Vintage postcard.
British postcard by TV Hits. Photo: Firooz Zahedi / Onyx.
Belgian postcard by MultiChoice Kaleidoscope. Photo: Isopress / Outline (Low).
Killing popular schoolgirls
Winona Ryder was born Winona Laura Horowitz in Winona (Olmsted County), Minnesota, in 1971. Yes, her name is very much the same as her birthplace. Her parents, Cindy Horowitz (Istas), an author and video producer, and Michael Horowitz, a publisher and bookseller, were part of the hippie movement. She has a brother named Uri Horowitz (1976), who got his first name after Yuri Gagarin, a half-sister named Sunyata Palmer (1968), and a half-brother named Jubal Palmer (1970) from her mother Cindy's first marriage.
From 1978, Winona grew up in a commune near Mendocino in California, which had no electricity. When Winona was seven, her mother began to manage an old cinema in a nearby barn and would screen films all day. She allowed Winona to miss school to watch movies with her. In 1981, the family moved to Petaluma, California. Since Winona was considered an outsider in public school, she was sent to a public school and later to the American Conservatory Theater acting school.
She was discovered at the age of thirteen by a talent scout at a theatre performance at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. In 1985, she applied for a role in the film Desert Bloom (David Seltzer, 1986) with a video in which she performed a monologue from the book 'Franny and Zooey' by J. D. Salinger. Although the casting choice was fellow actress Annabeth Gish, director and writer David Seltzer recognised her talent and cast her as Rina in his film Lucas (David Seltzer, 1986) about a teenager (Corey Haim) and his life in high school.
When telephoned to ask what name she wanted to be called in the credits, she chose Ryder as her stage name because her father's Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels album was playing in the background. Her real hair colour is blonde but when she made Lucas (1986), her hair color was dyed black. She was told to keep it that colour and with the exception of Edward Scissorhands (Tim Burton, 1990), it has stayed that colour since.
Her next film was Square Dance (Daniel Petrie, 1987), in which the protagonist she portrays lives a life between two worlds: on a traditional farm and in a big city. Ryder's performance received good reviews, although neither film was a commercial success. Her acting in Lucas led director Tim Burton to cast her in his film Beetlejuice (Tim Burton, 1988). In this comedy, she played Lydia Deetz, who moves with her family into a house inhabited by ghosts (played by Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin, and Michael Keaton). Ryder, as well as the film, received positive reviews, and Beetlejuice was also successful at the box office.
In 1989, she starred as Veronica Sawyer in the independent film Heathers (Michael Lehmann, 1989) about a couple (Ryder and Christian Slater) who kill popular schoolgirls. Ryder's agent had previously advised her against the role. The film was a financial failure, but Ryder received positive reviews. The Jerry Lee Lewis biopic Great Balls of Fire! (Jim McBride, 1989) was also a flop. That same year, Ryder appeared in Mojo Nixon's music video 'Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant with My Two-Headed Love Child'. At the premiere of Great Balls of Fire (1989), Ryder met fellow actor and later film partner Johnny Depp. The couple became engaged a few months later, but their relationship ended in 1993. He had a tattoo of her name and after they broke up, he had this reduced to "Wino forever".
Canadian postcard by Canadian Postcard, no. A 272. Photo: Winona Ryder in Heathers (Michael Lehmann, 1989).
Canadian postcard by Canadian Postcard, no. A 298.
British postcard by Film Review, set L, card 3. Photo: Entertainment Film Distributors. Winona Ryder in The House of the Spirits (Bille August, 1993), adapted from the novel by Isabel Allende.
A voicemail of Martin Scorsese
In 1990, Winona Ryder had her breakthrough performance alongside her boyfriend Johnny Depp in Edward Scissorhands (Tim Burton, 1990). The fantasy film was an international box-office success. Ryder was selected for the role of Mary Corleone in The Godfather: Part III (Francis Ford Coppola, 1990) but had to drop out of the role after catching the flu from the strain of doing the films Welcome Home Roxy (Jim Abrahams, 1990) and Mermaids (Richard Benjamin, 1990) back-to-back.
Ryder's performance alongside Cher and Christina Ricci in the family comedy Mermaids (1990) was praised by critics and she was nominated for a Golden Globe in the Best Supporting Actress category. Ryder also appeared with Cher and Ricci in the music video for 'The Shoop Shoop Song', the film's theme song. Independent filmmaker Jim Jarmusch wrote a role specifically for her in Night on Earth (Jim Jarmusch, 1991), as a tattooed, chain-smoking cabdriver who dreams of becoming a mechanic.
