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Kate Winslet

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Kate Winslet
Born
Kate Elizabeth Winslet
Height5'6½" (169 cm) [1]

Kate Elizabeth Winslet (born October 5, 1975) is a BAFTA Award-winning British 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 two records in that area: the youngest person to receive two Oscar nominations, and the most Oscar nominations of any actor before the age of 30 (having received a total of four nominations by that age). In addition, there have been only two occasions where two actors playing the same character have both been nominated for an Oscar; Winslet was a nominee in both instances.

Biography

Early life

Winslet was born in Reading, Berkshire, England 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,[1] and was soon cast as a spokesperson for a cereal in television commercials.


Career

File:KateWinsletTitanic3.jpg
Winslet in Titanic

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.

File:Winslet & Lynskey in Heavenly Creatures.jpg
Winslet alongside Melanie Lynskey in Heavenly Creatures, this was her first film role.

Winslet's film career took off with laudatory praise and recognition 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.

In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind]] Winslet has 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 strolling around Camden Lock, 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), being penniless and heartbroken (Sense and Sensibility), 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.[2]

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.[3]

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.

Trivia

  • Has exceptionally big feet which she claims she inherited from her mother. She was teased for them as a child, as well as being obese. She was teased and bullied a great deal. Her feet are incredibly big (size US 11) for a woman so short (5'6" 1/2). They are so big in fact that she mostly wears heavy-duty men's workboots. Although she says she prefers to because they make her feel like her feet are "firmly on the ground."[citation needed]
  • Demanded the role of Rose DeWitt Bukater in "Titanic." She insisted to director James Cameron that she was Rose and that that role was for her. "I am Rose," she insisted. "I don't even know why you're seeing anyone else."[citation needed]
  • Is a good friend of Kenneth Brannagh and Leonardo DiCaprio.[citation needed]
  • Is a good friend of Emma Thompson and has been ever since "Sense and Sensibility." Thompson said that if Winslet slimmed herself down to movie-star shape, Thompson would never speak to her again.[citation needed]

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. Premiere Magazine named her performance as Clementine Kruczynski in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind the 81st greatest film performance of all time.

She has also received numerous awards and nominations from other organizations, including the Screen Actors Guild and the Evening Standard British Film Awards.

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. She also received two nominations for playing younger versions of another nominee in the same film, the only two instances different actors playing the same role had been nominated. She played the younger version of nominee Gloria Stuart in Titanic, and nominee Judi Dench in Iris. Her Academy Award nominations to date are as follows:

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. In this episode she comically criticizes the fact that she was nominated for an oscar four times, but has never won one.

Music

Winslet has also enjoyed a brief taste of success as a singer, with her single ["[What If? (2001 song)|What If?]]" from soundtrack of Christmas Carol: The Movie, which reached #1 in Ireland and #6 in the UK. More recently, she participated in a duet with "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.

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
Christmas Carol: The Movie Belle (voice)
Enigma Hester Wallace
2000 Quills Madeleine 'Maddy' LeClerc SAG nomination
1999 Holy Smoke! Ruth Barron
Faeries Brigid (voice)
1998 Hideous Kinky Julia
1997 Titanic Rose DeWitt Bukater Oscar, SAG, and Golden Globe nominations
1996 Hamlet Ophelia
Jude Sue Bridehead
1995 Sense and Sensibility Marianne Dashwood SAG and BAFTA winner, Oscar and Golden Globe nominations
A Kid in King Arthur's Court Princess Sarah
1994 Heavenly Creatures Juliet Hulme
1991 Dark Season (TV series) Reet

Notes

  1. ^ http://www.redroofs.co.uk/information.html#day2
  2. ^ http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4859247
  3. ^ http://www.entertainmentwise.com/news?id=14018
  • Has banned any mention of body image in her household due to frustration over Hollywood's obsession with weight. [1]

References

  • "'The Office' Star Ricky Gervais Back with 'Extras'". Retrieved 2006-06-05. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |curly= and |coauthors= (help)

Interviews

Web sites

  1. ^ http://theblemish.com/2006/09/kate-winslet-lives-in-her-own-ignorance/
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