Winona Ryder (born October 29, 1971) is a two-time Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-winning American actress. Ryder made her screen debut in Lucas (1986) playing a teenage girl with a crush on the film's title character. In 1988, she received attention for her role in Beetlejuice as a Gothic teenager named Lydia. After making various appearances in film and television, Ryder received her breakthrough role in the cult classic black comedy, Heathers (1989) alongside Christian Slater. Her subsequent performances in films such as Edward Scissorhands (1990), Mermaids (1990), Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), Little Women (1994), The Age of Innocence (1994), and Girl, Interrupted (1999), have won her not only critical acclaim but also many film awards. In 2000, Ryder received her Star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood, California, certifying her as one of the most successful actresses of her time.. So far she has received a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and two Academy Award nominations in 1993 and 1994, respectively.
Ryder is also known for her high profile romance with Johnny Depp in the early 1990s. Her film career slowed down considerably after her arrest for shoplifting from a Saks Fifth Avenue store on December 12, 2001 — which attracted worldwide media attention. Despite the negative publicity, however, Ryder maintained a moderately successful film career well into the 2000s.
Born Winona Laura Horowitz in Olmsted County, Minnesota, she was named after the nearby city of Winona. She was given her middle name, Laura, because of her parents' friendship with Aldous Huxley's wife, Laura Huxley. Her mother is Cindy Horowitz (née Istas), a practicing Buddhist and author of 'Shaman Woman, Mainline Lady: Women's Writings on the Drug Experience', and her father is author and editor Michael Horowitz. Her paternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Russia. Records show her father's family were originally named Tomschin when they arrived on the Kroonland at Ellis Island in 1906, but went under the name Horowitz when they resided in Manhattan. Ryder has one sibling, a younger brother, Yuri (named after Yuri Gagarin), an older half-brother, Jubal, and an older half-sister, Sunyata. Notable family friends include her godfather, LSD guru Timothy Leary, and beat poets Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
In 1978, when Ryder was 7 years old, she and her family relocated to Rainbow, a commune near Elk, California, where they lived with seven other families on a 300-acre (1.2 km²) plot of land. As the remote property had no electricity or television sets, Ryder took to reading. Her mother did, however, show her some films on a screen in the barn and consequently, she developed an interest in acting.
At age ten, Ryder and her family moved on again, this time to Petaluma, California. During her first week at the Kenilworth Middle School, she was bullied by a group of her peers who mistook her for an effeminate, scrawny boy. As a result, she ended up being homeschooled that year. In 1983, when Ryder was twelve, she enrolled at the American Conservatory Theater in nearby San Francisco, where she took her first acting lessons. She graduated from Petaluma High School with a 4.0 GPA.
Ryder has also revealed that she suffers from aquaphobia due to the trauma caused by an incident in which she nearly drowned at age 12. This caused problems when she had to act in some of the underwater scenes in Alien: Resurrection in 1997, and the scenes had to be reshot numerous times.Ryder has had many high profile relationships with actors. She was engaged to actor Johnny Depp for three years beginning in July 1990.During their relationship, Depp had a tattoo placed on his arm reading "Winona Forever," which he had altered to "Wino Forever" after their separation. Ryder later had serious relationships with Soul Asylum's Dave Pirner and actor Matt Damon. Ryder also told W Magazine in a July, 2002 issue that she is close friends with comedian and actor Jimmy Fallon. She was also close friends with actress Gwyneth Paltrow, until they reportedly "grew apart"