Ryder was cast in a dual role as Mina Murray and Elisabeta in Bram Stoker's Dracula (Francis Ford Coppola, 1992). In 1993, she starred as Blanca in the drama The House of the Spirits (Bille August, 1993) alongside Antonio Banderas, Meryl Streep, and Glenn Close. It is the film adaptation of Isabel Allende's bestseller of the same name.
Together with Michelle Pfeiffer and Daniel Day-Lewis, she starred in Age of Innocence (Martin Scorsese, 1993), the film adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel. She was Martin Scorsese's first and only choice for the role of May Welland. For years, she kept the message he left on her voicemail, informing her she got the role. Her part earned her a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress and an Oscar nomination.
She also earned positive reviews for her role in the comedy Reality Bites (Ben Stiller, 1994). She received critical acclaim and another Oscar nomination the same year as Jo in the drama Little Women (Gillian Armstrong, 1994). In 1996, she starred alongside Daniel Day-Lewis and Joan Allen in The Crucible (Nicholas Hytner, 1996), an adaptation of Arthur Miller's stage play about the Puritan witch hunt in Salem. The film was not a success; however, Ryder's performance was favourably reviewed.
A year later she portrayed an android in the successful horror film Alien: Resurrection (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 1997) alongside Sigourney Weaver's Ripley. In 1998 she starred in Woody Allen's Celebrity (1998) after Drew Barrymore turned down the role. In 1999 she starred as a psychiatric patient with the borderline syndrome in the drama Girl, Interrupted (James Mangold, 1999), based on Susanna Kaysen's autobiographical novel. Girl, Interrupted, the first film on which she served as executive producer, was supposed to be Ryder's comeback in Hollywood after the flops of the past years. However, the film became the breakthrough for her colleague Angelina Jolie, who won an Oscar for her role. In this decade, she was involved with Dave Pirner, the lead singer of the group Soul Asylum, from 1993 to 1996 and with Matt Damon from December 1997 to April 2000.
Vintage postcard, no. 1030.
Vintage postcard by iauioasinu, no. 0042.
British postcard by Heroes Publishing LTD, London, no SPC 2856.
British postcard by Pyramid, Leicester, no. PC 8209. Photo: Joyce Silverstein. Caption: Winona Ryder - Cream Dress.
A career setback and a comeback
Winona Ryder appeared alongside Richard Gere in Autumn in New York (Joan Chen, 2000), a romance about an older man's love for a younger woman. She also made a cameo appearance in the comedy Zoolander (Ben Stiller, 2000). The comedy Mr. Deeds (Steven Brill, 2002) with Adam Sandler became her biggest financial success to date. The film failed with critics and Ryder was nominated for the Golden Raspberry award.
Also in 2002, she was sentenced to three years probation and 480 hours of work for repeatedly shoplifting $5,000 worth of clothes. The incident caused a career setback. She withdrew from the public eye in the following years and did not appear in front of the camera again until 2006. In that year, she appeared in the novel adaptation A Scanner Darkly (Richard Linklater, 2006) alongside Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., and Woody Harrelson.
In 2009, she made an appearance in Star Trek: The Future Begins (J. J. Abrams, 2009) as Spock (Zachary Quinto)'s mother Amanda Grayson. The prequel became a huge success at the box office and Ryder earned a Scream Award for Best Guest Appearance. She also appeared alongside Robin Wright and Julianne Moore in Rebecca Miller's Pippa Lee (2009), and alongside Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis in Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan (2010).
Ryder starred in the television film When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story (John Kent Harrison, 2010), for which she was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award. She starred in the comedy The Dilemma (Ron Howard, 2011), and the thrillers The Iceman (Ariel Vromen, 2012) and The Letter (Jay Anania, 2012) opposite James Franco. In Tim Burton's Frankenweenie (2012) she lent her voice to the character Elsa Van Helsing.
Since 2016, Winona Ryder has embodied the main character, Joyce Byers, in the Netflix series Stranger Things (2016-2022), for which she received positive responses. Her role in the series has been described by many as a comeback. Since 2011 Winona Ryder is in a relationship with Scott MacKinlay Hahn.
Vintage postcard in the Movie's Images series, no. 52. Ron Perlman, Dominique Pinon, Sigourney Weaver, and Winona Ryder in Alien - Resurrection (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 1997).
Vintage postcard in the Movie's Images series, no. 53. Winona Ryder in Alien - Resurrection (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 1997).
Vintage postcard in the Movie's Images series, no. 59. Winona Ryder and Sigourney Weaver in Alien - Resurrection (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 1997).
British freecard by Boomerang. Winona Ryder in Girl, Interrupted (James Mangold, 1999). Captions: The crazy thing is, you're not crazy. Girl, Interrupted. Based on a true story. Opens March 24 at Cinemas across the country.
Sources: Pedro Borges (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch and German), and IMDb.
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