Winona Ryder

Name: Winona Ryder
Born: 29 October 1971 (Age: 39)
Where: Winona, Minnesota, USA
Height: 5' 4"
Awards: Nominated 2 Oscars, 1 BAFTA, won 1 Golden Globe.

Starting out as the star of several cult hits, Winona Ryder quickly forged a place in the heart of the liberal intelligentsia, as well as somehow retaining her status as teen heroine. Deliberately steering herself away from no-brain blockbusters and for the most part sticking to prestigious literary adaptations, she constantly sought to challenge herself as a professional and thus, like her more provocative peer Jennifer Jason Leigh, remained consistently worth watching. Her greatest challenge, though, would come in her thirties when, her reputation dented by a long string of failed and very public affairs and a tabloid-delighting spell in court over charges of shoplifting and illegal drug possession, she would have to reinvent herself as a serious adult actress.

She was born Winona Laura Horowitz on October 29th, 1971, Winona being the name of her hometown in Minnesota. Her father, Michael, was an atheist, writer and editor, who worked as an archivist for psychedelic guru Dr Timothy Leary (Winona's godfather) and ran a bookstore named Flashback. Her mother, Cindy, a Buddhist, was also a writer and editor, and later produced educational videos. Deeply involved in the counter-culture, the couple were friends of Allen Ginsberg and amongst their editing works included Shaman Woman Mainline Lady, an anthology of classic writings on drug experiences, including a piece by (amazingly) Louisa May Alcott. Cindy had two children by a previous marriage - daughter Sunyata and son Jubal - then had Winona and another son, Yuri, with Michael. They would marry when Winona was 12.

At age 7, Winona moved with her family to a commune in the northern Californian town of Elk. Here they lived for several years with seven other families and numerous horses on a 300-acre plot. There was no TV, and Winona became a voracious reader, relating especially to The Catcher In The Rye. But her mother did show movies on a screen in the barn, exposing her curious daughter to all the classics and quickly engendering a desire to act. "Everyone walked around naked," Ryder later explained. "It wasn't a nightmare, but it was no Utopia as a child. In Northern California it gets really freezing in the winters. We had no electricity, no running water. Everyone was looking after everyone's else's kids and sometimes I just wanted my own family".

At 10, they moved again, to Petaluma, just north of San Francisco, where, in her first week at High School, Winona was cornered and battered by kids who thought she was a gay boy (she'd later gain some form of revenge by angrily refusing to sign an autograph for one of her attackers).