Debra Winger
Mary Debra Winger (born May 16, 1955) is an American actress. She starred in the films An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), Terms of Endearment (1983), and Shadowlands (1993), each of which earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Winger won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress for Terms of Endearment, and the Tokyo International Film Festival Award for Best Actress for A Dangerous Woman (1993).
Debra Winger

NIDA(NIH) · 2-Winger Volkow · Public domain
- Born
- 1955 · Cleveland Heights.
- Nationality
- United States
- Occupation
- actress · film producer
- Education
- California State University and Northridge · James Monroe High School (California)
- Languages
- Danish · English
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Mary Debra Winger (born May 16, 1955) is an American actress. She starred in the films An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), Terms of Endearment (1983), and Shadowlands (1993), each of which earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Winger won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress for Terms of Endearment, and the Tokyo International Film Festival Award for Best Actress for A Dangerous Woman (1993).
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Debra Winger (born 1955) is an actress and film producer, of American nationality. The actress was born in Cleveland Heights. Debra Winger was educated at California State University, Northridge and James Monroe High School (California). Languages used include Danish and English.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 27 September 2026
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In this article
Early life and education
Early life and education
Her other films include Urban Cowboy (1980), Legal Eagles (1986), Black Widow (1987), Betrayed (1988), The Sheltering Sky (1990), Forget Paris (1995), and Rachel Getting Married (2008). In 2012, Winger made her Broadway debut in the original production of David Mamet's play The Anarchist. Winger starred in the Netflix original television series The Ranch from 2016 to 2020. She received a lifetime achievement award at the Transilvania International Film Festival in 2014.
Mary Debra Winger was born on May 16, 1955 in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, into a Jewish family, to Robert Winger, a meat packer, and Ruth (née Felder), an office manager. Winger started studying criminology and sociology at California State University, Northridge, but did not complete a degree. She told many interviewers in later years that she volunteered on an Israeli kibbutz, sometimes even saying that she had trained with the Israel Defense Forces. However, in a 2008 interview, Winger said she was merely on a typical youth tour that visited the kibbutz. At age 18, after returning to the United States, Winger fell off of a truck and suffered a cerebral hemorrhage; as a result, she was left partially paralyzed and blind for 10 months, initially being told that she would never see again. With time on her hands to think about her life, Winger decided that, if she recovered, she would move to California and become an actress.
Acting
Acting
Winger's first acting role was as "Debbie" in the 1976 sexploitation film Slumber Party '57. Her next role was as Diana Prince's younger sister Drusilla (Wonder Girl) in three episodes of ABC's TV series Wonder Woman. The producers wanted Winger to appear more often, but she refused, fearing that the role would hurt her fledgling career. This was followed by a guest role in season 4 of the TV drama Police Woman in 1978. Winger played a supporting role in Willard Huyck's 1979 comic coming-of-age film French Postcards. Winger's first major role was in Thank God It's Friday in 1978, followed by Urban Cowboy two years later, for which she received a BAFTA nomination and a pair of Golden Globe nominations (for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role, and Best New Star). In 1982, Winger co-starred with Nick Nolte in Cannery Row and with Richard Gere in An Officer and a Gentleman, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Winger was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress twice more: for Terms of Endearment in 1983 (which was awarded to her co-star, Shirley MacLaine, who played her mother in the film), and for Shadowlands in 1993, for which she also received her second BAFTA nomination. Winger's performance in A Dangerous Woman earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress. Over the years, Winger acquired a reputation for being outspoken and difficult to work with. She has expressed her dislike of An Officer and a Gentleman, for which Winger refused to do any publicity, and several of her other films, and has been dismissive of some of her co-stars and directors. When Barbara Walters interviewed Bette Davis in 1986, Davis said, "I see a great deal of myself in Debra Winger, who has already acquired a reputation for being difficult, because she cares about the project." Winger was to play Peggy Sue in the film Peggy Sue Got Married, but was forced to back out just before production began after injuring her back in a bicycle accident. The role went to Kathleen Turner. The injury affected Winger's ability to work for several months. She was cast in A League of