Winona ryder nudes and Biography
A jury that included at least three people from the entertainment industry convicted the "Age of Innocence" star of walking out of Saks Fifth Avenue last December with shopping bags stuffed full of $5,500 in designer tops, handbags, glittery rhinestone hair bows and socks.
Prosecutors, who suggested that Ryder may have stolen for thrills, said they would not seek jail time for the 31-year-old actress when she is sentenced on Dec. 6, although the charges carry a possible prison sentence of up to three years.
The jury found her guilty of grand theft and vandalism but not guilty of commercial burglary. That charge required proof that she had gone to the store intending to steal.
Winona Ryder did not testify in her own defense during a humiliating six-day trial, where her haul of ripped silk tops and leather handbags costing up to $700 each were put on display for all to see.
The "Girl, Interrupted" star, whose career has been on hold during the 10 months since her arrest, looked tense but poised in a standing-room-only courtroom as the verdicts were read.
Winona Ryder was whisked out of court and away from the media but her publicist told Reuters her car was followed by news helicopters and paparazzi.
WHY DID SHE DO IT?
Winona Ryder later issued a one-sentence statement thanking her family, friends and supporters for standing by her.
Why a rich celebrity should commit such a tawdry crime was left to guesswork. "I cannot get inside her head. She may have been stealing for the thrill of it, or to see if she could get away with it," trial prosecutor Ann Rundle told a news conference on Wednesday.
Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley said he hoped the court would "address the problems of the defendant that may have led her to engage in the criminal conduct of which she now stands convicted."
One of the jurors was quoted as telling the TV show "Celebrity Justice" that the jury was "especially impressed" by the merchandise displayed in court and thought the Saks security guards called as witnesses were "very credible and admirable."
The unidentified juror said Ryder's star status had "absolutely no impact whatsoever."
Winona Ryder's flamboyant attorney, Mark Geragos, declined to address the waiting media throng. His defense case was based on an elaborate alleged conspiracy involving planted evidence, perjury by Saks staff and singling out Ryder as a target because of her celebrity.
But Geragos' main defense witness left with the courtroom reeling with laughter. The witness, a former Saks employee, testified that a Saks security manager had vowed to "nail" Ryder and would "make the evidence" to convict her.
Under cross-examination, the witness admitted an unresolved personal grievance with Saks which led to a lawsuit and the store taking out a trespass warning against him.
NO DIRECTOR, NO RECEIPTS, NO OPEN ACCOUNT
Rundle dismissed the defense case during the trial as "a story that could only have been written in Hollywood."
The prosecution's case against Ryder was overwhelming. It featured a 90-minute surveillance video of Ryder roaming around the store, dressed in a long coat, and struggling with multiple shopping bags while piling merchandise over her arm or under a garment bag.
The most damaging testimony came from a Saks security guard who testified to seeing Ryder in a Saks dressing room -- not trying on designer gowns but kneeling on the floor with a bleeding finger, snipping security tags off handbags, wrapping up socks in tissue paper and hiding them in her shopping bags.
Four witnesses testified how polite, calm and apologetic Ryder had been after her arrest, claiming first that she thought her assistant had paid for the goods and then claiming she had been told by her director to shoplift in preparation for a movie role.
The "director" was never found. Most of the Saks witnesses did not recognize Ryder -- some thought her a homeless woman.
There were no receipts for the 20 items found in Ryder's bags and strapped under her coat. No evidence was offered about an account at the store that had been "left open."
Rundle said the prosecution would ask for "probation, community service and restitution to Saks" rather than jail time for Ryder. "I find Ms. Ryder to be very nice. This was never about her character, only her conduct."
Rundle denied that the district attorney's office had devoted extra resources to the case because of Ryder's celebrity.
November 8, 2002 update: According to just-released court transcripts, Ryder had been been detained for shoplifting -- but not charged -- by at least three other stores over the 10-week period before her arrest. The judge refused to allow the prosecution to introduce this at the trial, despite their argument that it would show a pattern, ruling it would be unfairly prejudicial.
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Born on October 29, 1971, in Winona, Minnesota, Winona is a seasoned award winning actress. She was named after the city in Minnesota where she was born. Winona's parents, Michael and Cindy Horowitz were hippie intellectuals, and family friends include poet Allen Ginsberg, and Timothy Leary, who was Winona's godfather. She is the third of four siblings ,including one half-brother and one half-sister from her mothers first marriage.
Winona had a very interesting childhood. She lived briefly in Colombia with Chilean revolutionaries before returning to northern California in 1974 with her parents. Her family then moved to a commune in Mendocino, where they lived for four years without television or electricity. In the early 80's, the family relocated to Petaluma, California.
At the age of 12, her parents encouraged her to enroll in the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Winona graduated from Petaluma High School, with a 4.0 grade point average. Throughout her high school career, Winona's parents tutored her at home whenever necessary to accommodate her acting career.
In 1985, while at the American Conservatory Theater, Winona performed a monologue chosen from J.D. Salinger's Franny & Zooey. Deborah Lucchesi, a talent scout, spotted her, and arranged for Winona to take a screen test for the upcoming film "Desert Bloom", starring Jon Voight and Ellen Barkin. Winona did not get this part, but it wasn't long before she was cast in her debut role as Rina in David Seltzer's coming-of-age-film "Lucas". She shot the film during her summer vacation then entered eighth grade in the fall.
As a young actress, Winona had unusual success. Her waifish beauty and her ability to portray innocence with world savvy characters landed her some great teenage roles. Following the positive reception of "Lucas", Winona appeared in the Golden Globe nominated drama "Square Dance". She then did a comic turn as the frustrated daughter of oblivious yuppie parents in Tim Burton's "Beetlejuice". In 1990, Winona appeared in "Mermaids", featuring Cher, and was nominated for a Golden Globe and won a Best Supporting Actress Award from the National Board of Review for her role.
