Alex Winter

Alexander Ross Winter (born July 17, 1965)[1] is an English–American[2] 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 its 2020 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;[3] and directing documentaries in the 2010s.

For the Welsh television personality, see Alex Winters.

Alex Winter
Winter in 2013
Born	Alexander Ross Winter (1965-07-17) July 17, 1965 London, England
Occupation	Actor, film director, screenwriter
Years active	1978–present
Spouse(s)	Sonya Dawson (1995–?; divorced) Ramsey Ann Naito ( m. 2010)
Children	3

Early life

Winter was born in London, England. His mother, Margaret "Gregg" Mayer, is a New York-born American and former Martha Graham dancer, who founded a modern-dance company in London in the mid-1960s. His father, Ross Albert Winter, is an Australian who danced with Winter's mother's troupe.[4][5] Winter received training in dance as a child. He has an older brother named Stephen. His father has English ancestry and his mother is Jewish, of Ukrainian Jewish descent.[6][7][8]

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.[9][10] The two divorced in 1973.[11]

In 1978, Winter moved to the New York City area, where he and his mother lived in Montclair, New Jersey.[12] During this time Winter began performing as an actor on and off Broadway, commuting into New York City.[11]

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.[13] 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, 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 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,[14] 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.

Winter at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival

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.[15] In 2010, he was attached to direct a 3D-remake of the 1987 horror film The Gate, which was scheduled for release in 2011.[16]

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 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, about the Panama Papers, and Trust Machine: The Story Of Blockchain, which premiered in Los Angeles on November 16, 2018.[17][18] 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.[19] 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.[20][21]

In April 2011, Winter's Bill & Ted co-star Keanu Reeves confirmed that a third installment of the film series was underway.[22] Winter confirmed work on Bill & Ted 3 was still in progress in a 2014 article on the original film's 25th anniversary.[23] In 2016, Winter said that he hoped the film would go into production in 2017.[24] 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.[25] 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.[26]

Winter maintains dual British and American citizenship.[27]

On February 2, 2018, Winter revealed that he was molested by an older man at age 13 while he was acting on Broadway.[28]

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.[29][30]

Filmography

Film

Directing

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer	Notes
1984	NYU Sight & Sound Project	Yes	No	No	Co-director with Tom Stern Short film
1985	Squeal of Death	Yes	Yes	Yes	Co-director with Tom Stern, co-writer Short film
1989	Aisles of Doom	Yes	Yes	No
	Bar-B-Que Movie	Yes	No	No	Co-director with Tom Stern Short film
1990	Howie Meets the Ghost of Environmental Disasters Yet to Come	Yes	No	No
1991 or 1992	Meals on Wheels	Yes	Yes	No	Co-director with Tom Stern, co-writer Short film
1993	Freaked	Yes	Yes	Yes	Co-director with Tom Stern, co-writer, co-producer
1999	Fever	Yes	Yes	No
2012	Downloaded	Yes	Yes	Yes	Documentary film on Napster and its community[31]
2015	Deep Web: The Untold Story of Bitcoin and the Silk Road	Yes	Yes	Yes	Documentary film[32]
	Smosh: The Movie	Yes	No	No
2016	Anyone Can Quantum	Yes	No	Yes	Short film
	Relatively Free	Yes	No	Yes	Documentary short on Barrett Brown
2017	Trump's Lobby	Yes	No	Yes
2018	The Panama Papers	Yes	Yes	Yes	Documentary film
	Trust Machine: The Story Of Blockchain	Yes	Yes	Yes	Documentary film
2020	Showbiz Kids	Yes	Yes	Yes	Documentary film on child actors in Hollywood
	Zappa	Yes	Yes	Yes	Documentary film on Frank Zappa's archives[33]

