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Kate Winslet
Biography
Born
on October 5, 1975, in Reading, England, to a family of
theatrical
heritage, Kate was virtually baptized into
acting. Her
father,
Roger, elder sister, Anna, and younger sister, Beth, are
all
stage actors; her grandparents ran the Reading Repertory
Theatre
from their back garden; and her late uncle, Robert Bridges,
was
famous as Mr Bumble in the original West End production of Oliver.
Kate's
mother Sally, and younger brother, Joss, are the
non-actors of
the
family.
At the
age of 11, Kate attended the Redroofs Theatre School in
Maidenhead,
which she would eventually leave after completing
her
GCSEs
at the age of 16. Her first job was an appearance
in a Sugar
Puffs
commercial, dancing with the Honey Monster.
She made her
television
debut in the British television drama Shrinks
(1988),
followed
by appearances in the television series Casualty (1989),
Dark
Season (1991), Get Back (1992), and Anglo-Saxon Attitudes
(1993).
She has also performed in a number of theater roles amidst
her
television
works including Pandora in the musical Adrian Mole,
Wendy
in Peter
Pan, Sarah in A Game of Soldier, and Geraldine in
What
the Butler
Saw (in which she was nominated for the Manchester
Evening
News Award).
"Since
I was thirteen or fourteen, I’ve always felt older than I actually
am,"
Kate recalls. Her adolescence was anything
but normal--she had to
battle
a weight problem and depression. At age 15,
standing 5'6", Kate
weighed
as much as 185
lb. and was nicknamed 'Blubber' in high school.
But
despite these problems, Kate
was determined to become an actress.
When
she left Maidenhead, she landed a role on the British television
sitcom
Get Back,
just eight days after completing her examinations. Kate
had
also found romance
at sixteen with actor Stephen Tredre from Dark
Season,
whom she remained
in a relationship with for five years. Their
engagement
was broken off recently
when Tredre was diagnosed with
cancer
and started to undergo chemotherapy.
"He was with me all the
time,"
says Kate. "Even when I was 13 stone
he never, ever asked me to
lose
weight." She has also been quoted in interviews
as saying that the
actor
was "the other half of my soul."
Kate's
big break would eventually come when she was cast as Juliet
Hulme
in the
critically-acclaimed ('Not many have seen, but much
discussed')
movie Heavenly
Creatures (1994). She was working behind
the
counter of the Traiteur Pagnol
delicatessen in Primrose Hill, London
when
her life changed. "I was making
pastrami and dill sandwiches when
I received
the call telling me I had the role
in Heavenly Creatures,"
Kate
said. Her debut won her international recognition
and awards
(New
Zealand Film and Television Award, Toronto Film Festival
Award,
and
Empire Magazine Award), along with movie scripts from
Hollywood
in abundance.
While
Kate was busily promoting Heavenly Creatures in the U.S., an
American
representative
from the William Morris agency came to see
her
at the Four Seasons
Hotel in New York at 11 o'clock one evening
and
signed her. She would
follow up her debut with an unexpected role
as Princess
Sarah in A Kid in King
Arthur's Court (1995). Many
reviewers
simply dismiss the movie, but later the
same year Kate would
redeem
herself by appearing in the heart-warming, Oscar-nominated
role
of Marianne Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility (1995),
having
convinced
producer Lindsay Doran that she was right for the part by
out-reading
everyone at her audition.
Kate
heard about her Oscar nomination while traveling in a car: "A
girlfriend
was driving
when my agent phoned by mobile to say
congratulations.
I threw myself on
the floor of the car in excitement."
The
people at William Morris were now busy
helping to make her a
household
name. All of sudden, Kate Winslet found herself
'hot' in
Hollywood,
having achieved 'sex symbol' status amongst critics
and
gossipers.
The next
year, Kate would return to the silver screen with back-
to-back
performances
as Sue Bridehead in Jude (1996) and Ophelia
in Hamlet
(1996). These
two roles were very well-received by critics
but
inexplicably passed over for
Academy Award nominations.
At
the present, Kate is one of the most talented, up-and-coming young
actresses
working
in Hollywood. She has recently been featured on the
cover
of Vanity Fair
in the company of Cameron Diaz, Claire Danes, and
other
actresses with brilliant
careers ahead of them. Los Angeles
magazinehas
put her on their "The 40
Most Important People Under 40
list,"
and People magazine has declared Kate
one of the "50 Most
Beautiful
People" in the world.
So
far, Kate's rise to stardom (acquiring such titles as 'English Rose'
and
'Starlet Express')
has given her a resume consisting entirely of
period
films, thus earning her
the nickname 'Corset Kate'. Kate has
expressed
her desire to do a modern film
to break this stereotype and
"throw
away the corset. I really want to be a Valley
Girl in a feel-
good
American movie," she says. "I'd love to do some big
action
number."
Her latest
movie is Titanic (1997), playing the role of Rose Dewitt
Bukater,
an upper-class
Philadelphian aboard the ill-fated oceanliner.
The
official release date has
been announced as December 19, 1997
in the
U.S.
Pictures
Filmography
=
Movies
Titanic (1997) - Rose Dewitt Bukater
Hamlet (1996) - Ophelia
Jude (1996) - Sue Bridehead
Sense and Sensibility (1995) .-- Marianne Dashwood
A Kid in King Arthur's Court (1995) - Princess Sarah
Heavenly Creatures (1994) - Juliet Hulme
= Television
Show
Anglo-Saxon Attitudes (1993) - unknown
Get Back (1992) - Eleanor Sweet
Dark Season (1991) - Reet
Casualty (1989) - unknown
= Stage
Adrian Mole (musical) - Pandora
Peter Pan (stage show) - Wendy
What the Butler Saw (play) - Geraldine
A Game of Soldiers (play) - Sarah
Interviews
Kate Winslet ( Rose DeWitt Bukater )
Jack and Rose
Meeting Gloria Stuart
Quicktime
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Quicktime
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