Ryder's unconventional upbringing certainly contributed to the startling intelligence and self-possession behind those wide-set eyes. Born Winona Horowitz to two hippies thoroughly "into the pudding", she grew up surrounded by some of the brightest lights of the counterculture. Timothy Leary was her godfather (her father Michael Horowitz disavows any involvement with the acid guru's 1970 prison breakout, giving full credit to the radical Weathermen), and Allen Ginsberg often dropped by the Mendocino commune where she lived for four years enjoying a life without TV (without electricity!) that turned her onto books. Money was scarce, but love was in abundance. Yet when the family finally settled in Petaluma, California, she discovered that her years "on the bus" set her apart from her peers, and this experience as a "suburban reject" would help inform some of her best work from "Beetlejuice" (1988) to "Girl, Interrupted" (1999). Her parents promptly curtailed the public school experiment and to add spice to her home study program enrolled her in acting classes at San Francisco's American Conservatory Theatre.

Spotted there by a talent scout and screen tested for a role in "Desert Bloom" (1986), Ryder lost out to Annabeth Gish, but her audition tape found its way to director David Seltzer who cast her in the underrated "Lucas". The following year she played a Texas teenager torn between her grandfather (Jason Robards) and her mother (Jane Alexander) in "Square Dance" and walked away with the best reviews, setting the stage for her first collaboration with Burton, "Beetlejuice" (1988). Ryder nailed her supporting role as a morose teen with a penchant for black clothing who is thoroughly alienated from her suburban parents, and nearly stole the film from co-stars Michael Keaton, Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis with her low-key, perfectly deadpan vocal delivery. Further solidifying her reputation as a queen of teen angst with "Heathers", she deftly negotiated the complex terrain as her character advanced from passive hanger-on to murderer with a conscience, all the while retaining the audience's affection. Excellent as the child bride of rock idol Jerry Lee Lewis (Dennis Quaid) in "Great Balls of Fire!" (1989), she was the sole bright spot as the offbeat but intelligent Dinky in the uneven "Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael" (1990).

Reteaming with Burton, Ryder (despite an ill-advised long blonde wig) delivered a naturalistic portrait of a young woman at first repulsed then later drawn to the freakish but gentle "Edward Scissorhands" (1990). Although the director did not depict her as thoroughly disaffected, he certainly took ample shots himself at the cookie-cutter conformity of suburban existence. Rounding out the year as Cher's eldest daughter in "Mermaids", Ryder played a neurotic Jewish girl who wants to become a nun to escape the unconventional lifestyle of her mother, receiving the film's best notices and picking up her first acting award from the National Board of Review. Though illness reportedly had forced her out of the pivotal role of Mary Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather, Part III" (1990), she got her chance to work with the director on "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992). Her pale, sylph-like beauty was perfect for the period piece, and Ryder provided the film's emotional core without being overshadowed by the film's phantasmagoric special effects, lavish production design and showier co-stars.