Kate Elizabeth Winslet (born 5 October 1975) is an English actress and occasional singer. She is regarded as one of the best actresses of her generation,[1] in large part due to having become the youngest two-time, youngest five-time and youngest six-time Academy Award nominated actress for supporting actress roles in Sense and Sensibility, and Iris as well as for lead actress roles in Titanic, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Little Children and The Reader.[2] She has won awards from the Screen Actors Guild, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and she has been nominated for an Emmy.
After being raised in Berkshire, Winslet had some television roles in the early 1990s. She made her film debut starring in Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures (1994), for which she received her first notable critical praise. She achieved recognition for subsequent work in a supporting role in Ang Lee's adaption of Sense and Sensibility (1995) and her leading role as Rose DeWitt Bukater in James Cameron's Titanic (1997), the highest grossing film of all time.
Since 2000, Winslet has appeared in films such as the Iris Murdoch biopic Iris (2001), the neosurrealistic indie film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Todd Field's 2006 drama Little Children, the romantic comedy The Holiday (2006), and a screen adaption of Revolutionary Road (2008). Nominated for six Academy Awards, Winslet won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in The Reader, marking her first win. She has been hailed as "the best English-speaking film actress of her generation" by New York magazine.
In addition to her work on screen, she has earned a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children. She has been included as a vocalist on some soundtracks of works she has performed in, and one of them succeeded on the musical charts in a few countries. Winslet has a child with former spouse Jim Threapleton and is currently married to Sam Mendes with whom she lives in New York City.
Mini Biography
Ask Kate Winslet what she liked about any of her characters, and the word "ballsy" is bound to pop up at least once. The British actress has made a point of eschewing straightforward pretty-girl parts in favor of more devilish damsels; as a result, she's built an eclectic resume; that runs the gamut from Shakespearean tragedy to modern-day mysticism and erotica.
Born into a family of thespians -- parents Roger Winslet and Sally Bridges-Winslet were both stage actors, maternal grandparents Oliver and Linda Bridges ran the Reading Repertory Theatre, and uncle Robert Bridges was a fixture in London's West End theatre district -- Kate came into her talent at an early age. She scored her first professional gig at 11, dancing opposite the Honey Monster in a commercial for a kids' cereal. She started acting lessons around the same time, which led to formal training at a performing arts high school. Over the next few years she appeared on stage regularly and landed a few bit parts in sitcoms. Her first big break came at age 17, when she was cast as an obsessive adolescent in Heavenly Creatures (1994). The film, based on the true story of two fantasy-gripped girls who commit a brutal murder, received modest distribution but was roundly praised by critics.
Still a relative unknown, Winslet attended a cattle call audition the next year for Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility (1995). She made an immediate impression on the film's star, Emma Thompson, and beat out more than a hundred other hopefuls for the part of plucky Marianne Dashwood. Her efforts were rewarded with both a British Academy Award and an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Winslet followed up with two more period pieces, playing the rebellious heroine in Jude (1996) and Ophelia in Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet (1996).
The role that transformed Winslet from art house attraction to international star was Rose DeWitt Bukater, the passionate, rosy-cheeked aristocrat in James Cameron's Titanic (1997). Young girls the world over both idolized and identified with Winslet, swooning over all that face time opposite heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio and noting her refreshingly healthy, un-emaciated physique. Winslet's performance also garnered a Best Actress nomination, making her the youngest actress to ever receive two Academy nods.
After the swell of unexpected attention surrounding Titanic (1997), Winslet was eager to retreat into independent projects. Rumor has it that she turned down the lead roles in both Shakespeare in Love (1998) and Anna and the King (1999) in order to play adventurous soul searchers in Hideous Kinky (1998) and Holy Smoke (1999). The former cast her as a young single mother traveling through 1960s Morocco with her daughters in tow; the latter, as a zealous follower of a guru tricked into a "deprogramming" session in the Australian outback. The next year found her back in period dress as the Marquis de Sade's chambermaid and accomplice in Quills (2000). Kate holds the distinction of being the youngest actor ever honored with four Academy Award nominations (she received her fourth at age 29.)
Off camera, Winslet is known for her mischievous pranks and familial devotion. She has two sisters, Anna Winslet and Beth Winslet (both actresses), and a brother, Joss. In 1998, she married Jim Threapleton, whom she met on the set of Hideous Kinky (1998); the pair had a daughter, Mia, in October of 2000. They divorced in 2001. She later married director Sam Mendes in 2003 and has since given birth to their son Joe.
