Alex Winter

For the Welsh television personality, see Alex Winters.
British-American actorTemplate:SHORTDESC:British-American actor[[Category:**Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Pagetype/config' not found.**s with short description]]

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**Alexander Ross Winter** (born July 17, 1965) is an English–American actor, film director, and screenwriter, best known for his role as "Bill S. Preston, Esq." in the 1989 film *Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure*, its 1991 sequel *Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey*, and a planned sequel *Bill & Ted Face the Music*. He is also known for his role as Marko in the 1987 vampire film *The Lost Boys*; co-writing, co-directing, and starring in the 1993 film *Freaked*; and directing documentaries in the 2010s.

## Early life

Winter was born in London, England, to a family of Jewish background. His mother is Margaret "Gregg" Mayer, a New York-born American and former Martha Graham dancer who founded a modern-dance company in London in the mid-1960s, and his father is Ross Albert Winter, an Australian who danced with Winter's mother's troupe. Winter received training in dance as a child. He has an older brother named Stephen.

When Winter was five, his family moved to Missouri, where his father ran the Mid-American Dance Company, while his mother taught dance at Washington University in St. Louis. The two divorced in 1973.

In 1978, Winter moved to the New York City area, where he and his mother lived in Montclair, New Jersey. During this time Winter began performing as an actor on and off Broadway, commuting into New York City.

In 1983, after graduating from Montclair High School, Winter was accepted into the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. While at NYU, he met fellow aspiring filmmaker Tom Stern. The two collaborated on a number of 16mm short films and both graduated with honours.

## Career

As an actor, Winter spent many years on Broadway with supporting roles in productions of *The King and 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 Theatre 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 notable 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,Template:Citation needed but the channel's budgetary problems prevented them from filming additional seasons,Template:Citation needed and it was canceled after six episodes. Winter, Stern and Burns accepted a $12 million 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 favourite, through festivals, TV and DVD, and was cited by *Entertainment Weekly*, on their list of Top Ten Comedies of the Nineties.

 File:Alex Winter.jpg
Winter did not return to directing until 1999, when he filmed *Fever*. The film was shown at film festivals worldwide, including Official Selection in the Director's Fortnight at Cannes. New York *Daily News* praised the film, calling it "a claustrophobic mind bender. Winter sustains an aura of creepiness worthy of Roman Polanski."

Winter directed the live-action adaptation of the hit Cartoon Network series *Ben 10*, which aired in November 2007 and garnered the highest ratings in Cartoon Network history. He directed its sequel, *Ben 10: Alien Swarm* which aired on Cartoon Network in November 2009 and captured over 16 million viewers in its premiere weekend. As of 2008, he was attached to write the screenplay for the Howard Stern-produced remake of *Rock 'n' Roll High School*. In 2010, he was attached to direct a 3D-remake of the 1987 horror film *The Gate*, which was scheduled for release in 2011.

In April 2011, Winter's *Bill & Ted* co-star Keanu Reeves confirmed that a third installment of the film series was underway. Winter confirmed work on *Bill & Ted 3* was still in progress in a 2014 article on the original film's 25th anniversary. In 2016, Winter said that he hoped the film would go into production in 2017. Reeves confirmed in February 2017 that the third film is being made, and the writers have a story. "Basically, they're supposed to write a song to save the world and they haven't done that" Reeves said about the plot of the movie.

Winter's 2012 VH1 Rock Doc *Downloaded* earned worldwide critical acclaim at theatrical and festival screenings. Winter's multiple award-winning 2015 documentary Deep Web, had its world premiere at SXSW and a broadcast premiere in the U.S. on the Epix network alongside a global festival tour. The film went wide on September, 2015, opening as the #1 documentary on iTunes.

In 2013, he had a role in the thriller *Grand Piano*, starring Elijah Wood and John Cusack, playing The Assistant.

In July 2015, Winter began work on a biographical documentary of the rock guitarist and composer Frank Zappa. The Zappa Family Trust publicly gave its approval to Winter's plans for the film.

In 2016, Winter released a short documentary entitled *Relatively Free* about journalist Barrett Brown's release from prison. This was followed in 2017 by another short documentary, *Trump's Lobby*, about President elect Donald Trump.

In 2018, Winter released two documentaries, *The Panama Papers* (film), about the Panama Papers, and *Trust Machine: The Story Of Blockchain*, which premiered in Los Angeles on November 16, 2018. Soon to be released, *Zappa*, on the life and times of Frank Zappa, will not only be the first documentary with access to his archives, but this project was the highest funded documentary in crowdfunding history, via Kickstarter.

Scheduled for 2020, Winter returns as Bill S. Preston, Esq. in *Bill & Ted Face the Music*, currently in post-production.

### Technology and privacy activism

Winter is also an outspoken advocate for technology and privacy rights.

Winter said he began devoting a lot of his attention to the Internet not just because he liked technology, but also because "I found this community there." Winter liked the idea of large numbers of anonymous users discussing a variety of topics in an anonymous space. "I found that really striking then. And it seemed liked the beginning of something," he said.

He criticized media companies and news outlets for exaggerating how many people used Napster for digital piracy. "Napster was a huge threat to the power structure," Winter said.

Winter's interest in technology, the Internet and privacy inspired him to make the 2012 documentary film *Downloaded*, about internet file sharing and Napster, and the 2015 film *Deep Web*, about the Silk Road, bitcoin, and the dark web.

## Personal life

Winter was married to Sonya Dawson, with whom he had a son, born in 1998. The couple later divorced. In 2010, he married Ramsey Ann Naito. They have two children.

Winter maintains dual British and American citizenship.

On February 2, 2018, Winter revealed that he was molested by an older man at age 13 while he was acting on Broadway.

