Kate Winslet’s career is full of Hollywood travesties. For one, she’s been nominated for four Oscars and hasn’t yet won. Secondly, it’s rumored she turned down the role of Eowyn in “Lord of the Rings”. Granted, Miranda Otto was a terrific replacement, but Winslet is so versatile, so gorgeous and expressive, that it’s not difficult to imagine her performing brilliantly in just about anything.
Winslet comes from a prominent British stage family – her parents are both actors and her grandparents founded the Reading Repertory Theatre. Born on October 5, 1975 in Reading, Winslet caught the acting bug at an early age, appearing in a cereal commercial at age 11, earning bit parts in English television programs, and making a few stage appearances while studying drama at Redroofs Theatre School, a performing arts high school. Her first major role was in Peter Jackson’s beautiful and disturbing 1994 feature “Heavenly Creatures”. The film was little-seen at the time, but Winslet received unprecedented raves for her performance as a troubled teenage girl who helps her best friend murder her mother.
Ignoring the horrible kidpic “A Kid in King Arthur’s Court”, Winslet’s next role was in Ang Lee’s “Sense and Sensibility”. Playing the hopelessly romantic Marianne Dashwood, Winslet impressed with a character vastly dissimilar to “Heavenly Creatures”, earning a BAFTA award and her first Oscar nomination. Rich performances in “Jude” and Kenneth Branagh’s “Hamlet” followed, but it was “Titanic” that made her a household name. Winslet and co-star Leonardo DiCaprio both became teen idols around the world as James Cameron’s expensive epic became one of the most successful films in history, grossing nearly $2 billion worldwide and winning eleven Oscars. Afterwards, wanting to move away from her newfound Hollywood starlet status, Winslet famously turned down the lead roles in “Shakespeare in Love” (which went on to win Gwyneth Paltrow an Oscar) and “Anna and the King” (which later went to Jodie Foster) to do daring roles in the indie dramas “Hideous Kinky” and “Holy Smoke”.
Since “Sense and Sensibility” and “Titanic”, Winslet has received two more Oscar nods – for “Iris” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” – giving her the record of the most nominations before the age of 30. Her unpredictable and expansive resume also includes the terrific “Quills” with Geoffrey Rush, the Johnny Depp family film “Finding Neverland”, and this year’s Sean Penn-starring remake of “All the King’s Men”. She recently received a Golden Globe nomination for “Little Children”, and is also on screen in “The Holiday” with Jude Law, Cameron Diaz, and Jack Black. A prolific and unfailingly terrific actress, Winslet is one of the best performers working today.