Eighties Hollywood legend, 68, unrecognisable 44 years after hit movie-Joel Harley-Entertainment – Metro

Eighties movie legend Debra Winger now looks unrecognisable, 44 years after her hit movie (Picture: Rex)

Eighties Hollywood legend Debra Winger looks completely unrecognisable 44 years after starring in the hit movie Urban Cowboy.

The actress, now 68, rose to fame in such Hollywood hits as An Officer and a Gentleman and Terms of Endearment.

She was perhaps most well-known for her 1980 romantic drama Urban Cowboy, in which she played the spunky love interest to John Travolta.

Debra was nominated for a number of awards for her performance in the film, including a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress and Bafta for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles.

However, the star stepped out of the spotlight in the mid-nineties – not appearing on the big screen again for six years after the release of 1995’s Forget Paris.

Debra, now 68, stepped out recently to appear at the Drive Away Dolls premiere in New York.

Debra appeared with her son Gideon Babe Ruth Howard at the premiere of Drive-Away Dolls(Picture: Evan Agostini)

Wearing her curly hair its now-natural silver, the actress wore a dark blazer with a blue blouse, loose-fitting dark trousers, and chunky black boots.

She accessorised with a multicoloured check scarf, while a pair of dark-rimmed glasses showed off her sparkling blue eyes.

Debra was accompanied by her son, Gideon Babe Ruth Howard, 26, who posed with his mum for a series of snaps on the red carpet.

Although she looks unrecognisable from her movie heyday, she retains a similar sense of fashion – including her thick, once-brunette curls, and minimal make-up.

Debra is best known for her role in Urban Cowboy (Picture: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Debra starred alongside Richard Gere in An Officer and a Gentleman (Picture: Everett/REX/Shutterstock)

During her time away from Hollywood, the actress worked as a lecturer at Harvard University and even wrote a book on her ‘retirement’ from acting.

In the memoir, she describes how she chose to step away from the silver screen to forge out a life beyond acting.

‘I love the work,’ she wrote. ‘And don’t much care for the business.’

In addition to her nominations for Urban Cowboy, the actress won a National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress in 1984, and scored Best Actress Oscar nominations for An Officer and a Gentleman, Terms of Endearment and Shadowlands.

In 1996, Debra married writer/director Arliss Howard, whom she met on the set of the film Wilder Napalm. They have three children together – one each from a previous marriage, plus a son Gideon, born in 1997.

A pair of thick glasses show off Debra’s striking blue eyes (Picture: Shutterstock)

Prior to meeting Arliss, Debra was married to actor Timothy Hutton, with whom she had her first son, Noah Hutton.

Winger’s profile has risen again in recent years, with the actress starring as Maggie Bennett in the hit Netflix soap opera The Ranch.

Since her return to filmmaking, she has also appeared in episodes of Law & Order, Mr. Corman and In Treatment.

In 2014, she won the TIFF Award for Lifetime Achievement.

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