81 Facts About Winona Ryder

1.

Winona Ryder has received many accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, in addition to nominations for a Grammy Award, a BAFTA Award, and two Academy Awards.

2.

Winona Ryder rose to prominence with major roles in Heathers, Mermaids, Edward Scissorhands, and Bram Stoker's Dracula.

3.

In 2002, Winona Ryder starred in another critically panned box office hit Mr Deeds, after which her career declined and she took a break from films.

4.

In 2000, Winona Ryder received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

5.

Winona Ryder's mother is an author, video producer, and editor, and her father is an author, editor, publisher, and antiquarian bookseller.

6.

Winona Ryder worked as an archivist for psychologist Timothy Leary.

7.

Winona Ryder's father is from a Russian Jewish and Romanian Jewish family.

8.

Winona Ryder's stage name derives from Mitch Ryder, a soul and rock singer of whom her father was a fan.

9.

Winona Ryder's father is an atheist and her mother is a Buddhist.

10.

Winona Ryder has a younger brother, Urie, and two older half-siblings from her mother's prior marriage: half-brother Jubal Palmer and half-sister Sunyata Palmer.

11.

In 1978, when Winona Ryder was seven years old, she and her family relocated to Rainbow, a commune near Elk, Mendocino County, California, where they lived with seven other families on a 300-acre plot of land.

12.

In 1983,12-year-old Winona Ryder enrolled at the American Conservatory Theater in nearby San Francisco, where she took her first acting lessons.

13.

Winona Ryder has stated that her natural hair color is brown, but she was "really blonde as a kid", and when she was 11 or 12 she started dying her blonde hair blue and purple.

14.

Winona Ryder was fifteen, she turned sixteen on the movie.

15.

In 1985, Winona Ryder sent a videotaped audition, where she recited a monologue from the novel Franny and Zooey by JD Salinger, to appear in the film Desert Bloom.

16.

Winona Ryder starred as a goth teenager whose family moves to a haunted house populated by ghosts played by Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin, and Michael Keaton.

17.

The film was a success at the box office, and the film as well as Winona Ryder's performance received mostly positive reviews from critics.

18.

Also in 1988, Winona Ryder appeared alongside Kiefer Sutherland and Robert Downey Jr.

19.

In 1990, Winona Ryder made a cameo in Roy Orbison's music video, "A Love So Beautiful" with Matthew Modine, and was awarded 'ShoWest's Female Star of Tomorrow' by The National Association of Theatre Owners.

20.

Winona Ryder was next slated to appear as Mary Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part III, but withdrew from the project in the beginning of filming in 1990 due to nervous exhaustion.

21.

In 1991, Winona Ryder played a young taxicab driver in Jim Jarmusch's independent film Night on Earth.

22.

Winona Ryder then starred in three big-budget adaptations of literary classics.

23.

The script was originally intended for a television adaptation but Winona Ryder liked it so much she brought it to Coppola's attention.

24.

Winona Ryder continued her work in period films with Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence, an adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel which co-starred Michelle Pfeiffer and Daniel Day-Lewis.

25.

Winona Ryder was next set to star in Broken Dreams with actor River Phoenix.

26.

In 1993, Winona Ryder appeared on the music video "Without a Trace" by Soul Asylum, whose member David Pirner was her boyfriend at the time.

27.

Winona Ryder's performance received acclaim but the film did not meet its studio's expectations in the box office.

28.

In 1994, Winona Ryder made a guest appearance in The Simpsons episode "Lisa's Rival" as Allison Taylor, whose intelligence and over-achieving personality makes her an adversary of Lisa.

29.

Winona Ryder's voice sounds very young, matching the 14-year-old's enthusiasm and frustrations.

30.

Winona Ryder made several film appearances in 1996, the first in Boys.

31.

Winona Ryder starred in The Crucible with Daniel Day-Lewis and Joan Allen.

32.

Winona Ryder next took on a role as an android in Alien Resurrection, alongside Sigourney Weaver, who had starred in the entire Alien trilogy.

33.

Winona Ryder's brother, Uri, was a major fan of the film series, and when approached about it, she agreed to the project.

34.

Roger Ebert in his review of the film commented that Winona Ryder lacks the conviction and presence to stand alongside Ripley and the rest of the cast.

35.

On Valentine's Day, 1998, Winona Ryder performed in Eve Ensler's play, The Vagina Monologues.

36.

Winona Ryder then starred in Woody Allen's Celebrity, after Drew Barrymore turned down Ryder's role, in an ensemble cast.

37.

In 1998, Winona Ryder appeared in the music video for Jon Spencer Blues Explosion's song "Talk About the Blues"; a screenshot from the video later appeared on the cover of their album Xtra-Acme USA.

38.

Winona Ryder served as a member of the jury, led by Martin Scorsese, at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.

39.

In 1999, Winona Ryder starred in and served as an executive producer for Girl, Interrupted, based on the 1993 memoir of the same name by Susanna Kaysen.

40.

Winona Ryder started her own music company, Roustabout Studios, in 1999.

41.

Winona Ryder then played a nun of a secret society loosely connected to the Roman Catholic Church and determined to prevent Armageddon in Lost Souls, which was a commercial failure.

