Winona Ryder (Actor)

"I became successful in such a gradual way. I was never in a huge hit that made me an overnight star. So I never got shoved down peoples' throats. I was doing movies, some were successful, some weren't, but the ones that weren't successful weren't a Winona Ryder movie." - Ryder quoted in USA Weekend, Oct. 6, 1995

"I didn't do drugs; I didn't get loaded," Ms. Ryder says. "But the depression. The worst part of it was not being able to describe it, the overwhelming horror of the anxiety attacks, even to my own family, to the people closest to me." She had all the classic symptoms: "My breathing would get labored; everything would start speeding up, and I'd get very scared. The closest I ever came to describing it was that feeling when you almost get in a car wreck and you swerve, and for a second there are needles in your head and needles in your body. It's that moment, but stretched out." - from The New York Times, Nov. 14, 1999

"I grew up in San Francisco, then in this commune for four years. I grew up around drag queens and gay men and hard-core feminists and all sorts of people, and I never differentiated. Also, there was a lot of free love. Everyone was naked, so it was never really a big deal. [But] I think I wanted things to be more strict. I wanted rules and a curfew, and I wanted to have my dinner with my family every night. I wanted to be like all the kids at school. I wanted to live in a town, in a little house." - Ryder on her upbringing to Buzz, December/January 1996-1997

"I see Noni [Winona] as one of the first members of a new generation, 'The Kids of the Summer of Love.' Noni's never gonna end up with a cocaine habit! These kids who've grown up in houses where marijuana was smoked are not going to go berserk the first time a guy in a raincoat offers 'em something in an alley." - Timothy Leary to David Handelman in Rolling Stone, May 18 1989

"The attention was what was embarrassing," she says. "It was the December after Sept. 11th. So much attention was being paid to me, when we had just been attacked, and there was all this really important news going on." - Ryder on her arrest for shoplifting to Vogue, August 2007

"When it comes to business, she is not that delicate creature," says screenwriter Jay Cocks, who wrote the adaptation of "The Age of Innocence." He recalls a dinner during which a famous director tried in vain to persuade her to take the lead in a remake, something she objects to on principle. "He kept telling her to take the money, but he couldn't convince her," Mr. Cocks says. "She has fantastic confidence in her own judgment, which she should have, because she has very good taste." - from The New York Times, Nov. 14, 1999

"Winona has a good sense of humor, and her energy is boundless. It was like having rampant youth on the set. She'd be jumping up and down, but then when you said, 'Action,' she froze in position. All that energy was put behind her eyes, and I found that really fascinating." - director, Martin Scorsese to Rolling Stone magazine, March 10, 1994

In 1990, Ryder checked into a psychiatric ward to confront severe anxiety attacks (some claimed she was having a nervous breakdown) but left after one week; would later draw from this experience for "Girl, Interrupted"

In an interview with "60 Minutes," former secretary of Health Education and Welfare Joseph Califano cited Ryder as a bad influence on young women because she has played characters who smoke cigarettes. Ryder told USA Today (April 11, 1997): "As much as people want to call us role models, we're actors first. It's up to individuals to decide whether to smoke. I don't apologize for smoking onscreen. It should be our choice, and I don't think we influence people to smoke."

In December 2001, Ryder was arrested for allegedly shoplifting items of clothing valued at over $4500 as well as possessing pharmaceutical drugs without a prescription. Ryder was freed after posting $20,000 bail. In January 2002, she was charged with four felony counts including theft, burglary, vandalism and possession of a controlled substance. At her February arraignment, the actress entered a plea of not guilty. On Nov. 6, 2002, Ryder was convicted of theft and vandalism, but she was aquitted of burglary charges.

Returned to San Francisco when she was two and a half (c. 1974); family later settled in a a commune in Mendocino (northern California) when she was seven and lived there for four years before settling in Petaluma, CA; her initial exposure to Petaluma's public schools did not go well (students mistaking her for an effeminite boy because of her short hair beat her up on her third day).

Ryder on finally meeting Myra, the child bride of Jerry Lee Lewis, who she portrayed in "Great Balls of Fire!" during a screening of the film: "I was so nervous. We were showing her some stuff where he was picking her up from school and says, 'I'm gonna marry you.' I looked over and she was crying and I was so scared because I didn't know what she was crying about. I didn't know if she was crying because I was a bad actress or that it was so real. And then she turned to me and hugged me and said, 'You're a gift from God.' It was probably the most amazing feeling that I've ever had in connection with acting." - Ryder quoted in the Los Angeles Times magazine, May 28, 1989

Soon after Winona's birth, her parents moved to San Francisco, sharing a house with her mother's ex-husband and his new wife; later the family travelled to Colombia; Ryder's first memories are of the beach in Colombia, where her parents were staying with Chilean-revolutionary friends

Spearheaded a reward effort in the case of Polly Klaas, a 12-year-old Petaluma neighbor kidnapped from her home and later found murdered (1993); dedicated "Little Women" to her memory

Winona Ryder disclosed to Harper's Bazaar (August 2000) that she is a natural blonde and has been dyeing her hair since age 12.