Kate Winslet was born in Reading, U.K. on October 5, 1975 to Roger Winslet and Sally Bridges-Winslet. Her birth name was Kate Elizabeth Winslet. Having Blonde hair and hazel eyes Kate Winslet has proved herself to be one of the most beautiful and talented actresses to be around these days. The actress is popular for portraying courageous and straightforward pretty girl roles. The actress has built quite an impressive resume with movies ranging from Shakespearean tragedy to
mystic movies to erotica. Acting was not difficult for her as she born in the family of stage actors. Her parents were stage actors, her maternal grandparents ran a theater and her uncle was a fixture in London's West End Theater. So, naturally it was easy for Kate to get into acting after having realized her acting talent at an early age. She started off doing gigs and she did her first gig at the age of eleven for kid's cereal. She took acting classes around the same age and also got formal training in a performing arts school. She kept doing regular stage shows for next few years. Ultimately this landed her into sitcoms doing bit roles.
Kate Winslet's first break in movies came at the age of seventeen when she took the role of an obsessive teenager in "Heavenly Creatures" released in 1994. Although the film got a lukewarm response at the box office it was highly acclaimed by the critics. Still a novice to Hollywood she attended a cattle call audition for Ang Lee's "Sense and Sensibility" in 1995. Kate Winslet who outperformed hundreds of other aspirants immensely impressed the film's star Emma Thompson. She played the character of plucky Marianne Dashwood. She was rewarded for hard work with a British Academy Award and also an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress and she holds the distinction of being nominated at the youngest age. Her string of impressive performances continued and she worked in two more period movies "Jude" in 1996 and "Hamlet" in 1996.
The turning point of Kate Winslet's career was her role as Rose DeWitt Bukater in the record-breaking movie "Titanic" in 1997. The role won her an Oscar nomination again for the best actress once again creating a record to get nominated twice in Oscars at the youngest age. Winslet was over the cloud nine after the resounding success of Titanic, which made her the star in demand. She played the role of adventurous soul searchers in "Hideous Kinky" in 1998 and "Holy Smoke" in 1999. Her association with period never seems to be over when she was back with a period film again in 2000 in "Quills". There was no dearth of Oscar nominations for Winslet as she was nominated to Oscar for best actress for the movie "Iris" but the luck eluded her once again and she lost it to Jennifer Connelly for "A Beautiful Mind". Winslet struggled at box office in 2003 but had a better year in 2004 with Jim Carrey in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" for which she got nominated again for the best actress. Kate Winslet seems to have a particular liking for period films when she starred again in a period film called "Finding Neverland" in 2005. In 2006 she gave her voice to animated movie "Flushed Away" and also starred in "All the King's Men" opposite Sean Penn. She was also part of the extremely successful "Little children" which won her an Oscar nomination again for the best actress. Apart from being a successful person Kate Winslet is known to be a good person who plays mischievous pranks and is extremely devoted. She got married to James Threapleton with a daughter in 1998, but the marriage was short-lived and they divorced in 2001. She got
married for the second time with director Sam Mendes in 2003 and also gave birth to a son. With the amount of talent this actress has one would hope that she is rightly rewarded with an Oscar at least this time.
You may have the talent and skills to make it big in the show business but the attempts to break into the industry are futile without an agent and to be precise a right agent. A good agent is critical to the success of your efforts to get into show business. There are many agents who advertize to get candidates, some look out for them on the roads and malls promising a bright future to the prospective actors. But beware of these agents. Reputed agents never advertize to get actors. They
already have a bee-line at their door and thus would never be required to advertize, their hands are always full with aspiring actors willing to get a break in this fantastic industry. But before working with an agent question yourself what you are looking for in an agent. Decide whether you want a union or a non-union agent. Also important is to do a self check of your desires, your talents and decide what type of agent you need at this juncture of your career. It is well understood fact that though not impossible but actors seldom sticks with one agent during their career. Also many a times agents provide only extra work to the aspiring actors instead of principal roles due to their limited reach to the well known directors. Also look out to see if the agent has a big list of names or only few. The fewer the clients he may have the lesser the demand or popularity of that agent.