42.

Winona Ryder was scheduled to appear in Lily and the Secret of Planting, but withdrew from the project after being hospitalized for a severe stomach-related disorder in August 2001.

43.

In December 2001, Winona Ryder was arrested for shoplifting, which made it difficult for her to be insured for further film projects.

44.

In 2002, Winona Ryder appeared in two movies, filmed before her arrest.

45.

Winona Ryder made a career return with appearances in several independent films in 2006 and 2007.

46.

Winona Ryder starred in Kirsten Dunst-directed short horror film Welcome, and made a brief appearance in the music video for "We're All Stuck Out In The Desert" by Jonathan Rice.

47.

In 2008, Winona Ryder played the female lead opposite Wes Bentley and Ray Romano in Geoffrey Haley's offbeat romantic drama The Last Word.

48.

Winona Ryder then starred as a newscaster in the film adaptation of The Informers.

49.

Winona Ryder appeared in director JJ Abrams's Star Trek, as Spock's human mother Amanda Grayson.

50.

In 2009, Winona Ryder starred alongside Robin Wright and Julianne Moore in Rebecca Miller's The Private Lives of Pippa Lee.

51.

Winona Ryder starred in the independent film Stay Cool alongside Hilary Duff, Mark Polish and Chevy Chase, and in the television movie, When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story.

52.

Winona Ryder then played Deborah Kuklinski, the wife of contract killer Richard Kuklinski, in the thriller The Iceman, co-starring Michael Shannon.

53.

Winona Ryder appeared with her The Iceman co-star James Franco in The Letter.

54.

Winona Ryder reunited with director Tim Burton, who directed her in the music video for The Killers' single, "Here with Me", and cast her in the animated 3D feature film Frankenweenie.

55.

Winona Ryder worked with the classic film channel TCM in 2012, guest hosting for a week in September, while Robert Osborne was on vacation, and introducing some of her favorite classic films in December.

56.

In 2013, Winona Ryder appeared in the action thriller Homefront, again opposite James Franco, this time playing a meth-addicted woman.

57.

Winona Ryder played religious protester Mary Dyer, opposite stern Puritan magistrate John Endicott, played by Michael Cera.

58.

Winona Ryder then took on the role of Peggy Shippen, the wife of Benedict Arnold, in her appearance of the second season of Drunk History.

59.

In 2015, Winona Ryder was a juror at the Sundance Film Festival.

60.

Winona Ryder continued her work in television with the HBO miniseries Show Me a Hero, in which she played the president of the Yonkers City Council.

61.

Winona Ryder then starred alongside Peter Sarsgaard in the biopic Experimenter, playing the wife of Stanley Milgram.

62.

Since 2016, Winona Ryder has starred in the Netflix science fiction-horror series Stranger Things, created by The Duffer Brothers, playing Joyce Byers, a single mother whose 12-year-old son Will vanishes mysteriously.

63.

Winona Ryder received praise for her performance, and the cast won the SAG award for best ensemble for a drama series in 2017.

64.

Kate Bush's 1985 song "Running Up That Hill" climbed dramatically on music charts and reached number one on iTunes after the song was included in scenes of Stranger Things, subsequent to Winona Ryder frequently wearing Kate Bush T-shirts and lapel badges on set.

65.

In 2018, Winona Ryder appeared in the film Destination Wedding, alongside Keanu Reeves.

66.

In early 2020, Winona Ryder appeared in Squarespace's Super Bowl commercial which was aired during the first half of the game.

67.

In 2021, Winona Ryder reprised her role as Kim Boggs in Edward Scissorhands alongside Timothee Chalamet in a Super Bowl ad for Cadillac.

68.

Winona Ryder maintains homes in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Williamsburg in New York City.

69.

Winona Ryder suffers from insomnia, and has been a victim of stalking.

70.

Winona Ryder has credited her career to director Tim Burton.

71.

Winona Ryder has been involved in philanthropic work for the American Indian College Fund since her twenties, which sends low income Native Americans to universities.

72.

Winona Ryder dated actor Matt Damon from 1998 to 2000.

73.

In 1993, Winona Ryder offered a reward in the hope that it would lead to the return of kidnapped child Polly Klaas.

74.

Winona Ryder offered a $200,000 reward for the 12-year-old kidnap victim's safe return.

75.

On December 12,2001, Winona Ryder was arrested on shoplifting charges in Beverly Hills, California, accused of stealing $5,500 worth of designer clothes and accessories at a Saks Fifth Avenue department store.

76.

Winona Ryder was accused of using drugs, including oxycodone, diazepam, and Vicodin without valid prescription, but prosecutors dropped a drug possession count after it was proved that a doctor provided it to her as a medical treatment.

77.

Winona Ryder was convicted of grand theft and shoplifting but was acquitted on the charge of burglary.

78.

Winona Ryder explained that the incident occurred during a difficult time in her life.

79.

Winona Ryder added that the pain-killing medication that a quack physician prescribed her clouded her judgement significantly.

80.

Winona Ryder has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the following performances:.

81.

Winona Ryder has been nominated for three Golden Globe Awards, one British Academy Film Award, seven Screen Actor Guild Awards, and one Grammy Award.