Kate Winslet

Kate Elizabeth Winslet (born October 5, 1975) is an Academy Award-nominated English actress. She is noted for having played a wide range of diverse characters over her career. Though her best known role may be that of Rose DeWitt Bukater in the highest-grossing film of all time, Titanic (1997), she was also highly regarded for her first role as Juliet Hulme in Heavenly Creatures (1994).

Although Winslet has not won an Academy Award, she has been highly favoured by the Academy, and holds the record for the youngest person to receive two Oscar nominations, as well as the record for the most Oscar nominations of any actor before the age of 30 (having received a total of four nominations by that age).

Biography

Early life

Winslet was born in Reading, Berkshire to Roger Winslet and Sally Bridges, both of whom were actors. Her maternal grandparents, Oliver and Linda Bridges, founded and operated the Reading Repertory, and her uncle, Robert Bridges, appeared in the original West End production of Oliver! Her sisters are Beth Winslet and Anna Winslet, also actresses.

Winslet, raised an Anglican, began studying drama at the age of eleven at Redroofs stage school ^*, and was soon cast as a spokesperson for a cereal in television commercials.

Career

Winslet's career began on television, with a co-starring role in the BBC children's science-fiction serial Dark Season in 1991, followed by appearances in the made-for-tv movie Anglo-Saxon Attitudes in 1992 and an episode of the medical drama Casualty in 1993, also for the BBC.

Winslet's film career took off in 1994 when she starred in a joint leading role, as Juliet Hulme in director Peter Jackson's critically acclaimed Heavenly Creatures, playing a vivacious and imaginative teen who helps her best friend murder her mother when they are not allowed to be together. This role was followed by the successful film Sense and Sensibility (co-starring Emma Thompson), which made her well-known, especially in the UK. Winslet became famous world-wide after the 1997 release of Titanic, which was the most expensive film of all time, and became the highest-grossing film of all time after several months in release, grossing $600 million at the United States box office.

Winslet has also enjoyed a brief taste of success as a singer, with her single What If? from soundtrack of The Movie, which reached #1 in Ireland and #6 in the UK. More recently, she participated in a duet with singer "Weird Al" Yankovic on the Sandra Boynton CD, Dog Train, and sang in the 2006 film, Romance and Cigarettes. She also sang an aria from La Boheme, called Sono Andanti, in her film Heavenly Creatures, which is featured on the film's soundtrack.

Winslet has since become regarded as something of a critics' darling, having received generally positive reviews for every one of her films. Despite Titanic's success, Winslet has continued making lower-budget films, including Hideous Kinky and Holy Smoke; her roles in smaller, more artistic films appears to be one of choice, as she turned down the lead in Shakespeare in Love to make Hideous Kinky. She has also taken several roles in studio "period drama"s like Quills, Iris and Finding Neverland. For a time, she became associated with such films and given the nickname "Corset Kate". Winslet has most recently appeared in several American films, including the well-reviewed quirky comedy Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and the dramatic thriller The Life of David Gale.

In 2005, Winslet appeared in a television commercial for the American Express credit card. As part of the "My Life, My Card" campaign, the ad shows Winslet visiting shops in London as she makes references to all the events that have happened to her film characters - such as going to prison for murder (Heavenly Creatures), almost drowning (Titanic), and having her memory erased (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). During the ad, she is shown holding items relating to her films; during the reference to Sense and Sensibility she thumbs through a copy of the book, and when she references Finding Neverland, she's holding a hook.

Winslet also appeared in an episode of BBC's comedy series Extras in August of 2005, as herself. She memorably told Andy and Maggie, the two characters who star in the series, that she was doing a film about the Holocaust because she was tired of losing out on Oscars, as she's been nominated four times, and that everyone who does a film about the Holocaust wins an Oscar. Ricky Gervais later said on NPR that she was his favorite guest star.

In February 2006, Winslet announced that she will collaborate with her husband, director Sam Mendes, on a film version of the Richard Yates novel, Revolutionary Road.^*

Despite being married to one of the UK's best-known theatre directors, she is not a stage actress.

