Kates Bio
Kates Bio
Kate Elizabeth Winslet was born on October 5th 1975 in Reading, Co Berkshire, England. She is the daughter of Roger and Sally Bridges-Winslet. Kate has two sisters Anna and Beth who are also actresses and a brother named Joss. Kate’s grandparents had run the Reading Repertory Theatre and Kate’s Uncle Roger appeared in many productions and was in the original production of Oliver on the West End so acting was very much in the family.
At school Kate appeared in many stage prodoctions including Bugsy Malone and even made her TV debut in a Sugar Puffs advertisement. At age 11 Kate enroled at the Redroofs Theatre School in Maidenhead. Here Kate appeared in many productions including Peter Pan and Adrian Mole. It was also a difficult time for Kate as she was teased for being overweight given the nickname “Blubber”.
At only the age of 13 Kate began appearing on TV in episodes of Shrinks and Casualty. Then Kate got a big part in the TV show Dark Season as Reet. Kate went on to do Anglo Saxon Attitudes which who a Bafta and comedy show Get Back with Ray Winstone.
Kate was working in a deli when her life changed. She got the call from her agent as she had been chosen out of 175 others to star as Juliet Hulme a leading role in Peter Jackson’s new movie Heavenly Creatures, the tale of a real life murder set in 1952. The movie was a critical success.
After Heavenly Creatures Kate’s next movie was “A Kid in King Arthur’s Court” set in mediaeval Britan. In 1995 Kate starred in Jane Austen’s Sense And Sensibility directed by Ang Lee and starring Emma Thompson who also wrote the screenplay and Alan Rickman. Kate played the role of Marianne Dashwood. Kate received her first Oscar nomination for the performance however did not win. Emma Thompson did win the best screenplay Oscar and the movie received many nominations. After this another period movie for Kate called “Jude” based on Thomas Hardy’s final novel. Kate starred with Christopher Eccleston and plays his cousin Sue Bridehead where they fall in love and live in sin. In 1996 Kate played Ophelia in Kenneth Brannaghs movie version of Hamlet. Kate had auditioned for Brannaghs Frankenstein 2 years earlier and he remembered her. It was another critical triumph for Kate and the second longest movie in Hollywood history at 238 minutes.
It was while filming Ophilea, Kate got the call that after months of auditioning she had won the role of Rose De Witt Bukater in James Cameron’s Titanic at the time the most expensive movie to be made. Gwyenth Paltrow had turned the role down and Kate would be starring opposite Leonardo DiCaprio. Titanic went on to be the highest grossing movie of the time winning 11 Oscars and a second nomination for Kate.
After Titanic Kate turned down big budget movies to do smaller budgeted ones. Hideous Kinky set in Morocco 1972 was Kate’s first movie a Lottery funded movie about a mother and her 2 daughters looking for enlightenment. Kate met Jim Threapleton who was 3rd Assistant Director on the movie. They married soon after and had a daughter Mia in 2000. However the marriange didn’t last and they divorced in 2001.
Kate stayed away from Hollywood for her next film as well, Jane Campion’s Holy Smoke. It was set in Australia where Kate’s parent’s get a de-programmer played by Harvey Keitel as they think Kate has been brainwashed by an Indian guru. Kate’s next role was in 2000 in Quills as Maddy LeClerc opposite Geoffrey Rush who was playing the Marquis DeSade. Kate played a laundrey maid. The movie received critical praise.
After this Kate starred with Dougray Scott in Enigma based on the Robert Harris novel set during WW2 where she played Hester Wallace. Then in 2001 Kate starred with Judi Dench again for the first time since Hamlet in the movie Iris. Kate played the younger version of Iris Murdich and Judi Dench the older. Iris Murdoch suffered from Alzheimers. Both Kate and Judi Dench were nominated for Oscars. It was only the second time 2 people were nominated at the same time for the same character. The first being Kate and Gloria Stuart as Rose De Witt Bukater.
With Kate’s divorce coming through in 2001 she began a relationship with Sam Mendes the Oscar winning director of American Beauty. They married in the West Indies in May 2003 and in December the same year had a son Joe.
2003 saw Kate do her first real Hollywood movie The Life of David Gale starring Oscar winner Kevin Spacey and directed by Alan Parker. Spacey played an anti-capital punishment who finds himself on death row for rape and murder. Kate plays reporter Bitsey Bloom who interviews him.
