Born and raised in Reading, 40 miles west of London, Kate Winslet was only 11 when she decided to become an actress. In truth, with her maternal grandparents (Oliver and Linda Bridges), father (Roger Winslet) and uncle (Robert Bridges) all in the theater, she was simply carrying on a family tradition, one that her elder sister, Anna, and her younger sister, Beth, have also followed.
Ms. Winslet, born in 1975, attended a theater school in nearby Maidenhead and made her stage debut at 13, followed by some television appearances in commercials and sitcoms. Then, after leaving school at 16, she won her first movie role as one of two teen-age murderesses in Peter Jackson's ''Heavenly Creatures.''
With Ang Lee's ''Sense and Sensibility'' in 1995, where she appeared alongside Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman and Hugh Grant, Ms. Winslet was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actress and her career soared. She followed almost immediately with two other adaptations of literary classics: Michael Winterbottom's screen version of Thomas Hardy's ''Jude the Obscure'' (the movie was called only ''Jude'') and Kenneth Branagh's full-length ''Hamlet,'' in which she played Ophelia.
Then came James Cameron's ''Titanic,'' with Leonardo DiCaprio. And with it, everything changed. Even in Ms. Winslet's homeland, everything from her boyfriends to her fluctuating weight became fodder for local tabloids. And yet, to her credit, she followed her instinct, not her new fame.
A worldwide celebrity at 22, she refused to become a Hollywood cliché, embarking instead on a decade of playing chewy, interesting parts in a series of films ranging from offbeat indies like "Hideous Kinky" and "Holy Smoke" to prestige projects like "Iris" and "Quills." She has mastered the role of glamorous yet gracious luminary, dolling up for the red carpet and dishing on the talk shows with what appears to be genuine relish.
Ms. Winslet's first marriage to James Threapleton, then an assistant director, ended in divorce. She married the director Sam Mendes in 2003.
In 2009 Ms. Winslet won the Academy Award for best actress for "The Reader." The Oscar nomination was her sixth; she was also nominated for best actress for "Titanic" (1997), "Little Children" (2006) and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" (2004) and best actress in a supporting role for "Iris" (2001), in addition to "Sense and Sensibility."