Acting

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1984	NYU Sight & Sound Project	Geek	Short film
1985	Squeal of Death	Howie / various characters	Short film Aired on Night Flight and West Coast Cable
	Death Wish 3	Hermosa
1987	The Lost Boys	Marko Davies
	Medium Rare	Timmy
1988	Haunted Summer	Dr. John William Polidori
1989	Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure	Bill S. Preston, Esq.
	Rosalie Goes Shopping	Schatzi Greenspace
	Aisles of Doom	Grendel T.W. Ulcerous	Short film Aired on Night Flight and West Coast Cable
	Entering Texas a.k.a. Bar-B-Que Movie	Mexican hitchhiker	Short film Part of Stuart S. Shapiro's Impact Video Magazine
1990	Howie Meets the Ghost of Environmental Disasters Yet to Come	Howie	Short film Part of Nigel Dick-directed Save the Planet: A CBS/Hard Rock Cafe Special
1991	Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey	Bill S. Preston, Esq. / Granny Preston / Evil Robot Bill
1991 or 1992	Meals on Wheels	Dweeb	Short film Made for The Playboy Channel's Inside Out late night anthology series
1993	Freaked	Ricky Coogin
1997	The Borrowers	TV Gangster
1999	Fever	Subway passenger
2013	Grand Piano	Assistant
2015	Smosh: The Movie	Uncle Keith
2019	In Search of Darkness	Himself	Documentary film
2020	Bill & Ted Face the Music	Bill S. Preston, Esq.	Post-production

Television

Directing

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer	Notes
1991	The Idiot Box	Yes	Yes	No	6 episodes Co-director with Tom Stern, co-writer of 1 episode: "The Best of the Idiot Box"
2003	Jimmy Kimmel Live!	Yes	No	No	Various segments
2005	Dirty Famous	Yes	No	No
2005–2007	The Andy Milonakis Show	Yes	No	No
2007	Ben 10: Race Against Time	Yes	No	Yes	TV movie
2009	Ben 10: Alien Swarm	Yes	No	Yes	TV movie
2011	Blue Mountain State	Yes	No	No	Episodes "The Corn Field" and "The Corn Field 2"
2011–2013	Supah Ninjas	Yes	No	No	5 episodes
2012	Level Up	Yes	No	No	4 episodes
2013	Marvin Marvin	Yes	No	No	Episode "Mr. Earth"
	Betas	Yes	No	No	Episode "Show & Tell"
2014	Maker Shack Agency	Yes	No	No	Episode "Pilot"
2015	Bella and the Bulldogs	Yes	No	No	Episode "Tornado Afraido"
	Kirby Buckets	Yes	No	No	Episodes "Gimme Some Room" and "All Hands on Dexter"
2016	Quantum Is Calling	Yes	No	Yes	TV movie

Acting

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1985	The Equalizer	Jeffrey	1 episode: "Mama's Boy"
1990	Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures	Bill S. Preston, Esq. (voice)	13 episodes
1991	The Idiot Box	Various roles	6 episodes
1993	Basic Values: Sex, Shock & Censorship in the 90's	Stinx on Ice	TV Movie
2007	Ben 10: Race Against Time	Constantine Jacobs	TV Movie
	Bones	Monte Gold	1 episode: "The Girl in the Gator"
	Saul of the Mole Men	King Mole Man (voice)	5 episodes
2009	Ben 10: Alien Swarm	Nanomech (voice)	TV Movie
2012, 2019	Robot Chicken	Bill S. Preston, Esq. (voice), Steve Burns (voice), Earl the Lego Man (voice)	2 episodes

Music videos

Year	Song	Artist	Notes
1989	"Higher Ground"	Red Hot Chili Peppers	Actor
	"Knock Me Down"		Co-director with Tom Stern Actor, as Young Man
	"Taste the Pain"		Director
1990	"Who's the Mack?"	Ice Cube	Co-director with Tom Stern
	"Me & Elvis"	Human Radio
	"Decadence Dance"	Extreme
1991	"Photograffitti"		Director
1993	"The Jackal"	Ronny Jordan
1994	"Hard Act to Follow"	Brother Cane	Actor
	"Milquetoast"	Helmet	Director
	"Wilma's Rainbow"
1995	"1 to 1 Religion"	Bomb the Bass feat. Carlton
	"Verklemmt"	Foetus
1996	"If 6 Was 9"	Axiom Funk
1997	"Bug Powder Dust"	Bomb the Bass feat. Justin Warfield
	"Exactly What You Wanted"	Helmet
2003	"Talamanam Sound Clash"	Tabla Beat Science	Concert DVD Co-director with Zane Vella

