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Born October 5, 1975 in Reading, Berskshire, England, Kate Elizabeth Winslet was one of four children of a barmaid and a swimming pool contractor, both of whom were part-time actors. Actor Robert Bridges was her mother’s brother.

Winslet made her acting debut in a TV commercial at the age of 2, and as a teenager appeared in more than 20 stage plays including a stint as Miss Hannigan in Annie. In various British TV shows from 1991, she made her film debut as a teenage murderess in the 1994 Australian film, Heavenly Creatures and received her first Oscar nomination for the following year’s British-American coproduction, Sense and Sensibility for which she won the first of three SAG and three BAFTA awards to date.

Winslet earned kudos for 1996’s Jude and Hamlet, in which she played Ophelia opposite director-star Kenneth Branagh. She then starred in the 1997 blockbuster, Titanic, for which she received her second Oscar nomination among many other honors.

The actress’s next brush with awards recognition came with 2000’s Quills for which she received a SAG. 2002’s Iris earned her a third Oscar nomination. 2004’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Life and Finding Neverland were both awards magnets. She was Oscar nominated for the fourth time for the former and received nominations for both from BAFTA. 2006’s Little Children earned her a fifth Oscar nominations and recognition from BAFTA as well as most other awards bodies. The same year’s The Holiday was less well received, but it did earn her a nomination form the Irish Film and Television Awards. 2008 had her competing against herself once again with Revolutionary Road and The Reader, earning Golden Globes for both and an Oscar for the latter on her sixth nomination. It also earned her a second SAG award and a second BAFTA award.

Winslet was off the screen for three years, returning to great acclaim reprising Joan Crawford’s 1945 Oscar-winning role in Todd Haynes’ 2011 TV mini-series remake of Mildred Pierce. She won a Golden Globe, a SAG award and an Emmy among numerous other awards for her performance. Her next few theatrical films, including 2011’s Carnage and 2013’s Labor Day, were not the hoped-for successes they were expected to be, but 2014’s Divergent and its 2015 sequel, Insurgent, were major commercial hits if not critical ones. She bounced back to critical favor with 2015’s Steve Jobs for which was once again nominated for every major award including Oscar, for which she was nominated for the seventh time, and BAFTA for which she won for the third time.

Returning to Australia for the first time since 1994’s Heavenly Creatures, Winslet brought a flawless Australian accent to the black comedy, The Dressmaker for which she won all that country’s major awards for the film which was released there in 2015 and 2016 in the U.S.

Kate Winslet has been married three times and has three children. At 41, she remains one of the world’s busiest actresses and will next be seen in The Mountain Between Us and Wonder Wheel.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

SENSE AND SENSIBILITY (1995), directed by Ang Lee

Ang Lee seemed like an odd choice to direct the film version of Jane Austen’s most romantic novel, but with an Oscar-winning script by Emma Thompson who also plays the older sister no one need have worried that he would pull off his first non-Taiwanese film as brilliantly as he did. Everything about this one is perfect, not the least of which is lovely young Winslet as the spirited middle sister of a family of three girls and their mother who are left impoverished when their father dies and his property falls to his son from a previous marriage. SAG and BAFTA awards were hers, but no Oscar yet although she did receive a well-deserved nomination.

TITANIC (1997), directed by James Cameron

A box-office phenomenon and for the next 22 years, the biggest money-making film in Hollywood history, this meticulously detailed reenactment of the 1912 sinking of the luxurious ocean-liner was at its heart a terrifically entertaining romance between teenage aristocrat Winslet and third-class passenger Leonardo DiCaprio. Both Winslet and DiCaprio emerged as superstars and 87-year-old Gloria Stuart as Winslet’s character at 101 had one of the most remarkable comebacks of all time. Winslet’s performance was one of the film’s record-tying 14 nominations, but not one of its 11 record-tying wins.

THE READER (2008), directed by Stephen Daldry

Germany in 1958 is still recovering from World War II. A teenage boy in Heidelberg (David Kross) is comforted by the 30-something woman (Winslet) who nurses him back to health after he is taken ill on the bus where she is a conductor. Moved by her generosity, the boy reads literature to the woman who never learned to read herself. This leads to a forbidden affair that ends abruptly when Winslet disappears. Nearly a decade later, while in law school, Cross attends a Nazi trail, where to his shock, Winslet is on trial. Winslet was clearly on her way to an Oscar, but would it be in lead or support? The Academy rightly decided it would be in lead.

STEVE JOBS (2015), directed by Danny Boyle

The film was a novel look at the life of the former CEO of Apple, Inc. during three separate product launches made between 1984 and 1998, when he launched the iMac. Incomplete as a biography, it was nevertheless a telling look into the psyche of the man, brilliantly played by Michael Fassbender. Winslet plays his supportive right-hand woman, who is there at each of the launches. Her character is not particularly likeable, but that didn’t stop the various awards bodies from showering her performance with awards recognition including an Oscar nomination and a BAFTA win in a weak year for supporting actresses.

THE DRESSMAKER (2016), directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse

Highly successful in Australia, and marginally so in the U.S. and other countries, it’s a shame that this hilarious black comedy didn’t do better world-wide. The film not only features Winslet in one of her best performances as a world-famous designer who returns to her home town to wreak vengeance on those who did her wrong, but an even better one from the sublime Judy Davis as her down-but-not-out mother. 50-year-old Davis playing 40-year-old Winslet’s mother didn’t raise half as many eyebrows as 25-year-old Liam Hemsworth playing the boy she grew up with. They were both supposed to be 35. Only in the movies!

KATE WINSLET AND OSCAR

  • Sense and Sensibility (1995) – nominated – Best Supporting Actress
  • Titanic (1997) – nominated – Best Actress
  • Iris (2001) – nominated – Best Supporting Actress
  • Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) – nominated – Best Actress
  • Little Children (2006) – nominated – Best Actress
  • The Reader (2008) – Oscar – Best Actress
  • Steve Jobs (2015) – nominated – Best Supporting Actress

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