Winona Ryder

Oct 29, 1971

Winona, Minnesota

Ryder was born in Olmsted County, Minnesota and was named after the nearby city of Winona, and was given her middle-name, Laura, because of her parent's friendship with Aldous Huxley's wife, Laura Huxley. Her mother is author Cindy Horowitz (née Istas) and her father is author and editor Michael Horowitz. Her paternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Russia and her maternal grandparents from Romania. Records show her father's family were originally named Tomschin when they arrived on th... ... (read more...) e Kroonland at Ellis Island in 1906 but went under the name Horowitz when they resided in Manhattan.<br/>
She is the Goddaughter of Timothy Leary and her parents were friends of Beat poet Allen Ginsberg. She grew up in a ranch commune in Northern California, and later moved with her parents to Petaluma (near San Francisco). When she was ten she enrolled in acting classes at the American Conservatory Theater. At 13 she had a video audition to the film Desert Bloom (1986), but didn't get the part. Director David Seltzer, however, spotted her and cast her in Lucas (1986). When telephoned to ask how she'd like to have her name appear on the credits, she suggested Ryder as her father's Mitch Ryder album was playing the background. Ryder was selected for the part of Mary Corleone in The Godfather: Part III (1990), but had to drop out of the role after catching the flu from the strain of doing the films Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael (1990) and Mermaids (1990) back to back. She said she didn't want to let everyone down by doing a substandard performance. She later made The Age of Innocence (1993) which was directed by Martin Scorsese.