Winona Ryder Biography And Filmography:

Winona Ryder first won a loyal fan base after the roles of troubled young teen characters in movies like “Heathers” (1989) and “Edward Scissorhands” (1990). Ryder went on to become a much loved player in period movies like Bram Stoker’s "Dracula” (1992), “The Age of Innocence” (1994) and “The Crucible” (1996), as well as the perfect anxiety-ridden young teen in films like “Reality Bites.” 

Winona Laura Horowitz was born in Winona, MN, on Oct. 29, 1971. The child of hippie writers Michael Horowitz and Cynthia Palmer Horowitz, Winona grew up around some of the brightest literary writers of the time, with Timothy Leary for a godfather and friendships with poets Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. The family moved to San Francisco after Ryder was born and settled on a commune in Northern California’s Mendocino County when she was only ten. Nudity, free love, drugs, sex and drag queens were an everyday part of her life, and when the family moved to a more conventional living arrangement in the San Francisco suburb of Petaluma, outsider Winona Ryder with her bizarre clothes and hair and lax parents found herself craving to fit in.

An audition tape found its way to director David Seltzer, who hired and cast Ryder as best friend of the lead character "Lucas” (1986) starring Corey Haim, about a socially hopeless fourteen year old who experiences heartbreak for the first time when his two best friends fall for each other.

Ryder followed up with a role as a young Texas teenager torn between her grandfather (Jason Robards) and her mother (Jane Alexander) in "Square Dance" (1987) with Rob Lowe. Her "Goth" personality also worked well in Tim Burton’s, "Beetlejuice" (1988), a breakthrough role for the actress. Ryder played the depressed, gothic young teen daughter totally alienated from her busy parents; almost stealing the movie from stars Michael Keaton, Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis with her flawlessly deadpan voice delivery. Ryder next took a leading role in the dark comedy "Heathers” (1989) with Christian Slater, as a girl who half-heartedly tries to be part of the "in crowd" of her school and meets a rebel who teaches her a more devious way to play social politics

Ryder next appeared in "Great Balls of Fire!" (1989), portraying the 14-year-old bride of legendary piano player Jerry Lee Lewis (Dennis Quaid). Ryder then teamed up with Tim Burton and Johnny Depp in the freakish "Edward Scissorhands" (1990) about an uncommonly gentle young man (Depp) who happens to have scissors for hands and falls in love with a beautiful teenage girl (Winona Ryder). The actress next appeared as Cher's oldest daughter in "Mermaids" (1990), with her character looking for an escape from the unconventional lifestyle of her mother. 

The sensation of “Edward Scissorhands” put red hot stars Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder in the headlines of every magazine and tabloid, where the couple grew into the poster couple of the early 1990's. The couple was engaged to be married in 1990, with Depp famously getting the tattoo “Winona Forever” etched on his arm. Ryder next emerged to play a tomboy cab driver in “Night on Earth” (1991) before winning one of her biggest roles in Coppola’s Bram Stoker's "Dracula" (1992) with Keanu Reeves and Gary Oldman. Ryder's looks were perfect for the movie, and she gave the film's emotional base without being crowded out by its ghoulish special effects and over-the-top production design.

Martin Scorsese then hired and cast Ryder in his remake of "The Age of Innocence" (1993), portraying the bashful but strong-willed May Welland, whose future husband (Daniel Day-Lewis) has fallen in love with her cousin (Michelle Pfeiffer). Ryder then worked on an adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s "Little Women" (1994) appearing with an all-star cast that included  Kirsten Dunst, Claire Danes, Susan Sarandon and Christian Bale. As leader of the pack of the spirited "Little Women," Ryder gave a great performance in one of the best movie versions of the book, winning her a second Oscar nomination. Ryder than co-starred with big hitters Meryl Streep, Glenn Close and Antonio Banderas in the romantic drama "The House of the Spirits" (1993). 

