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In a timeless romantic story, naval officer Zach Mayo picks up factory worker Paula in his arms and carries her away from the workplace, leaving fans around the world dreaming of becoming the beautiful Debra Winger.
The legendary scene in the romantic drama An Officer and a Gentleman, where Richard Gere played Officer Zack Mayo, a handsome hero in a naval uniform, has become the benchmark of love stories for dreamy female fans.
Actress Debra Winger poses backstage during the 54th Academy Awards at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California. (Photo: Michael Montfort/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Starring alongside some of Hollywood’s sexiest men, Debra Winger has been the envy of many.
Today, the 69-year-old Winger is more beautiful than ever. For the past few years, Winger has been posting photos of herself on Instagram, first with brown hair and now with naturally wavy grey hair.
Winger’s first starring role was in the 1976 film Slumber Party ‘57, followed by a role in the hit television series Wonder Woman (1979), where she played Drusilla, the younger sister of Diana Prince/Wonder Woman Linda Carter. Winger was asked to star more often, but, fearing that the role would become generic for her, she declined.
This decision was not to be regretted, the early 80’s were a prosperous time for the rising star.
At the height of her young career, she won numerous Academy Awards and Golden Globes for her roles in three iconic films of the 1980s.
In 1980, she starred in ‘Urban Cowboy’ with John Travolta, who at the time was driving fans crazy with his smooth dance moves in ‘Saturday Night Fever’ (1977) and ‘Grease’ (1988); as Paula in An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) and in Endurance (1983), where she played Emma, a dying young woman with an overbearing mother, Aurora, played by Shirley MacLaine.
Despite her huge success, Winger took a mini-Hollywood hiatus while carving hours out of her acting schedule, and more than four decades after her rise to stardom, speculation about the reasons for her departure is still circulating.
John Travolta and Debra Winger smile on the set of Paramount Pictures Studios’ “Urban Cowboy,” circa 1980. (Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Most of these rumours stem from Winger’s feud with her colleagues in the film.
While fans couldn’t get enough of the handsome Gere, it’s widely known that Winger bored them with him on set.
According to an excerpt from ‘The Actor and the Gentleman,’ written by Winger’s colleague, Louis Gossett Jr. who played Sergeant Emil Foley, published on the ABC News website, ‘The on-screen chemistry between them was terrific, but it was a different story once the camera switched off. They couldn’t stay any further apart.’
Gossett also claims that Winger didn’t think too highly of Gere’s acting, and writes that she once described Gere as a ‘brick wall.’ And she called the film’s director, Taylor Hackford, who she also disliked, an ‘animal.’
It wasn’t just the people on this film that ruffled her feathers.
Winger, a free spirit in real life and as Emma, also clashed with the prolific MacLaine, a glamorous, eccentric and accomplished veteran.
Their first meeting marked the beginning of their relationship.
‘To get a sense of how my character would feel, I wore all my fur coats left over from film stars,’ MacLaine told People. ‘There was Debra dressed in combat boots and a miniskirt … I thought, ‘Oh my God.’’
People writes: ‘Indeed, the set was the source of Hollywood’s most popular rumours. Winger wanted the lead role. One of them was rumoured to have slapped the other.’
And then the women were pitted against each other at the Oscars when both were nominated for best actress.
McLaine, taking home the trophy, said in her speech, ‘I deserved it!’.
Winger insists she ‘hit the pause button’ in Hollywood for personal reasons, not professional ones.
‘The roles that were coming in, I wasn’t interested. I had already done it or felt it. I needed a challenge. My life challenged me more than the roles, so I dove into it headfirst,’ Winger told People.
After starring in the 1995 romcom Forget Paris alongside Billy Crystal, Winger took a six-year hiatus.
During that time, she moved to New York City and turned her attention to actor Arliss Howard, whom she married in 1996. The couple have a son, Gideon Babe, who was born in 1997, and she is stepmother to Sam, Howard’s son from a previous marriage. She also has another biological child, Noah Hutton, whom she gave birth to while married to her first husband Timothy Hutton (1986-1990).
In 2001, she appeared again in the film Big Bad Love, directed and produced by her husband, and co-starring alongside Winger and Rosanna Arquette, with her next project being the 2002 film Looking for Debra Winger. As director of the documentary, Arquette attempts to answer the question of why Winger temporarily abandoned her career at the height of her popularity.
Winger gained momentum with roles in ‘Rachel Getting Married’ (2008) with Anne Hathaway, the romcom ‘The Lovers’ (2017) and the crime comedy ‘The Cajillionaire’ (2020).
In 2021, she will star in the second volume of the anthology drama film With/In in the segment Her Own, written and directed by her husband, who also co-stars.
‘I don’t know what Hollywood is. I live under that damn sign, I just look at it and laugh. L.A. is a place, but the idea of Hollywood doesn’t exist for me,’ Winger said, adding, ’…although there are probably some crowds that I just don’t know about.’
Debra Winger and Gideon Babe Ruth Howard attend the Netflix screening of ‘The Pale Blue Eye New York Tastemaker Screening’ at The Metrograph on November 29, 2022 in New York City. (Photo: Daniel Zuchnik/Getty Images for Netflix)
We can’t imagine Hollywood without Debra Winger and hope she wins an Oscar soon! What are your favourite Winger films?
