Biography: Kate Winslet


Kate Winslet

Kate Elizabeth Winslet (born October 5, 1975 in Reading, Berkshire, England) is an English actress most famous for her role as Rose DeWitt Bukater in the 1997 blockbuster film Titanic.

Her career began on television, with a co-starring role in the BBC children's science-fiction serial Dark Season in 1991, followed by an appearance in an episode of the medical drama Casualty in 1993, also for the BBC.

Winslet's film career took off in 1994 when she performed her first leading role as Juliet Hulme in Peter Jackson's criticly acclaimed Heavenly Creatures. Since then she has acted in several films, such as Sense and Sensibility, Titanic, Iris, Finding Neverland, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, earning her four Oscar nominations and four Golden Globes.

Kate Winslet has also enjoyed a brief taste of success as a singer, with her single "What If" from the Christmas Carol: The Movie soundtrack. More recently her musical talents have been shown in her duet with "Weird Al" Yankovic on the Sandra Boynton CD "Dog Train."

On November 22, 1998 Winslet married director Jim Threapleton with whom she has a daughter named Mia Honey. After her divorce in 2001, she began a relationship with director Sam Mendes. Winslet married Mendes on May 24, 2003 on the island of Anguilla in the West Indies and their son Joe Alfie Winslet-Mendes was born on December 22, 2003.

On January 25, 2005 Winslet was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. She eventually lost to Hilary Swank. This tied her for the record for most Academy Award nominations for an actress before the age of 30. This nomination was preceded by nominations for Best Supporting Actress in Sense and Sensibility and Iris. Winslet was also nominated for Best Actress in Titanic, but lost to Helen Hunt. She was also nominated for a BAFTA for Best Actress in that film and in Finding Neverland, but lost to Imelda Staunton.

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

Winslet is famous for her curvaceous figure, and the media, in England in particular, have enthusiastically documented her weight fluctuations over the years. Winslet, a former anorexic, 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.

 

Selected Filmography

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