Born in Reading, 1975, Kate Winslet's family came from a theatrical
background; she started acting from the age of 5 years old as The Virgin
Mary in a school play. At the age of 11 she attended the Redroof Theatre
School in Maidenhead, staying until the age of 16. After numerous television
and theatre roles her cinema talents first became apparent as a teenage
murderer in Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures (1994), a true story
about two vengeful best friends. She returned to obscurity and unemployment
until landing the role of romantic Marianne Dashwood in the Ang Lee
adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense
and Sensibility (1995), a performance that earned her an Academy
nomination for Best Supporting Actress. The next year, she appeared
as the rebellious heroine Sue Bridehead, opposite Christopher
Eccleston in an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure, Jude
(1996).
After appearing as Ophelia in Kenneth
Branagh's Hamlet (1996) she felt ready for a big budget American
movie, persuading James Cameron into handing her the role of feisty
Rose DeWitt Bukater opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic (1997), acquiring
her second Academy Award nomination. In 1998, Kate married assistant
director Jim Threapleton in her hometown of Reading; they were to divorce
three years later. After the success of James Cameron's blockbuster,
she shunned mainstream Hollywood roles to star in a number of independent
films, including the hippie mum in Hideous Kinky (1998), and an Indian
cult devotee in Jane Campion's Holy Smoke (1999). Kate followed this
with appearances as a disciple of the Marquis de Sade in Quills (2001),
and in the code-breaking war drama Enigma (2001). She was again nominated
for an Academy Award for her performance as a youthful Iris Murdoch
in director Richard Eyre's Iris
(2002).
