Debra Winger was born on May 16, 1955, in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, into a Jewish family. Her parents were Robert Winger, a meat packer, and Ruth Felder, an office manager. When she was five, her family moved to California, where she grew up. As a teenager, she graduated high school early and initially pursued a degree in criminology before a serious accident changed her path.

At 18, she was involved in a car crash that left her partially paralyzed and blind for ten months. During her recovery, she decided to become an actress if she regained her sight, which she eventually did.

Her acting career began with small roles in TV shows like "Wonder Woman" and the soft-core porn film "Slumber Party '57." Her breakthrough came with the film "Urban Cowboy" in 1980, where she starred opposite John Travolta. This role earned her a BAFTA nomination and established her as a new kind of sex symbol.

She continued to build her career with notable performances in "An Officer and a Gentleman" (1982), "Terms of Endearment" (1983), and "Shadowlands" (1993), each earning her Academy Award nominations for Best Actress.

In her personal life, Debra Winger has been married twice. Her first marriage was to actor Timothy Hutton, with whom she had a son, Noah. They divorced in 1990, and she later married writer/director Arliss Howard in 1996.

The couple has two children together, including a son named Gideon. She took a break from acting in the mid-1990s to focus on her family and other interests, including lecturing at Harvard University and writing a book about her decision to step away from Hollywood.

Despite her hiatus, Debra Winger made a successful return to acting with roles in films like "Rachel Getting Married" (2008) and the Netflix series "The Ranch" (2016-2020). She also made her Broadway debut in 2012 with David Mamet's play "The Anarchist." In 2014, she received a lifetime achievement award at the Transilvania International Film Festival.

She has been recognized with several awards, including the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress for "Terms of Endearment" and the Tokyo International Film Festival Award for Best Actress for "A Dangerous Woman."