KATE WINSLET BIOGRAPHY

Kate Winslet is one of the UK's finest and most successful young actresses, a point proven in 2005 when she became the first actress ever to be nominated for Oscars four times before her thirtieth birthday (for her roles in Sense And Sensibility, Titanic, Iris and Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind) Yet she's more than just a celebrity thespian, having for the most part shunned major Hollywood productions in favour of smaller, more interesting, and often British pieces. Having at school weighed 185 pounds and suffered the nickname Blubber, she has also famously decried the pressures put upon young women by society and the film industry in particular.

Kate Elizabeth Winslet was born on October 5th, 1975, in Reading, Berkshire, to father Roger and mother Sally Bridges-Winslet. She has two sisters, Anna and Beth, and a brother named Joss. Acting was in the family. Two of her father's forebears - twins - appeared in vaudeville. Her mother's parents, Oliver and Linda, had run the Reading Repertory Theatre, and her uncle Robert Bridges had appeared in many productions, most notably as Mr Bumble in the original West End version of Oliver! Her father, too, was a thespian by trade (Anna and Beth have also followed this path), performing mostly onstage, but also appearing on a couple of episodes of Casualty, a show that provided one of Kate's earliest appearances.

Like most actors, Roger would often have trouble finding work, and in-between jobs would find employment as a postman, laying tarmac and with the National Trust. His efforts ensured there were never any real money problems, extra cash being brought in by Sally, a qualified nanny. Her profession meant that the Winslet home was often filled with other people's children. Kate would later say that the atmosphere was, if not hippy-like, then certainly bohemian, with an ongoing "sense of holiday"