Their Own but dropped out and was replaced by Geena Davis. It was later reported that Winger dropped out of the film because she refused to work with Madonna, whom Winger did not consider a serious actress. Other starring roles during this period included Legal Eagles (1986), Black Widow (1987), Made in Heaven (1987), Betrayed (1988), Everybody Wins (1990), The Sheltering Sky (1990), Leap of Faith (1992), Wilder Napalm (1993), and A Dangerous Woman (1993). In 1995, Winger decided to take a hiatus from acting. In 2002, she said, "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". After making Forget Paris in 1995, Winger was absent from the screen for six years before returning in 2001 with Big Bad Love, written and directed by her husband, Arliss Howard. The film was also Winger's debut as a producer. During her film hiatus, Winger had the female lead in the American Repertory Theater's stage production of Anton Chekhov's play Ivanov from November 1999 to January 2000. Rosanna Arquette made a critically acclaimed documentary film, Searching for Debra Winger, that was released in 2002 after Winger returned to film acting. She subsequently starred in the films Radio (2003), Eulogy (2004), and Sometimes in April (2005), and received positive reviews for portraying Anne Hathaway's estranged mother in Rachel Getting Married. Winger earned an Emmy Award nomination for her title role as the mother of a Columbine shooting victim in the 2005 television film Dawn Anna, directed by her husband. In 2010, Winger returned to television, making a guest appearance as a high school principal in an episode of Law & Order. She also joined the cast of HBO's In Treatment as one of the three patients featured in the third season. In 2013, Winger starred in three episodes of In the Woods, the first installment of Jennifer Elster's multimedia, experimental film series The Being Experience, also including Terrence Howard, Dave Matthews, Rufus Wainwright, Karen Black, Will Shortz, Liya Kebede, Questlove, Famke Janssen, Moby, Gale Harold, Paz de la Huerta, Jorgen Leth, Rosie Perez, Aubrey de Grey, and Alan Cumming. From 2016 to 2020, Winger starred opposite Sam Elliott and Ashton Kutcher in the Netflix multi-cam comedy The Ranch. In 2017, Winger had a cameo as Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan in the TV miniseries When We Rise. That same year, she starred in her first romantic lead after many years in The Lovers. Winger has continued to acquire roles in other feature films, such as Tiger City, released in 2018. In 1995, Winger performed in The Wizard of Oz in Concert: Dreams Come True, a television musical performance of the popular 1939 MGM film at Lincoln Center to benefit the Children's Defense Fund. Her roles in that special were the "Cyclone" narrator and the Wicked Witch of the West. It was originally broadcast on both TBS and TNT.
Other pursuits
Other pursuits
During her hiatus from the film industry, Winger spent a semester as a teaching fellow at Harvard University. In 2008, she wrote a book, Undiscovered, based on her personal recollections. Winger 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 said she would "dedicate the next bit of my life to these schools". In 2010, Winger was co-executive producer of the Academy Award-nominated documentary Gasland. She was also the executive producer of the 2012 documentary Bel Borba Aqui, about the life and works of Brazilian graphic artist Bel Borba.
Personal life
Personal life
Winger's three-year relationship with actor Andrew Rubin ended in 1980. From 1983 to 1985, she dated Bob Kerrey, at the time the governor of Nebraska, whom Winger met while filming Terms of Endearment in Lincoln, Nebraska. Winger also dated her Cannery Row and Everybody Wins co-star Nick Nolte. From 1986 to 1990, Winger was married to actor Timothy Hutton, with whom she had a son, Noah Hutton, a documentary filmmaker born in 1987. In 1996, Winger married actor/director Arliss Howard, whom she met on the set of the film Wilder Napalm. Their son was born in 1997. Winger is also stepmother to Howard's son from his prior marriage.
Activism
Activism
In March 2025, Winger protested against the detention of Mahmoud Khalil at Trump Tower. She accused the Trump administration of having "no interest in Jewish safety" and "co-opting antisemitism." In an interview, Winger stated: "I have a debt for what I grew up with and believed on what the state of Israel has done and what they haven’t done, and how they’re conflating Judaism with Zionism." Winger is a signatory of the Film Workers for Palestine boycott pledge that was published in September 2025.

Actress Debra Winger and NIDA Director Dr. Nora Volkow pose prior to NIDA’s Addiction Performance Project, held Aug 5, 2011 on the NIH Campus
NIDA(NIH) · 1-Winger Volkow

Actress Debra Winger and NIDA Director Dr. Nora Volkow pose prior to NIDA’s Addiction Performance Project, held Aug 5, 2011 on the NIH Campus
NIDA(NIH) · 3-Winger Volkow
Recognition and awards
Winger received a lifetime achievement award at the Transilvania International Film Festival in 2014.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Winger, Debra. Rachel Cooke interviews Debra Winger. The Guardian. 28 December 2008.
- 2.Famous birthdays list for today, May 16, 2025 includes celebrities Janet Jackson, Pierce Brosnan. cleveland.com. May 16, 2025.