Kate’s next movie saw her star opposite Jim Carrey in Charlie Kaufman’s Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind. Kate plays the free spirited Clementine Kruszynski, who ends a realationship with Carrey and decides to wipe it from her memory with Dr Tom Wilkinson’s new process. Finding this out Carrey decides to use the same system and do the same but changes his mind half way through. Love clings on. Kate wins her fourth Oscar nomination for the role.
Kate’s next challenge came in Romance and Cigarettes written and directed by John Turturro. It starred Steve Buscemi and Christopher Walken. Kate stole the show as the trashy red haired Tula. Later in the year Kate did an episode of the comedy show Extras with Ricky Gervais and was nominated for an Emmy. Next Kate joined the strong cast of Sean Penn and Jude Law in All The Kings Men . The novel by Robert Penn had already been made into a movie and won the Best Picture Oscar. Kate played Anne Stanton the governor’s daughter and took part in a great deal of the action. Her relationship with Penn leads to disaster.
In 2006 would come Little Children, based on Tom Perrotta’s novel of suburban sex and prejudice. Here Kate would play a young mum in a sexless marriage, absent-minded and disaffected, who regards fellow mums like the apparently perfect Jennifer Connelly with shame and distaste. As her husband becomes obsessed with Internet porn, she begins an affair with Patrick Wilson, a hunky house-dad desired by all the neighbourhood’s females. As the affair heats up, so jealousy is inflamed and, with a known paedophile moving into the area, matters come to a painful head. It was hard-hitting stuff, and would win Winslet yet another Oscar nomination, making her the youngest actress ever to be nominated five times.
Next Kate lends her voice to the animation production of Flushed Away where an upmarket rat is lost in the sewers of London. Kate joins Nancy Meyer’s comedy The Holiday next where Kate and Cameron Diaz swap houses as a holiday. Cameron Diaz’s character falls for Kates brother played by Jude Law and Kate falls for a Hollywood musician played by Jack Black. The comedy was a big success. Kate took a year off between 2006 and 2007 to focus on her kids and while Sam directed The Vertical Hour.
It was in 2008 that Kate would be directed by her husband Sam Mendes in Revolutionary Road based on the Richard Yates novel and co-starring Leonardo DiCaprio from Titanic. Kate played April Wheeler and the movie was based on a couple with kids in the mid-fifties seeking fulfilment in the suburbs. The pair are suffering in their ideal world in their own way and emotions run high. Kate won a Golden Globle and was nominated for BAFTA for her performance as April.
Kate’s next movie was based on the Bernhard Schlink’s 1995 bestseller “The Reader”. Directed by Stephen Daldry and with a screenplay by David Hare The Reader begins in the 1950′s with a 15 year old boy who starts an affair with a 36 year old tram conductor(Kate) Hanna Schmitz who demands that he read aloud to her. She abuses him verbally and then disappears. Years later he is a student observing a war crimes trial where he sees her being accused of being a death camp gaurd. She take responsibility for the horrors despite other evidence. The movie explores international horrors, the holocoust both in Germany and elsewhere, the split between young and old and many others. It is an extremley powerful movie and Kate fully deserved the Oscar she won for her great performance. Kate also won a Golden Globle, a SAG Award and a Bafta for the role.
Kate then took some time off to spend with her family and marriage. However Kate and Sam Mendes divorced in 2010. Kate went back to work with HBO starring as Mildred Pierce in the five part mini series directed by Todd Hayes based on the 1941 movie starring Joan Crawford. It co-starred Guy Pearce, Evan Rachel Wood and Melisa Leo. It received high critical praise espically Kate’s performance and in September 2011 Kate won an Emmy for her role. The show itself picking up 21 nominations.
In 2011 Kate also starred in her first movie in 3 years Contagion directed by Steven Soderbegh and starring other Oscar winners and a big cast including Gwyenth Paltrow, Lawrence Fishbourne, Matt Damon, Jude Law, Marion Cottiord. Kate plays Dr Erin Mears from the CDC trying to find the cure for a airborne virus spreading accross the world. The movie has been a big success.
Kate escaped from a fire on her great friend Richard Branson’s Neckar Island and saved his mother Eve from the blaze in August 2011. She also met Ned Rocknroll Richard Branson’s nephew there and they have been dating since.
Kate’s next movie Carnage is directed by Roman Polanski and based on the New York play of the same name. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival to great reviews. Kate plays Nancy Cowan and it stars John C Reily, Christopher Waltz and Jodie Foster. They are two sets of New York parents who get together to sort out a playground dispute their children had and Carnage insues. Carnage is released on December 16 in the US and Feb 2012 in Europe.
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