Screen star Debra Winger never wanted to be an actress, recalling, “I actually wanted to go into criminal rehabilitation.”

But at age 18, she was involved in a car crash and suffered a cerebral hemorrhage that left her partially paralyzed and blind for 10 months. With time on her hands to think about her life, she decided that, if she recovered, she would become an actress.

Here are 10 notable roles and what the 70-year-old says they mean to her.

Wonder Woman (1976)

On playing Wonder Girl in the TV series: “Most of the real ‘heroes’ I know are women who would not get called heroes. They are deeply flawed, and what’s within that human spectrum — feeling weak, crying, messing up, being angry — is much more exciting to me.”

Urban Cowboy (1980)

The romantic Western film’s director James Bridges and lead star John Travolta fought for her to play Sissy: “I knew that girl. I knew that role. I knew I could do it. Jim said, ‘You get her on the next plane to Texas or you don’t have a director.’ Then Travolta took the phone and added, ‘And you don’t have a star.’”

An Officer and a Gentleman (1982)

Keeping her humor about costar Richard Gere: “It’s well-known we didn’t connect. If a guy carries his girlfriend out of the theater because of the ending, then bravo! One less girl walkin’ to a parking lot!”

Terms of Endearment (1983)

“I like what it said about mother-daughter relationships. I wish cancer had only touched my life as many times as I have portrayed it in film. The contact, unfortunately, in life, is much greater.”

Legal Eagles (1986)

“We were like POWs together. I was horrified to see it edited with a chainsaw. As a friend of mine said, it’s the kind of film that takes audiences and shakes them up until $6 falls out of their pockets. I felt like a slice of rye in a loaf of Wonder Bread.”

Shadowlands (1993)

On costar Anthony Hopkins: “He’s nuts, but he’s great. He does not mind what he says. You need more people in life like that.”

Wilder Napalm (2001)

On why her real-life marriage to costar Arliss Howard endures: “The intention is to stay awake, stay alive, keep loving, keep lit up, keep being able to light up the other one. Those are the real tricks. That and some pixie dust.”

Rachel Getting Married (2008)

“I can’t bear to watch it. I see myself up there, and it’s not normal to scrutinize your own face on a screen this big; it’s like opening a vein.”

The Anarchist (2012)

“When you get an offer from (playwright) Dave Mamet and you’re gonna work with someone like Patti LuPone, if you say ‘no,’ you pretty much have to face the fact that you don’t want to do this anymore.”

The Ranch (2018)

“There’s something to getting to this time in your life and saying ‘Wow, I’ve never done that before.’ Scary is good. Scary’s my muse. It’s been incredible because you can learn something at my age. It’s fun to learn something new.”