Personal life

On November 22, 1998, Winslet married director Jim Threapleton. The two have a daughter, Mia Honey, who was born on October 12, 2000. After a divorce in 2001, Winslet began a relationship with director Sam Mendes, whom she married on May 24, 2003, on the island of Anguilla in the Caribbean. Their son, Joe Alfie, was born on December 22, 2003.

The media, particularly in England, have enthusiastically documented her weight fluctuations over the years. Winslet has been outspoken about her refusal to lose weight in order to conform to the Hollywood ideal. In February 2003, the British edition of GQ magazine published photographs of Winslet which had been airbrushed to make her look dramatically thinner than she really was; Winslet issued a statement saying that the alterations were made without her consent.

Her home town of Reading has named a street – Winslet Place – in her honour, built on the site of a demolished cinema.

Awards and Nominations

Winslet has earned four Oscar nominations and four Golden Globe nominations, as well as one BAFTA Award and three further BAFTA nominations.

She has also received numerous awards and nominations from other organizations, including the Screen Actors Guild and the Evening Standard British Film Awards. A more comprehensive list can be found here

Academy Awards (Oscars)

On January 25, 2005, Winslet was nominated for an Oscar for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind where she eventually lost to Hilary Swank. She surpassed Marlon Brando's record for the youngest actor to have received four Oscar nominations. Her Titanic nomination secured her the record for the youngest ever double-Oscar-nominee. Her Academy Award nominations to date are as follows:

1995 - Nominated - Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Sense and Sensibility
1997 - Nominated - Best Actress in a Leading Role - Titanic
2001 - Nominated - Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Iris
2005 - Nominated - Best Actress in a Leading Role - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Golden Globes

Winslet has received Golden Globe nominations for Sense and Sensibilty (Best Supporting Actress), Titanic (Best Actress, Drama), Iris (Best Supporting Actress), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Best Actress, Musical or Comedy).

BAFTAs

Winslet won a BAFTA Award as Best Supporting Actress for her role in Sense and Sensibility. She also received a nomination as Best Supporting Actress for Iris, and a double nomination for Best Actress in 2005, for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Finding Neverland. She lost to Jennifer Connelly and Imelda Staunton, respectively.

Grammys

In 2000 she won a Grammy Award for the 'Best Spoken Word Album for Children' for Listen To the Storyteller.

Emmys

On July 6, 2006, Winslet was nominated for an Emmy Award for her guest appearance, playing herself, on an episode of "Extras" that premiered in 2004.

Selected filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2008	Gnomeo and Juliet	Juliet	(voice)
2006	The Holiday	Iris
	''Flushed Away	Rita	(voice)
	Little Children	Sarah Pierce
	All the King's Men	Anne Stanton
2005	Romance & Cigarettes	Tula
2004	Finding Neverland	Sylvia Llewelyn Davies	BAFTA nomination
	Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind	Clementine Kruczynski	Oscar, SAG, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations
2003	The Life of David Gale	Bitsey Bloom
2001	Iris	Young Iris Murdoch	Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations
	The Movie	Belle	(voice)
	Enigma	Hester Wallace
2000	Quills	Madeleine 'Maddy' LeClerc	SAG nomination
1999	Holy Smoke!	Ruth Barron
1999	Faeries	Brigid	(voice)
1998	Hideous Kinky	Julia
1997	Titanic	Rose DeWitt Bukater	Oscar, SAG, and Golden Globe nominations
1996	Hamlet	Ophelia
1996	Jude	Sue Bridehead
1995	Sense and Sensibility	Marianne Dashwood	SAG and BAFTA winner, Oscar and Golden Globe nominations
1995	A Kid in King Arthur's Court	Princess Sarah
1994	Heavenly Creatures	Juliet Hulme
1991	Dark Season (TV series)	Reet

External links

Interviews

The Blurb interview (April, 2004)
Index Magazine interview (2004)
The Early Show interview (February 20, 2003)
USA Weekend interview (February 24, 2002)
Ask Bonnie interview (November 25, 1999)
collection of older interviews

Web sites

References

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