Biography for
Debra Winger

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Mary Debra Winger was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1955 to a Jewish family. Her maternal grandparents called her Mary, while her parents called her Debra. (Her father named her Debra after his favorite actress, Debra Paget). The family moved to California when Debra was five. She fell in love with acting in high school but kept it a secret from her family. She was a precocious teenager, having graduated high school at just 15. She went to Israel and joined the army there, but she didn't like it and came running home after a few months. She enrolled in college majoring in criminology. She worked part-time in the local amusement park when she got thrown from a truck and suffered serious injuries. She was in the hospital when she vowed that if she ever got better, she would pursue her passion for acting.

After she recovered, she abandoned college and studied acting. Like any struggling actor, she did commercials and guest-starred on 70s TV shows like "Police Woman: Task Force: Cop Killer: Part 1 (#2.23)" (1976) and "Wonder Woman" (1976) where she played Lynda Carter's little sister, "Wonder Girl". She also made her feature film debut in the forgettable soft-core film Slumber Party '57 (1976). Her next two films French Postcards (1979) and Thank God It's Friday (1978) did absolutely nothing for her career. When Sissy Spacek said no to playing the character "Sissy" in Urban Cowboy (1980), every unknown actress in Hollywood pursued the role. Debra won the role over a then-unknown Michelle Pfeiffer and gave a star-making performance as John Travolta's wife. Her handling of the mechanical bull made her a new kind of sex symbol. However, she followed it up with a flop, Cannery Row (1982). But, she became part of one of the top grossing films of all time by providing her deep, throaty voice to the title character of _E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)_. She also received her first Academy Award nomination as Best Actress for the huge hit An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), where her on-screen love scenes with Richard Gere became just as legendary as her off-screen fights with him and director Taylor Hackford.

Her reputation as a great talent, as well as her reputation as a difficult actress grew with her next film, Terms of Endearment (1983), which not only earned her a second Oscar nomination as Best Actress but also won the Best Picture as well. She also earned the Best Actress Award from the National Society of Film Critics. Debra was at the top of her game and was the most sought after actress in Hollywood, but she turned down quality roles and lucrative offers for three years. Some speculated that the reason was her romantic involvement with Robert Kerrey, then-governor of Nebraska, while others have stated it was her back problems. Whatever her reasons were, her reputation was permanently damaged. Her long-delayed film Mike's Murder (1984) didn't help matters either when it became a critical and financial flop. Debra tried to revive her career by starring in the comedy Legal Eagles (1986) but she disliked the film so much that she publicly stated that the director, Ivan Reitman and Taylor Hackford (An Officer and a Gentleman (1982)) were two of the worst directors she ever worked with. She also walked out on her agency, CAA, but returned several years later.

Her personal life made headlines when she left Robert Kerrey and married Oscar-winning actor Timothy Hutton in 1986. In 1987, she gave birth to their son, Emmanuel Noah Hutton. She also starred in Black Widow (1987), which wasn't a hit, and acted alongside Hutton as a male angel in Made in Heaven (1987) which flopped. She followed that up by starring in another flop, Betrayed (1988), which featured a cameo by Hutton. She separated from Hutton in 1988 and they were divorced by 1990, at which time she had two more bombs, Everybody Wins (1990) and The Sheltering Sky (1990). However, she relished the experience on The Sheltering Sky (1990) so much that she stayed in the Sahara desert long after filming wrapped. She came back to US and filmed a Steve Martin vehicle, Leap of Faith (1992), which did nothing for her career. But, she found love on the set of her next film, Wilder Napalm (1993) when she co-starred opposite Arliss Howard, who became her next husband. The film flopped but their marriage lasted. She received good notices for A Dangerous Woman (1993), but it was Shadowlands (1993) which finally brought her renewed respectability and her third Academy Award nomination as Best Actress. She followed that up with a forgettable comedy Forget Paris (1995). Now 40, Winger felt that there were no good roles for her and she became a suburban wife having a second son, "Babe Ruth Howard", in 1997. Her six-year absence from films inspired a documentary by Rosanna Arquette titled Searching for Debra Winger (2002), which is about ageism in Hollywood. In 2001, she returned to acting in her husband's film Big Bad Love (2001), which she also co-produced. It renewed her love for acting, and she has ventured out into television as well by earning her first Emmy nomination as Best Actress for Dawn Anna (2005) (TV) directed by her husband. Nobody can deny that Debra Winger is one of the best American actresses ever. Her fans hope that Hollywood will give her a role that she play to the hilt, that can finally win her a long-overdue Academy Award.

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Trivia

Daughter of a meat-packer

Born at 5:15pm-EDT

Turned down the Glenn Close role in Fatal Attraction (1987).

Graduated from Oliver Wendell Holmes Junior High School, Northridge, California, in 1970.

Graduated from James Monroe High School, Sepulveda, California, in 1973.

Had a romance with then-Governor of Nebraska Bob Kerrey during the filming of Terms of Endearment (1983).

Sister-in-law of actor/writer Jim Howard.

Mother of Noah Hutton with Timothy Hutton

Measurements: 34B-23-34 (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)

Has a second son named Babe (with Arliss Howard).

James L. Brooks wrote Broadcast News (1987) especially for her, but she turned it down because she was pregnant with her son Noah Hutton, and the role went to Holly Hunter, who was nominated for an Oscar for it.

At first, she was excited about winning the role of "Wonder Girl" on the TV series "Wonder Woman" (1976) but quickly became disillusioned and spent all her salary from the show to hire an attorney to get her out of her contract.

Didn't like working with Lynda Carter on "Wonder Woman" (1976) but Lynda said that they didn't have any problems and was like a big sister to her.

She was given the choice of the two roles in Black Widow (1987); she chose the role of the FBI agent, because she didn't understand the motivation as to why the Black Widow kills, so the title role went to Theresa Russell.

She became notorious for turning down worthy roles in quality films, such as Kathleen Turner's role in Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), Susan Sarandon's role in Bull Durham (1988), Michelle Pfeiffer's role in The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), Jessica Lange's role in Music Box (1989) and Geena Davis' role in A League of Their Own (1992).

In 1995 she appeared in London, Washington, and New York with both the London Symphony and the New World Symphony under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas, performing his composition based on the life of Anne Frank.

Her notorious off-camera clashes with equally mercurial Shirley MacLaine brought out the best in both actresses in the complexity of their on-camera contentious mother/daughter relationship during the making of their Oscar- winning film Terms of Endearment (1983). When MacLaine nabbed the Best Actress Oscar instead of fellow nominee Winger in 1984 and famously shouted, "I deserve this!," she managed to address her co-star as "dear Debra" despite the fact there was no love lost between them.

Personal Quotes

[on her early roles in commercials] "I was the all-American face. You name it, honey - American Dairy Milk, Metropolitan Life insurance, McDonald's, Burger King. The Face That Didn't Matter - that's what I called my face."

"I have trouble with star billing. I remember thinking on Cannery Row (1982): How can I put my name ahead of Steinbeck's?"

[on Bernardo Bertolucci] "For me, Bernardo is The Function. The only way I can explain it is in the analogy with mathematics and the word 'function' - addition, subtraction, multiplication, anything that numbers go through and change because of it. And when the function is a function of love, the drapes on the windows, the doors that are hung, the characters, the clothes, everything goes through this function and comes out touched and inspired by it. There are a lot of numbers but what really matters is the function."

Salary

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