Why Is She Famous?
Kate Winslet starred in Titanic, Sense and Sensibility and a number of other British period pieces. She has also been nominated for an Academy Award an impressive number times.
Kate Winslet starred in Titanic, Sense and Sensibility and a number of other British period pieces. She has also been nominated for an Academy Award an impressive number times.
Kate Winslet Picture Name
Kate Winslet
Full Name
Kate Elizabeth Winslet
Nick Names
Corset Kate, Combat Kate, English Rose
Date Of Birth
October 5th, 1975
Place Of Birth
Reading, England
Kate Winslet
Full Name
Kate Elizabeth Winslet
Nick Names
Corset Kate, Combat Kate, English Rose
Date Of Birth
October 5th, 1975
Place Of Birth
Reading, England
Sign
Libra
Height
5'8''
Hair
Blonde
Eyes
Blue-green (hazel)
Occupation
Actress
Husband
Libra
Height
5'8''
Hair
Blonde
Eyes
Blue-green (hazel)
Occupation
Actress
Husband
Jim Threapleton
Father
Roger
Mother
Sally
Salary
Finding Neverland (2004) £ 6,000,000
Enigma (2001) £ 300,000
Quills (2000) £ 450,000
Holy Smoke (1999) £ 360,000
Titanic (1997) $2,000,000
Mailing Address
Kate Winslet
c/o PMK
955 S. Carillo Dr. 200
Los Angeles, CA 90048
USA
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Kate Winslet
USA
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Kate Winslet
503 The Chambers
Chelsea Harbour, Lots Road
London SW10 OXF
United Kingdom
All The King's Men ( 2005 )
Holy Smoke ( 1999 )
Hamlet ( 1996 )
Biography
Kate Elizabeth Winslet was born October 5, 1975, in Reading, England. With acting deep-rooted into her genes, it was no wonder Kate herself would also turn to the dramatic arts.
Her grandparents, Oliver and Linda Bridges, founded and operated the Reading Repertory theater; father Roger Winslet and mum Sally were both actors; uncle Robert Bridges appeared in the original West End production of Oliver!; and both her sisters Beth and Anna are actors. Her younger brother Joss is probably the only Winslet that did not enter the family business.
kate winslet in king arthur's court
She made her debut at age 11, when she costarred with the "Honey Monster" in a commercial for a children's breakfast. After acting lessons and a graduation from a performing arts high school, Kate took to the stage in productions of Adrian Mole and Peter Pan. Kate then took the television route, with appearances on sitcoms, most notably a recurring role on the British comedy, Get Back. Kate went from a rather dark role in the 1994 film Heavenly Creatures (as a teen involved in a murder), to the more children-oriented A Kid in King Arthur's Court, where she starred as Princess Sarah.
kate winslet's sense & sensibility
The British actress' career was about to rise, after Kate was cast as Marianne Dashwood in the adaptation of Jane Austen's period piece, Sense and Sensibility, sharing the screen with Emma Thompson and Hugh Grant. The film's producers and director, Ang Lee, knew that Kate was the one for the part during her audition, and to underscore that decision, she received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She may have lost the Oscar, but she did win the Screen Actors Guild for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role, and a British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Supporting Actress Award, both for Sense and Sensibility.
As even more evidence that Kate was a natural in a corset, she next starred in two more period pieces in 1996: Jude (based on the novel Jude the Obscure), and Hamlet (the one with Kenneth Branagh), where she starred as the tragic Ophelia.
kate winslet's titanic role
In 1997, Kate plunged into the icy waters and made movie history, as the heroine of James Cameron's mega movie Titanic. Her role as Rose DeWitt Bukater not only made her the envy of teenage girls worldwide (for getting to share breathing space with Leonardo DiCaprio), but it also marked her transition from artsy, independent films, to commercial blockbuster flicks. She received another Oscar nod, this time in the Best Supporting Actress category, making her the youngest actress to receive two Oscar nominations.
But Kate chose the road less traveled by supposedly refusing the lead roles in Shakespeare in Love (Gwyneth sure owes her a big thank you) and Anna and the King, in order to star in two more alternative, independent films: Hideous Kinky (1998) and Holy Smoke (1999).
2000 saw Kate in yet another period piece: the critically acclaimed Quills. She then appeared in Enigma (2001), Iris (2001), The Life of David Gale (2003), and was heard in the animated feature Flushed Away (2006), with Hugh Jackman.
Delving into children-oriented films isn't a bad idea, since Kate is also mother to Mia (her daughter with ex-husband Jim Threapleton)and Joe (her son with husband Sam Mendes).
kate winslet's oscar nods
Oscar sure does like Kate. She holds the record for being the youngest actor to receive four Academy Award nominations, which she by the age of 29. She was nominated for an Academy Award for the third time in 2002 as Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Iris. And her fourth Oscar nod in 2005 was for Best Actress for her work in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). Some might even argue that Kate was robbed of a nomination for her stellar perfomance as a widowed mother of four boys in 2004's Finding Neverland.
Kate is no stranger to award nominations, however. By 2005, she had already been nominated for four Golden Globe awards, and in 2007, she received a fifth for her role in the critically acclaimed Little Children.
