Debra Winger
Debra Winger | |
|---|---|
 Debra Winger and son Gideon Howard at the 2009 presidential inauguration of Barack Obama | |
| Born | Mary Debra Winger |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1976–present |
| Spouse(s) | Timothy Hutton (1986–1990) Arliss Howard (1996–present) |
Mary Debra Winger (born May 16, 1955) is an American actress.
Early years
Winger was born as Mary Debra Winger in Cleveland Heights, Ohio into an Orthodox Jewish family, to Robert Winger, a meat packer, and Ruth Felder, an office manager.[1][2][3][4] She has stated publicly and with amusement that the Internet has a growing "snowball" of claims that she had been part of a kibbutz in Israel, whereas she was merely on a typical Israeli youth program that visited the kibbutz.[5] After returning to the States, she was involved in a car accident and suffered a cerebral hemorrhage as a result. She was left partially paralyzed and blind for ten months, although she was initially told that she would never see again. With time on her hands to think about her life, she decided that, if she recovered, she would move to California and become an actress.[6] She later recovered.
Career
Acting
Winger's first acting role was as "Debbie" in the 1976 sexploitation film Slumber Party '57.[7] Her next role was as Diana Prince's younger sister Drusilla (Wonder Girl) on the TV show, Wonder Woman.
Winger's acting work has received critical acclaim. She got her first starring role in Thank God It's Friday followed by her acclaimed role of a cowgirl in Urban Cowboy in 1980, opposite John Travolta, for which she received a BAFTA award nomination. In 1982, she co-starred with Nick Nolte in Cannery Row and opposite Richard Gere in An Officer and a Gentleman, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress twice more: for Terms of Endearment in 1983 and for Shadowlands 1993, for which she also received her second BAFTA award nomination. Her performance in A Dangerous Woman garnered a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress.[8]
Over the years, Winger acquired a reputation for being very outspoken and sometimes difficult to work with on sets.[9][10][11] She has expressed her dislike of An Officer and a Gentleman, for which she refused to do any publicity,[11] and several others of her films, and has been dismissive of some of her co-stars and directors. In an interview with Barbara Walters, Bette Davis commented "I see a great deal of myself in Debra Winger." Commenting on her past attitudes, Winger has stated in 2009, "Most bad behaviour comes from insecurity. Even though I loved what I was doing, I didn't always know I could pull it off. (...) I took [my insecurities out] on everybody. But, in my defense, I never fought about the size of my trailer or things like that; it was always about the work".[12] Winger was also highly quotable, as in "I love to sweat, because when you sweat you're either working or fucking, and what else is there?"
Winger was originally cast in the lead role in A League of their Own but dropped out and was replaced by Geena Davis.
In 1995, Winger decided to take a hiatus from acting. She has cited her disenchantment with the film business as the reason for her departure, stating in 2002: "I wanted out for years. I got sick of hearing myself say I wanted to quit. It's like opening an interview with "I hate interviews!" Well, get out! I stopped reading scripts and stopped caring. People said, "We miss you so much." But in the last six years, tell me a film that I should have been in. The few I can think of, the actress was so perfect".[13] After making Forget Paris in 1995, she was absent from the screen for six years, before making her return in 2001 with Big Bad Love.
From November 1999 to January 2000, Winger had the female lead in the American Repertory Theater's production of Anton Chekhov's play Ivanov.[14]
In 2001, a critically acclaimed documentary film titled Searching for Debra Winger was made by Rosanna Arquette and released in 2002 after Winger returned to film acting. Other films included Legal Eagles, Made in Heaven, Everybody Wins, The Sheltering Sky, Leap of Faith, Black Widow, Betrayed, Wilder Napalm, A Dangerous Woman and Sometimes in April. She earned an Emmy Award nomination for her title role in the television film Dawn Anna in 2005, directed by her second husband, Arliss Howard.
In 2008 she got positive reviews as Anne Hathaway's estranged mother in Rachel Getting Married.[15]
She made a guest appearance as a high school principal in an episode of Law & Order which aired in March 2010.[16]
Later pursuits
During her hiatus from the film industry, Winger spent a semester as a teaching fellow at Harvard University.
In 2008, Winger wrote a book based on her personal recollections titled Undiscovered.[17]
In 1995, Winger performed in The Wizard of Oz in Concert: Dreams Come True a musical performance of the popular story at Lincoln Center to benefit the Children's Defense Fund. The performance was originally broadcast on Turner Network Television (TNT), and issued on CD and video in 1996.
She has shown her support for reconciliation between Arabs and Jews in Israel by visiting the bilingual Hand in Hand schools (Galilee Jewish-Arab School, Gesher al HaWadi School) where, in 2008, she stated she would "dedicate the next bit of my life to these schools".[18]
Winger has also been a vocal opponent of the arrest and prosecution of director Roman Polanski for raping a 13-year-old girl in the 1970s, accusing Switzerland's government of "philistine collusion" for arresting him.[19]
Personal life
From 1986 to 1990, she was married to actor Timothy Hutton, with whom she had a son, Noah Hutton, a documentary filmmaker born in 1987. They divorced three years later. [citation needed]
In 1996 she married actor/director Arliss Howard, whom she met on the set of the film Wilder Napalm. Their son, Gideon Babe Ruth Howard (known as Babe), was born in 1997. She is stepmother to Sam Howard. [citation needed]
Filmography
References
- ^ "Debra Winger Biography". filmreference. Retrieved 2009-01-22.
- ^ Jan Hoffman (9 January 1994). "FILM; Debra Winger: Caught on a Winter Afternoon". The New York Times. p. 211. Retrieved 2009-12-27.
- ^ Adam Dickter (9 July 2008). "Searching For Debra Winger? So's She". The Jewish Week. Retrieved 2009-12-27.
- ^ Naomi Pfefferman (March 7, 2002). "'Big Bad' Debra". The Jewish Journal. Retrieved 2009-12-27.
- ^ Leonard Lopate Show radio interview on 6/10/08
- ^ Farber, Stephen (1986-07-06). "Where There's Smoke, There's A Fiery Actress Named Debra Winger". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076726/
- ^ "Debra Winger bio". American Repertory Theater. Retrieved 2009-10-08.
- ^ Debra Winger : Dangerous Woman, Time, article by Richard Corliss and Elizabeth L. Bland, January 24, 1994
- ^ Debra Winger: a star is re-born, Daily Telegraph, 19 december 2008
- ^ a b WHERE THERE'S SMOKE, THERE'S A FIERY ACTRESS NAMED DEBRA WINGER, The New York Times, article by Stephen Farber, July 6, 1986
- ^ Back where she belongs: How Officer and A Gentleman star Debra Winger returned to the silver screen, The Daily Mail, 16 January 2009
- ^ Does Debra Winger Still Have Legs?, New York, article by Holly Millea, 25 February 2002
- ^ "Ivanov". Experience the A.R.T. American Repertory Theater. Retrieved 2009-10-08.
- ^ http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081008/REVIEWS/810089989
- ^ http://allthingslawandorder.blogspot.com/2010/01/law-order-boy-on-fire-episode.html
- ^ Debra Winger, Actor—Blue Flower Arts: An Agency Representing Poets, Authors and Speakers
- ^ Kupfer, Ruta (2008-03-28). "Weighing their words with care". Ha'aretz. reprinted in Hand In Hand: Learning Together Living Together. Retrieved 2009-10-08.
- ^ "Hollywood Left Bands Together to Fight Polanski Arrest". Fox News. 2009-09-29.
External links
- Please use a more specific IMDb template. See the documentation for available templates.
- Template:Tv.com person
- Transcript of Radio 4 interview