In January 2020, Winter endorsed Bernie Sanders in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries and subsequently backed Joe Biden when he became the presumptive nominee.

## Filmography

### Film

Directing

Acting

### Television

Directing

Acting

## References

1. ↑ "Alexander R Winter, England and Wales Birth Registration Index, 1837-2008". 1965. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVWD-S8KH.
2. ↑ "Watch KPCS: Alex Winter #215 | Kevin Pollak's Chat Show Episodes | Entertainment Videos | Blip". 2014-09-12. http://blip.tv/kevin-pollaks-chat-show/kpcs-alex-winter-215-7027354.
3. ↑ "What happened to the other guy from 'Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure'?", *New York Post* (25 March 2015).
4. ↑ http://www.eightieskids.com/ten-surprising-facts-about-alex-winter/
5. ↑ http://www.israellycool.com/2019/11/16/bills-bogus-views/
6. ↑ https://pandagossips.com/posts/2161
7. ↑ Alex Winter Biography – Yahoo! Movies
8. ↑ "Alex Winter Biography (1965-)". *filmreference.com*. http://www.filmreference.com/film/9/Alex-Winter.html.
9. ↑ "Dude! It's Alex Winter!", *CNN* (November 12, 2002). Retrieved on April 23, 2010.
10. ↑ "Bill and Ted – Articles Archive". *billandted.org*. Archived from the original on November 20, 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20101120051123/http://billandted.org/venice0891.html.
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "An Excellent Dude Goes to Hell" (in en), *People* (12 August 1991).
12. ↑ "Alex Winter's excellent adventure, from NJ to the 'Deep Web'", *NJ.com* (29 May 2015).
13. ↑ "The Revolution Will Be Digitized" (in en), *Westchester Magazine* (29 January 2014).
14. ↑ Burr, Ty (October 15, 1993). "EW review of 'Freaked'", *Entertainment Weekly*. Retrieved on September 21, 2007.
15. ↑ Template:Citation
16. ↑ "Remaking *The Gate* – Interview Alex Winter". screen/read. Archived from the original on September 9, 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20100909165838/http://www.screenread.de/the-gate-3d-alex-winter-interview-english. Retrieved August 12, 2010.
17. ↑ "Bill & Ted 3". Archived from the original on April 10, 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110410001804/http://www.nme.com/movies/news/keanu-reeves-confirms-that-bill-and-ted-3-is-on-the/211337.
18. ↑ Freeman, Hadley (April 17, 2014). "Bill & Ted's 25th birthday: party on, dudes!". Retrieved on April 18, 2014.
19. ↑ "Bill & Ted 3 is finally going into production". *consequenceofsound.net*. April 13, 2016. http://consequenceofsound.net/2016/04/bill-ted-3-is-finally-going-into-production/. Retrieved February 12, 2017.
20. ↑ "Keanu Reeves confirms new Bill & Ted movie, and it's got a bonkers plot". *consequenceofsound.net*. February 11, 2017. http://consequenceofsound.net/2017/02/keanu-reeves-confirms-new-bill-ted-movie-and-its-got-a-bonkers-plot/. Retrieved February 12, 2017.
21. ↑ "Frank Zappa Documentary by Alex Winter Starts Production". *Rolling Stone*. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/frank-zappa-documentary-by-alex-winter-starts-production-20150724.
22. ↑ "Alex Winter LA Premier with Blockchain Beach & Singular DTV". *BlockchainBeach.us*. https://www.blockchainbeach.us/event-calendar/2018/11/17/trust-machine-film-blockchian-101-eduactional-workshop-and-industy-panel-9l3ph-7x5xs/. Retrieved 2018-11-16.
23. ↑ "Trust Machine LA Premier with Alex Winter, Rosario Dawson & Austin Davis". *IMDB.com*. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7407496/mediaviewer/rm4057164544/. Retrieved 2018-11-16.
24. ↑ "Alex Winter". *AlexWinter.com*. http://alexwinter.com/. Retrieved 2018-10-18.
25. ↑ Anita Busch (2016-04-21). "Frank Zappa Pic Highest-Funded Documentary Ever On Kickstarter With Final $1.12M – Update". *deadline.com*. https://deadline.com/2016/04/frank-zappa-pic-highest-ever-funded-documentary-on-kickstarter-1201733193/. Retrieved 2018-10-18.
26. ↑ "Alex Winter, the Slacker from Bill & Ted's Excellent Edventure, Finds Directing More Bodacious Than Acting" (November 18, 2002). Retrieved on May 23, 2013.
27. ↑ Kevin Pollak interview with Alex Winter Template:Webarchive (September 8, 2014).
28. ↑ "Chiles on" (Audio interview, starts at 1:07), *BBC Radio 5 Live*, BBC (2 February 2018).
29. ↑ Winter, Alex (19 January 2020). "Bernie now has my endorsement for the Primary. Will vote Dem in the General, whoever it is." (in en). https://twitter.com/Winter/status/1219125874047492096. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
30. ↑ https://twitter.com/Winter/status/1247910164419706883
31. ↑ Cangialosi, Jason. "Interview: Alex Winter on Napster Documentary 'Downloaded'". Yahoo! Movies. Archived from the original on May 13, 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120513022550/http://movies.yahoo.com/news/interview-alex-winter-napster-documentary-downloaded-182000625.html. Retrieved May 1, 2012.
32. ↑ "Kickstarter: Deep Web: The Untold Story of Bitcoin and the Silk Road". http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/alexwinter/deep-web-the-untold-story-of-bitcoin-and-the-silk. Retrieved December 18, 2013.

## External links

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* Template:Official website
* Alex Winter on Twitter**Lua error in Module:EditAtWikidata at line 36: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).**Template:WikidataCheck
* Template:IMDb name
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