Alex Winter encyclopedia topics

Biography

Personal life

Winter was born in London, England. His mother, Gregg (née Mayer), was a New York-born American who was a former Martha Graham dancer and founded a modern-dance company in London in the mid-1960s. His father, Ross Albert Winter, was Australian and danced with Winter's mother's troupe. The two divorced in 1973. Winter trained as a dancer as a child. When he was five, his family relocated to Missouri, where his father ran the Mid-American Dance Company, while his mother taught dance at Washington University. Winter is Jewish. He has a son named LeRoy.

Career

He moved to New York in 1978 and began performing as an actor on and off Broadway. In 1983 he was accepted into the Film School at New York University (NYU). While at college, he met fellow aspiring filmmaker Tom Stern. The two collaborated on a number of 16 mm short films and both graduated with honors.

As an actor, Winter spent many years on Broadway with supporting roles in productions of The King & I, Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, and the American premiere of Simon Gray's Close of Play at the Manhattan Theater Club. After completing NYU film school, he and Tom Stern moved out to Hollywood, where the two wrote and directed a number of short films and music videos. Winter continued to find work as an actor, landing major roles in such big productions as The Lost Boys and Rosalie Goes Shopping. In 1989, Winter found international success when he co-starred with Keanu Reeves as "Bill S. Preston" in the smash-hit comedy Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and its 1991 sequel, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey.

Following the success of Bill & Ted, Winter and creative collaborators Tom Stern and Tim Burns were hired to develop a sketch comedy show for MTV. The result, 1991's The Idiot Box, was a success for the network, but the channel's budgetary problems prevented them from filming additional seasons, and it was canceled after six episodes. Winter, Stern, and Burns accepted a $12 million dollar deal from 20th Century Fox to film their own feature film, which would end up becoming 1993's Freaked. While the film was never widely released, despite positive reviews from The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly, Freaked went on to become a cult favorite, through fesitvals, cable and DVD, and was cited by Entertainment Weekly on their list of Top Ten Comedies of the Nineties.

Winter didn't return to the director's chair until 1999, when he helmed Fever. The film was shown at film festivals worldwide, including Official Selection in the Director's Fortnight at Cannes. The New York Daily News praised the film, calling it "a claustrophobic mindbender. Winter sustains an aura of creepiness worthy of Roman Polanski".

Winter works between his American home base and London, where he directs music videos and commercials. Highlights of his work include directing several installments of the popular Peugeot Thelma & Louise campaign, as well as campaigns for Ford, the global launch of the all CGI Tony the Tiger for Frosties, and award-winning spots for Supercuts and Google in the US.

In 2007, Winter returned to acting after a nearly 14-year absence to do a guest spot on the crime series Bones. Currently, he has a recurring role as the voice of 'King Mole Man' on the Adult Swim show Saul of the Molemen, which was created by long-time friend Tom Stern, and has directed the live-action adaptation of the hit Cartoon Network series Ben 10, which aired in November of 2007 and garnered the highest ratings in Cartoon Network history.

Filmography

As actor

"Ben 10: Race Against Time" (2007) ... Plumber
"Saul of the Molemen" (2007) (voice only) ... King Mole Man
"Bones" (2007) ... Monte Gold (episode: 'The Girl in the Gator')
Freaked (1993) ... Ricky Coogin/Sensitive Audience Member
"The Idiot Box" (1991) ... Various Characters
Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991) .... Bill S. Preston, Esq./Granny Preston/Evil Robot Bill
"Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures" (1990) (voice only) .... Bill S. Preston, Esq.
Rosalie Goes Shopping (1989) .... Schatzi Greenspace
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989) .... Bill S. Preston, Esq.
The Lost Boys (1987) .... Marko
Death Wish 3 (1985) .... Hermosa