Born on October 29, 1971, as Laura Horowitz she changed her name to Winona Ryder after the city she was born in,
Winona, Minnesota. She grew up in a
tipi on a ranch commune in Northern California where there was no electricity. She is the Goddaughter of
Timothy Leary and her parents were friends of Beat poet
Allen Ginsberg. She's been in many films in her life starting very young age of
15 in the movie
Lucas. She became a
cult hero when she played the weird and unusual Lydia in the movie
Beetlejuice. She then became a
cult legend playing Veronica Sawyer in the movie
Heathers. She would never be in a blockbuster movie but she would gain devoted fans throughout her career in many semi big movies like
Mermaids,
Reality Bites,
Dracula,
The Crucible and
Alien: Resurrection. She would get a Oscar Nomination for Best Actress In A Supporting Role in 1994 for
The Age Of Innocence and a Best Actress In A Leading Role nomination for
Little Women in 1995. In 1994 for the Golden Globes she won her nomination for Best Actress In A Supporting Role. In 1999 she was the
executive producer in what is arguably her best role as an actress for the movie
Girl, Interrupted. She's currently working on an array of different projects and most notably the remake of the 1936 movie '
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town' with comedian
Adam Sandler. To top everything off and spotlight her accomplishments as an actress in late in 2000 she recieved a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame.
She's infamous for having famous boyfriends and some of her past leading men include
21 Jump Street star
Johnny Depp, grunge rocker
David Pirner, casanova
Matt Damon and she recently broke it off with slack indiepop breakdancer
Beck.
On December 22, 1999 she made her very first talk show appearance on the
Jay Leno show in support of
Girl, Interrupted. A movie, based on a book, she wanted the whole world to see and would go through personal torture (live television) to help publicize it. Showing how human and eclectic she was she talked about getting her first computer/internet connection and her fear of people ceasing to write letters on paper. She would plug her favorite band
Wilco's new album '
Summer Teeth' as the best rock album of the year as she often plugs obscure
indie rock bands in interviews. Some are teeth, some are not.
Sometime late in 2001 she got in trouble with the
law for allegedly stealing almost $5000 worth of clothing from
Saks Fifth Avenue. It's late 2002 now and after almost ten different delays in the trial it is still unclear what really happened that fateful day of shopping. Meanwhile, she has continued to show up in films such as
Mr. Deeds and
S1m0ne, both with mixed reviews.