Debra Winger Is 70! 5 Things You Didn’t Know About the Unpredictable Actress
As Hollywood filmmakers and stars can attest, Debra Winger certainly keeps things interesting! The actor — who turns 70 on May 16, 2025 — is best known for films like Urban Cowboy, An Officer and a Gentleman and Terms of Endearment. But she’s also known for her outspokenness, her intense commitment to roles, and her unpredictable antics. “There are lots of people who don’t like me,” she told The Telegraph in 2016. “I probably don’t get half as many Christmas cards as you do.”
In honor of Winger’s 70th birthday, here are five facts showing that she zigs when you’d expect her to zag.
1 Shirley MacLaine said Winger farted in her face
Courtesy of Everett Collection
Winger had a flatulent face-off with coster Shirley MacLaine on the first day of filming Terms of Endearment, according to MacLaine’s memoir My Lucky Stars.
In the book (per SFGate), MacLaine wrote that Winger commanded “Mom” to stand on her mark as they readied to film a scene. “I heard you,” MacLaine replied. “I know marks when I see them.”
“‘Good,’ [Winger] said,” MacLaine recalled. “‘How’s this for a mark?’ She turned around, walked away from me, lifted her skirt slightly, looked over her shoulder, bent over, and farted in my face.”
At a 2013 Hudson Union Society Event, MacLaine also said that Winger hid under the sheets as MacLaine and Nicholson filmed a post-coital scene. “I didn’t know she was going to be there,” she added. “That kind of tension was going on on the set.”
2 Michael Douglas said Winger bit him
Everett Collection
While Winger was filming Terms of Endearment, Michael Douglas met her for dinner to broach the idea of her costarring with him in Romancing the Stone, as he revealed on Rob Lowe’s Literally! podcast.
“And we’re talking and knocking back some tequilas and this and that,” he said. “And we walk out, and just as you would go, ‘Oh, you,’ and give somebody a little punch in the arm — like, joking around — she goes, ‘Oh, you,’ and she reaches over, and she bites me on my arm.”
As it turned out, the bite had broken Douglas’ skin, he said, and he realized it “could be rough” costarring with her.
When Douglas and director Robert Zemeckis went back to the studio, the actor said he couldn’t have Winger as his costar. “I [broke] down in tears and said, ‘I can’t go to the jungle with her. She bit me. She bit me in the arm. … It’s just not worth it. It’s just too hard.’” (The part went to Kathleen Turner.)
3 Winger turned down iconic films
Paramount Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection
Terms of Endearment director James L. Brooks offered Winger a role in his film Broadcast News — a role that went to Holly Hunter — but she said no because she was pregnant at the time, per the Los Angeles Times.
Similarly, producer George Lucas wanted Winger to star with Harrison Ford in Raiders of the Lost Ark, but Winger said no, according to Total Film, and the part went to Karen Allen.
Winger also turned down Glenn Close’s role in Fatal Attraction, according to The Chicago Tribune.
4 Winger dropped out of A League of Their Own after Penny Marshall cast Madonna as a costar
Columbia Pictures/ Courtesy: Everett Collection.
Winger told The Telegraph in 2021 that she signed on to do A League of Their Own in the role that eventually went to Geena Davis — and even trained with the Chicago Cubs for three months — but backed out of the project when director Penny Marshall added Madonna to the cast. At the time, Winger accused Marshall of making “an Elvis film” by casting the pop star.
“The studio agreed with me because it was the only time I ever collected a pay-or-play on my contract,” Winger added. “In other words, I collected my pay even though I did not play, and that’s very hard to get in a court.”
Winger’s opinion of Madonna apparently hasn’t improved much. “I think [her] acting career has spoken for itself,” she told the newspaper.
5 Andy Cohen named Winger as an example of a guest who “turned” on him mid-interview
In a 2018 interview on Watch What Happens Live, host Andy Cohen asked Winger to rank her onscreen kisses with John Travolta, Richard Gere, Anthony Hopkins, and Robert Redford.
“Oh god, what were you doing 40 years ago?” Winger responded. “So you remember somebody you kissed 30 years ago? You don’t think that you sort of are busy investigating a character, which puts you in another self state?”
@parademag Andy Cohen sat down with Anderson Cooper at a Tribeca Film Festival panel where they discussed one particular guest who wasn’t particularly fond of the #WatchWhatHappensLive host… #andycohen #andersoncooper #WWHL #bravo #debrawinger ♬ original sound – Parade Magazine
Cohen recalled that interview in a 2024 Tribeca Film Festival panel, as seen in a Parade video. “There have been times where the guest has kind of turned on me [which is] very fascinating, from a sociological perspective. … It’s not that fun for the host if the guest decides midway through, ‘I hate this guy.’ … Debra Winger had no terms of endearment for me.”
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