Winona backed out of a role in Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather III" due to exhaustion. She checked herself into a mental health facility to be treated for the depression and anxiety that she had been intermittently suffering from for years. Within a week of her hospitalization, she decided that her treatment was not helping and opted to return to her home in San Francisco.
Winona's performance in Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winning "The Age of Innocence", was a tremendous success, costarring Daniel Day-Lewis and Michelle Pfeiffer. She won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and was nominated for an Academy Award.
Winona has been romantically linked to actor Johnny Depp, to whom she was engaged for three years. Depp tattooed "Winona Forever" on his arm, and has since had it partially removed so that it now reads, "Wino Forever". After her heavily publicized breakup with Depp, she dated David Pirner, the lead singer for the rock group Soul Asylum, from 1993 to 1996. She began dating actor Matt Damon in 1998, after the two met at a New Year's Eve party. Most recently, Winona has had a host of well publicized legal problems involving felony accusations, and it will be interesting to see how this affects her future.
Ryder's family moved to Petaluma when she was ten; following regular abuse from her classmates, who targeted her for her unconventional, androgynous appearance (she was once jumped by a group of boys who had mistaken her for a gay boy), she was home schooled. At the age of 11, she joined the American Conservatory Theatre, and was soon trying out for movie roles. An audition for the part of Jon Voight's daughter in Desert Bloom failed to yield a role but did land the actress an agent, and at the age of 14, Ryder -- who had changed her last name from Horowitz -- made her film debut in Lucas (1986).
Finding popularity with her turn as a suicidal teen who has more in common with the ghosts living in her attic than with her yuppie parents in Tim Burton's black comedy Beetlejuice, Ryder quickly became one of the most steadily employed actresses in Hollywood. She continued to corner the alienated and/or confused teen market with starring roles in a number of offbeat films, including the 1989 cult classic Heathers, Great Balls of Fire (in which she played Jerry Lee Lewis' 13-year-old bride), Burton's Edward Scissorhands, and Mermaids.
The early '90s saw Ryder begin to branch out from teen roles toward parts requiring greater maturity. Following a turn as a taxi driver in Jim Jarmusch's Night on Earth (1991), the actress starred in Francis Ford Coppola's lavish adaptation Bram Stoker's Dracula and then went on to play Antonio Banderas' lover in the critically disembowelled The House of the Spirits. Greater success came with Martin Scorsese's 1993 adaptation of Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence. Ryder won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Daniel Day-Lewis' picture-perfect wife, and in the process started getting taken seriously as an actress capable of playing more adult characters.
A second Oscar nomination -- this time for Best Actress -- followed the next year for Ryder's portrayal of Jo March in Gillian Armstrong's adaptation of Little Women. The same year, the actress took on an entirely different role in Reality Bites, in which she played a twentysomething suffering from post-graduation angst. Similar twentysomething angst followed in How to Make an American Quilt (1995) but was then traded for Puritanical adultery, hair extensions, and another turn with Daniel Day-Lewis in Nicholas Hytner's 1996 adaptation of The Crucible.
Following a starring role in the highly anticipated and almost as highly criticized Alien Resurrection in 1997, Ryder had a turn as the waifish object of Kenneth Branagh's affections in Woody Allen's Celebrity. She managed to escape much of the criticism leveled at both of these films, and in 1999 and 2000, she reappeared with lead roles in two films, Girl, Interrupted, in which she played a mental institution inmate in the female answer to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and the supernatural thriller Lost Souls.
Father...............................Michael
Mother..............................Cindy
Godfather..........................Timothy Leary
Siblings.............................Sunyata, Jubal, Yuri
Born..................................Winona Laura Horowitz 10/29/1971, Winona, Minnesota, USA
Hair/Eyes..........................Brown/Brown
Marital Status....................Single
Statistics...........................5'4''
Background.......................4.0 grade point avg. in highschool
First role...........................'Rina' in Lucas (1986)
Awards.............................Blockbuster Entertainment Award 1998 Favorite Supporting Actress - Sci-Fi
for Alien: Resurrection (1997)
ShoWest Award 1997 For Female Star of the Year
Golden Globe 1994 Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
in a Motion Picture for The Age of Innocence
NBR(National Board of Review) 1993 Best Supporting Actress for
The Age of Innocence
NBR (National Board of Review) 1990 Best Supporting Actress for
Mermaids
ShoWest Award 1990 Female Star of Tomorrow for The Age of Innocence
• Mr. Deeds (2002)
• Mr. Deeds/Big Daddy 2-Pack (2002)
• S1m0ne (2002)
• Little Women/Madeline 2-Pack (2001)
• Zoolander (2001)
• Autumn in New York (2000)
• Lost Souls (2000)
• Girl, Interrupted (1999)
• The Second Timothy Leary Tape (1999)
• Celebrity (1998)
• Alien Resurrection (1997)
• Boys (1996)
• The Crucible (1996)
• Looking for Richard (1996)
• How to Make an American Quilt (1995)
• The House of the Spirits (1994)
• Little Women (1994)
• The Age of Innocence (1993)
• Reality Bites (1993)
• Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
• Night on Earth (1991)
• Edward Scissorhands (1990)
• Mermaids (1990)
• Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael (1990)
• Great Balls of Fire (1989)
• Heathers (1989)
• 1969 (1988)
• Beetlejuice (1988)
• Square Dance (1987)
• Lucas (1986)
(End of highprofile Winona ryder nudes Biography) - 2175
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