Theatre

Year	Show	Role	Notes
1977–1978	The King and I	Louis Leonowens	1977 Broadway revival, Replacement part
1979–1981	Peter Pan	John Darling	1979 Broadway revival

References

1. "Alexander R Winter, England and Wales Birth Registration Index, 1837-2008". FamilySearch. 1965.
2. "Watch KPCS: Alex Winter #215 | Kevin Pollak's Chat Show Episodes | Entertainment Videos | Blip". September 12, 2014. Archived from the original on September 12, 2014. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
3. Smith, Kyle (March 25, 2015). "What happened to the other guy from 'Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure'?". New York Post.
4. Alex Winter Biography – Yahoo! Movies
5. "Alex Winter Biography (1965-)". filmreference.com.
6. https://jewishjournal.com/culture/arts/318479/hbo-doc-showbiz-kids-exposes-the-dark-side-of-child-stardom/
7. http://www.eightieskids.com/ten-surprising-facts-about-alex-winter/
8. https://pandagossips.com/posts/2161
9. "Dude! It's Alex Winter!". CNN. November 12, 2002. Retrieved April 23, 2010.
10. "Bill and Ted – Articles Archive". billandted.org. Archived from the original on November 20, 2010.
11. Schindehette, Susan (August 12, 1991). "An Excellent Dude Goes to Hell". People.
12. Whitty, Stephen (May 29, 2015). "Alex Winter's excellent adventure, from NJ to the 'Deep Web'". NJ.com.
13. Garrity, Philip (January 29, 2014). "The Revolution Will Be Digitized". Westchester Magazine.
14. Burr, Ty (October 15, 1993). "EW review of 'Freaked'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved September 21, 2007.
15. Sciretta, Peter (July 30, 2008), Alex Winter to Write Howard Stern's Rock 'n' Roll High School Remake, /Film, archived from the original on January 5, 2010, retrieved June 9, 2010
16. "Remaking The Gate – Interview Alex Winter". screen/read. Archived from the original on September 9, 2010. Retrieved August 12, 2010.
17. "Alex Winter LA Premier with Blockchain Beach & Singular DTV". BlockchainBeach.us. Retrieved November 16, 2018.
18. "Trust Machine LA Premier with Alex Winter, Rosario Dawson & Austin Davis". IMDB.com. Retrieved November 16, 2018.
19. "Frank Zappa Documentary by Alex Winter Starts Production". Rolling Stone.
20. "Alex Winter". AlexWinter.com. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
21. Anita Busch (April 21, 2016). "Frank Zappa Pic Highest-Funded Documentary Ever On Kickstarter With Final $1.12M – Update". deadline.com. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
22. "Bill & Ted 3". Archived from the original on April 10, 2011.
23. Freeman, Hadley (April 17, 2014). "Bill & Ted's 25th birthday: party on, dudes!". The Guardian. Retrieved April 18, 2014.
24. "Bill & Ted 3 is finally going into production". consequenceofsound.net. April 13, 2016. Retrieved February 12, 2017.
25. "Keanu Reeves confirms new Bill & Ted movie, and it's got a bonkers plot". consequenceofsound.net. February 11, 2017. Retrieved February 12, 2017.
26. "Alex Winter, the Slacker from Bill & Ted's Excellent Edventure, Finds Directing More Bodacious Than Acting". November 18, 2002. Retrieved May 23, 2013.
27. Kevin Pollak interview with Alex Winter Archived September 12, 2014, at the Wayback Machine (September 8, 2014).
28. Chiles, Adrian; Winter, Alex (February 2, 2018). "Chiles on" (Audio interview, starts at 1:07). BBC Radio 5 Live. BBC.
29. Winter, Alex (January 19, 2020). "Bernie now has my endorsement for the Primary. Will vote Dem in the General, whoever it is". @Winter. Retrieved January 20, 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. Retrieved May 1, 2012.
32. "Kickstarter: Deep Web: The Untold Story of Bitcoin and the Silk Road". Retrieved December 18, 2013.
33. "'Zappa': Magnolia Pictures Serving Up Frank Zappa Documentary For Thanksgiving". Retrieved August 10, 2020.

External links

• Official website
• Alex Winter on Twitter
• Alex Winter on IMDb
• Alex Winter at the Internet Broadway Database