Ben Stiller's "Reality Bites" (1994) had Ryder playing a striving college graduate trying to find a balance between corporate America and becoming a chronic slacker, choices offered by suitors Ben Stiller and Ethan Hawke. In her personal life, the end of Ryder and Johnny Depp’s engagement and her new romantic involvement with "Soul Asylum" guitar player Dave Pirner once again was in all the magazines and gossip rags. But Ryder didn't blink and eye and continued to crank out the movies, playing a graduate student who learns about life and love in "How to Make an American Quilt" (1995), and then tried Shakespeare by playing Lady Anne in Al Pacino's award-winning documentary "Looking for Richard" (1996). Ryder then worked with Day-Lewis in a variation of Arthur Miller's play "The Crucible" (1996) where a 17th-century Salem woman accuses an ex-lover's wife of witchery. 

Ryder then accepted the starring role in the dramatic mystery film "Boys" (1996) as Patty Vare, who falls off a horse and is found unconscious with amnesia by John, who takes her to his dorm and quickly discovers she is hiding from something. Ryder then worked with Sigourney Weaver trying to kill the monsters in "Alien Resurrection" (1997), and followed with a small but funny role in Woody Allen's "Celebrity" (1998) where the fortunes of a husband and wife differ drastically after they divorce. Ryder had another leading role come her way with "Girl, Interrupted" (1999), based on Susanna Kaysen's book of her experiences at a mental hospital in the 1960s. The film was packed with big celebrities including Angelina Jolie and Jared Leto. In a twist of Hollywood fate, Angelina Jolie would go on to win an Oscar for her role, while Winona Ryder was not even nominated. The following year saw her star in the exorcism thriller "Lost Souls", and "Autumn in New York" where she played a dying woman romanced by a playboy (Richard Gere). 

Winona Ryder's personal life suffered a setback however, when in December of 2001 she was arrested for shoplifting at the Beverly Hills department store Saks Fifth Avenue after being seen on videotape and by security guards stealing nearly $5,000 worth of the upscale store's merchandise, cutting off security sensor tags and hiding the items in a shopping bag. The media portrayed the actress as washed up and a drug addict - as she admitted to taking prescription painkillers and had a full array of prescription medicines in her purse at the time of the arrest. Ryder's criminal trial started on Oct. 24, 2002, and on Nov. 6, 2002 was convicted of two of the three charges against her. Ryder’s felony charges were eventually reduced to misdemeanors and she was ordered to pay fines and restitution and perform community service. 

Winona Ryder was right back to business with Adam Sandler in the comedy "Mr. Deeds" (2002), which after release was Ryder's biggest box office hit to date.  In 2003, she voiced a documentary about child slavery called “The Day My God Died” (2003), and then starred in Richard Linklater’s “A Scanner Darkly” (2006) alongside Robert Downey Jr., and Keanu Reeves, where an undercover cop in the not-too-distant future becomes involved with a dangerous new drug and begins to lose his own identity as a result. Ryder then had a role in the Bible themed comedy “The Ten” (2007) alongside co-star Adam Brody, about ten different stories, each inspired by one of the ten commandments. She then reunited with “Heathers” director Daniel Waters to star in “Sex and Death 101” (2007), playing a killer who struggles with a commitment fearing future husband. 

In 2008, Ryder portrayed a new widow and love interest of the man who wrote her husband’s suicide note in “The Last Word,” an offbeat drama co-starring Ray Romano and Wes Bentley. Ryder then took a powerful starring role in the crime thriller "The Informers" (2008) working with Billy Bob Thornton and Brad Renfro, a drama based on Bret Easton Ellis' novel set in 1983 Los Angeles, where movie executives, rock stars, a vampire, and other morally challenged character mix and commingle. Sadly, this would be the last movie for young Brad Renfro, as her died from a drug overdose after the movie wrapped. Winona wrapped her year with the comedy "Water Pills" (2008).

The following year was a busy one for Winona Ryder, as Hollywood and the press, as well as her fans, had seemed to move on from her shoplifting felonies and welcomed her back into the fold. She started her year with the sci-fi adventure "Star Trek" (2009), a chronicle of the early days of James T. Kirk and his fellow USS Enterprise crew members. Next was the dramatic "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee" (2009) starring Keanu Reeves, when after her much older husband forces a move to a suburban retirement community Pippa Lee engages in a period of reflection and finds herself heading toward a quiet nervous breakdown. Ryder then paired with funnyman Chevy Chase in the comedy "Stay Cool" (2009), and wrapped her year in the odd "Alpha Numeric" (2009) about a beautiful, young investigative reporter for the New York Times who cracks a worldwide human trafficking ring based in Moscow.