[talking about her screen debut in Heavenly Creatures (1994)]: "I was reading the script in the back of the car and I turned to my dad and yelled, 'I've GOT to get this!' And he replied, 'Then you will.' And I thought, 'Yep, that's it. I'm bloody well going to.' And that was it. I was so determined. It was something crucial to my life. I just so communicated with her, the story and their relationship. And when I found out, I just couldn't believe it. I was so happy, I cried. I remember I was working part-time at a deli at the time because I didn't have any money and was in the middle of making a sandwich when they phoned and said I'd got the job. I burst into tears and had to leave work because I couldn't control myself. It was absolutely brilliant."
In 2002 she had this to say about doing nude scenes: "I like exposing myself. There's not an awful lot that embarrasses me. I'm the kind of actress that absolutely believes in exposing myself."
I'd rather do theatre and British films than move to L.A. in hopes of getting small roles in American films.
Kate Winslet PhotoIt's very important for me to make the statement that I am English and just because I've done one really big film, it doesn't mean that I don't want to keep a finger in the fantastic British film industry and do films like this.
About her spur-of-the-moment marriage to Sam Mendes - "We hadn't been planning to do it but we thought it was rather a good idea, so we just did it."
Kate Winslet Beautyful PosterAfter Titanic (1997) it would have been completely foolish for me to go and try and top that. I'm an English girl, I've always loved England, I've never felt the desire to leave it for any particular reason. And whilst I'm ambitious and care very much about what I do, I'm not competitive. I also don't want to act every day of my life. ... So it was important to me after Titanic (1997) to just remind myself of why it was that I was acting in the first place, which is of course because I love it.
Since I was 13 or 14, I've always felt older than I actually am.
I was on the tube just before Christmas. and this girl turned round to me and said, 'Are you Kate Winslet?'. And I said, 'Well, yes. I am actually'. And she said, 'And you're getting the tube?' And I said, 'Yes'. And she said, 'Don't you have a big car that drives you around?' And I said, 'No'. And she was absolutely stunned that I wasn't being driven round in some flash car all the time. It was ludicrous.
Kate Winslet with Her LipstickPeople say to me, 'You seem to have made this conscious decision to do independent films'. In reality, I haven't. After each movie, I always think, how different can I possibly be?... Is this going to challenge me, is this going to inspire me, and is this going to make me love my job more than I already do?
There is no way we are going to move out of England. Some might think that we want to live in Hollywood but that is not what we want at all. We will go and live in New York when it is necessary because of work but we prefer to be in England. I'm proud to be English - we both are. It's very important to me to retain that. I am an English girl and I love England. I have never felt the desire to leave. I am still ambitious and I will have to travel and live elsewhere because of that but England is always home.
On a scene from the movie Holy Smoke (1999),: "It was a difficult scene. When I read the script and I saw this scene was there, I laughed hysterically. I just couldn't believe it. When it came to shooting it, I had been sort of putting it off, and pretending it wasn't going to happen. And suddenly, I am there naked, peeing and thinking "Oh no!" It was really hard to do, but I've always loved the fact that it was there, and it's such a sort of turning point for the character I play in the movie that I've always felt sort of good, that it should be there."
Sexy Kate Winslet SmileOn receiving her 4th Oscar nomination: "I can't believe it. I am ecstatic! This nomination means so much to me. To be remembered for a film that was released a while ago, I am unbelievably honoured and completely overwhelmed."
There's more to life than cheek bones.
Mum and dad were very much friends, and up to life. There was no anxiety for anything when I was growing up, they just taught me to be me.
Life is short, and it is here to be lived.
Loving someone is setting them free, letting them go.
I don't know if it's a skill, but I have been really lucky. I've always got on with every actor I've had to work opposite. I just always try and be as accepting of that person as I possibly can, and remain non-judgmental about their process, because every actor works in a different way.
Loving someone is setting them free, letting them go.
I don't know if it's a skill, but I have been really lucky. I've always got on with every actor I've had to work opposite. I just always try and be as accepting of that person as I possibly can, and remain non-judgmental about their process, because every actor works in a different way.
I was a wayward child, very passionate and very determined. If I made up my mind to do something, there was no stopping me.
On going to the 1996 Oscars: Emma Thompson said to me 'Listen, it's honestly just like going to see a fantastic show', and actually it really is, because there are so many people to look at and all those fabulous frocks and it's really fascinating. But mum and dad and I did kind of amble through it a bit, a bit like the Beverly Hillbillies, getting out the car, my mum stepping on my dress and I'm going 'Mum, mum!'
I'm really proud of being English, because I learned my job in England, in English films with English actors. But I never dared dream of such a success... it's more than a dream. I realize it's extraordinary for a British actress. I feel good, but guilty at the same time, cause I wish I could share this emotion with all my British actors' friends... I play the main character in the most expensive and probably successful film, but that's not a good reason to leave England and become a superstar. Not at all.
It seems daft that I'm famous and I've not really got to grips with that.
On taking chances in Hollywood: If you're not still learning and growing as an actor, then you have no backbone and no career. - Interview, November 2000
---Kate Winslet
