

After several long-term relationships (see below), Ryder has in recent years accumulated enough brief romantic entanglements to put her in the same league with such noted Hollywood lotharios as Warren Beatty and Glenn Ford. She has been linked with singer-songwriter Ryan Adams, millionaire Dodi al-Fayed, Beck, Bono, Edward Burns, George Clooney, Green Day's Tre Cool, Lemonhead Evan Dando, Daniel Day-Lewis, Robert Downey, Jr., David Duchovny, Counting Crows' Adam Duritz, Jakob Dylan, Jimmy Fallon, Nirvana's Dave Grohl, Corey Haim, Helmet's Page Hamilton, Chris Isaak, Stephan Jenkins, Old 97's Rhett Miller, Chris Noth, Conor Oberst, Erik Schrody (aka Everlast), Charlie Sheen, Mark Wahlberg, rocker Paul Westerberg, The White Stripes' Jack White, Bruce Willis, and musician Pete Yorn. Courtney Love once remarked, "You're no-one in music until you have feuded with me or until you sleep with Winona".

Ryder's hair is naturally blonde, but she dyed it for her first film, Lucas, and has usually been a brunette since. She owns a large collection of copies of her favorite book, J. D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye.

Father: Michael Horowitz (bookstore owner)
Mother: Cindy Istas (video producer)
Sister: Sunyata Palmer (half-sister, from her mother's first marriage)
Brother: Jubal Palmer (half-brother, from her mother's first marriage)
Brother: Uri Horowitz
Boyfriend: Christian Slater (actor, together 1989-90)
Boyfriend: Johnny Depp (actor, together 1990-93, broken engagement)
Boyfriend: Dave Pirner (musician, together 1993-96)
Boyfriend: Matt Damon (actor, together 1996-2000)
Boyfriend: Page Hamilton (musician, together 2003)
Boyfriend: Adam Duritz (musician)
Boyfriend: Blake Sennett (musician, together since 2007)

    High School: Petaluma High School, Petaluma, CA (1989)

    Promises (2001-02, uncertain)
    Burglary Saks Fifth Avenue, Beverly Hills, CA (12-Dec-2001)
    Grand Theft Saks Fifth Avenue, Beverly Hills, CA (12-Dec-2001)
    Shoplifting Saks Fifth Avenue, Beverly Hills, CA (12-Dec-2001)
    Vandalism Saks Fifth Avenue, Beverly Hills, CA (12-Dec-2001)
    Drug Possession Saks Fifth Avenue, Beverly Hills, CA (12-Dec-2001)
    Hollywood Walk of Fame Oct-2000
    Drug Overdose (8-Nov-2008)
    Stomach Pumped Hillingdon Hospital, West London (8-Nov-2008)
    Jewish Ancestry
    Risk Factors: Smoking, Depression, Alcoholism, Insomnia

    TELEVISION
    Stranger Things Joyce Byers (2016-)

    FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
    Destination Wedding (2-Aug-2018)
    Author: The JT LeRoy Story (22-Jan-2016) · Herself
    Experimenter (25-Jan-2015)
    Homefront (27-Nov-2013)
    Frankenweenie (20-Sep-2012) [VOICE]
    The Iceman (30-Aug-2012)
    The Dilemma (13-Jan-2011) · Geneva
    Black Swan (1-Sep-2010) · Beth Macintyre
    Star Trek (6-Apr-2009) · Amanda Grayson
    The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (9-Feb-2009)
    The Informers (22-Jan-2009) · Cheryl Moore
    The Last Word (19-Jan-2008) · Charlotte
    Sex and Death 101 (8-Feb-2007) · Death Nell
    The Ten (19-Jan-2007) · Kelly La Fonda
    A Scanner Darkly (25-May-2006)
    The Darwin Awards (25-Jan-2006) · Siri Taylor
    S1m0ne (23-Aug-2002) · Nicola Anders
    Mr. Deeds (28-Jun-2002) · Babe Bennett
    Lost Souls (13-Oct-2000)
    Autumn in New York (11-Aug-2000) · Charlotte
    Girl, Interrupted (8-Dec-1999) · Susanna
    Celebrity (7-Sep-1998)
    Alien: Resurrection (6-Nov-1997) · Call
    The Crucible (27-Nov-1996) · Abigail Williams
    Looking for Richard (5-Jul-1996)
    Boys (10-May-1996)
    How to Make an American Quilt (6-Oct-1995) · Finn
    Little Women (21-Dec-1994) · Jo March
    Reality Bites (18-Feb-1994) · Lelaina Pierce
    The House of the Spirits (21-Oct-1993) · Blanca
    The Age of Innocence (17-Sep-1993) · May Welland
    Bram Stoker's Dracula (13-Nov-1992) · Mina Murray
    Night on Earth (12-Dec-1991)
    Mermaids (14-Dec-1990) · Charlotte Flax
    Edward Scissorhands (7-Dec-1990) · Kim
    Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael (12-Oct-1990)
    Great Balls of Fire! (30-Jun-1989) · Myra Gale Brown
    Heathers (31-Mar-1989) · Veronica
    1969 (18-Nov-1988) · Beth
    Beetlejuice (30-Mar-1988) · Lydia
    Square Dance (20-Feb-1987)
    Lucas (28-Mar-1986)


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