- 3.Jan Hoffman. FILM; Debra Winger: Caught on a Winter Afternoon. The New York Times. 211. January 9, 1994.
- 4.Naomi Pfefferman. 'Big Bad' Debra. The Jewish Journal. March 7, 2002.
- 5.Allen, Henry. Debra Winger, Coming to Terms. The Washington Post. December 13, 1983.
- 6.Arfa, Orit. Debra Winger Explores Jewish/Arab Day Schools. The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles. The Associated Press. April 24, 2008.
- 7.Lopate, Leonard. Debra Winger on Life Beyond Hollywood. The Leonard Lopate Show. WNYC. June 10, 2008.
- 8.Farber, Stephen. Where There's Smoke, There's A Fiery Actress Named Debra Winger. The New York Times. July 6, 1986.
- 9.Battered Teachers. January 1, 2000.
- 10.American Repertory Theater. Debra Winger bio.
- 11.Debra Winger : Dangerous Woman , Time, article by Richard Corliss and Elizabeth L. Bland, January 24, 1994
- 12.Debra Winger: a star is re-born , Daily Telegraph, December 19, 2008
- 13.Farber, Stephen. Where There's Smoke, There's A Fiery Actress Named Debra Winger. The New York Times. July 6, 1986.
- 14.Penny Marshall: Debra Winger Dropped out of "League" Because of Madonna. September 4, 2012.
- 15.Does Debra Winger Still Have Legs? , New York, article by Holly Millea, February 25, 2002
- 16.Wilmington, Michael. 'Bad Love' portrays a writer's anguish. Chicago Tribune. March 15, 2002.
- 17.American Repertory Theater. Ivanov. Experience the A.R.T.
- 18.Scott, A. O. Out of Rehab, Wreaking Havoc. The New York Times. October 3, 2008.
- 19.blog. Law & Order "Boy on Fire" Episode Information. All Things Law and Order. January 12, 2010.
- 20.Fretts, Bruce. Cheers & Jeers: Debra Winger Gets the VIP Treatment. TVGuide.com. October 22, 2010.
- 21.The Being Experience: The Prologue. IMDb.
- 22.Matheson, Whitney, "Moby, Questlove, others endure puzzling 'Experience'" , "USA TODAY", June 17, 2013
- 23.Everything You Need To Know About 'When We Rise'. BuzzFeed.
- 24.Debra Winger and Tracy Letts are 'The Lovers' in New Film's First Trailer. Entertainment Weekly. January 4, 2017.
- 25.Brick Whisperer: Architect Louis Kahn's magnum opus now in cinemas near you. Architectural Digest India. 29 November 2017.
- 26.Solomon-Schwartz, Benjamin P. Winger Trades Silver Screen for Section. The Harvard Crimson. September 28, 1999.
- 27.Debra Winger, Actor—Blue Flower Arts: An Agency Representing Poets, Authors and Speakers.
- 28.Kupfer, Ruta. Weighing their words with care. Ha'aretz. reprinted in Hand in Hand: Learning Together Living Together. December 2016.
- 29.Koehler, Robert. Gasland Movie Review from the Sundance Film Festival. Variety. January 25, 2010.
- 30.Rohter, Larry. Brazil's Pied Piper of Street Art. The New York Times. September 18, 2012.
- 31.IMDb.com. Debra Winger.
- 32.Debra Winger – Recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award at Transilvania IFF. Film New Europe. May 20, 2014.
- 33.Two Sexy 'Urban Cowgirls'—One Called Debra Winger—Give Travolta a Run for His Movie – Vol. 14 No. 7. August 18, 1980.
- 34.SHORT TAKES : Debra Winger Is Not for Politics. Los Angeles Times. September 12, 1990.
- 35.Flynn, Gaynor. Debra Winger: The return of a class act. The Independent. 24 October 2008.
- 36.Attanasio, Cedar. Jewish protesters flood Trump Tower's lobby to demand Mahmoud Khalil's release. AP News. 2025-03-13.
- 37.Kaloi, Stephanie. Debra Winger Protests Mahmoud Khalil Detention, Says She Has 'A Debt to Pay' After Falsehoods of Jewish Upbringing. TheWrap. 2025-03-16.
- 38.Betts, Anna. Actors and directors pledge not to work with Israeli film groups 'implicated in genocide'. The Guardian. 2025-09-10. 0261-3077.
- 39.Brode, Douglas. Fantastic Planets, Forbidden Zones, and Lost Continents. University of Texas Press (2015). p. 215
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