Mare Winningham

Winningham was born in Phoenix, Arizona, and raised in Northridge, California. She is the daughter of Marilyn Jean (née Maloney) and Sam Neal Winningham. She has three brothers and one sister. Her father was football coach, athletic director and later the chairman of the Department of Physical Education at California State University, Northridge (CSUN), and her mother was an English teacher and college counselor at Monroe High School and Grant High School. She credits her first interest in acting to seeing an interview with Kym Karath (who played Gretl in The Sound of Music) on Art Linkletter's television show House Party when she was five or six years old.

Winningham attended Andasol Avenue Elementary School, where her favorite activities included drama and playing the guitar and drums. She took the extended drama option at Patrick Henry Junior High School and continued to study over her summer vacations at CSUN's Teenage Drama Workshop. It was at this time that she adopted the nickname "Mare". Her mother arranged for her to go to Chatsworth High School. In grade 12, Winningham starred in a production of The Sound of Music, playing the part of Maria, opposite classmate Kevin Spacey as Captain Von Trapp. Her high school boyfriend was Val Kilmer. She graduated co-valedictorian (with Spacey) of her high school class in 1977.