But how do you find a good agent? Locating a good agent is not so easy. While few out of business may advertize but the fact is majority of the agents do not advertize and are thus very difficult to locate even on yellow or white pages and the fact is good agents do not need to advertize. One of the legitimate places to find a right talent agent is actingland.com which is a very popular website for online acting community where you can find many talent agents and their contact details. It
has the list of all the agents affiliated to Screen Actors Guild and also American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. These agents are also called acting union affiliated agents as they follow the code of conduct putt forth by these two unions and stay away from non-scrupulous practices. All major cities have agents affiliated with these unions which are also called franchised agents. The reason why franchised agents are important to the success of aspiring actors is they put their client’s interest above their own and go that extra mile to ensure their success. Not only that they also work towards better pay for their actors and help make actors smart decisions.
You can also contact Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists to get the names and addresses of their affiliated agents. Once you get a list of talent agents you should start mailing them your resume and headshot copies. If you live or plan to work in a big city you can start out with few at a time and then continue on likewise. One of the other ways to find
a good agent is to get noticed by working in plays in your area and never forget to have a copy of your resume and headshot handy when you travel. Also social networking helps a lot in finding a right agent. Attend local events and make friends with other aspirants to broaden your knowledge about the industry and its current affairs. One of the key to finding an agent is to be patient as you may not find a good agent at the first go but in fact it may take several meetings with the agents until you find a right one. Once you find a right agent your problem is nearly half solved.
Many people have the dream of breaking into Show Business one day in their life. While many have the inborn talent to make it big some may have to work hard to polish it. But irrespective of whatever everybody has to plan and take a right approach to get a break in Showbiz. But remember success doesn't come overnight; you have to work hard and even harder to make it big in the Show business. So the first lesson to learn is stay away from agents who promise you to make a big star overnight.
The first and foremost thing to know before entering the Show Business is that you should analyze yourself whether you have it in you to break into Show Business. Somebody can teach you acting but cannot make you an actor unless you have it in you called the desire. Question yourself whether you will be able face the challenges like different work environment, different style of living, new people, new places and many more that might come in your way and the tough competition ahead. A lot depends on how flexible and adaptable you are. If you have a rigid personality then forget about getting a break as this industry demands you to work with people having different kinds of personalities and the possibility of differences creeping in cannot be ruled out.
Once you analyze yourself and you are confident you must be willing to pack your bags and get started. But a piece of advise here, do not quit your job or even if you quit your job to move to a different place keep working part time to keep yourself financially supported. Do not wait until the time you are broke. Many big actors kept working until they made it big. Find a job which is flexible and doesn't come in the way of your auditions or plan things in such a way that you get to attend at least one audition a day.
Talking about auditions, do not go to the auditions unprepared. Best thing to do is join some classes which offer training in whatever area of Showbiz you want to get into. One of the benefits of joining the classes is that they will help you polish your skills according to the needs of the market you are intending to work in. Further they will help you market yourself better by making your resume work to the modern day requirements. The marketing part is important because you cannot do anything with all the talent you have unless you know how to market your talent and skills.
You should be prepared for the interviews and also to give confident answers to the questions. Attend workshops organized by many artists. Be prepared to meet new people and socialize with the people who are in this business. Social networking is very important in this industry for the people to take note of your talents. Make it a point to attend events related to what you are pursuing. The best thing to break into Show Business is to start with local market and then move to the big market. So find a good agent who knows the local market very well. Do not get into the trap of fraudulent agents. Good agents never ask for money upfront instead they work on commission i.e. they get money only when you are hired and start earning.
You should research the market well to find a good agent if possible try to audit the agent and call his/her previous customers. Make a good portfolio and have some good photographs in it. It is important that you style you hair according to the demands of the market you will be going to work, so spend your money on getting a good hair stylist. A person who gets all these things right and with a right attitude would have nobody stopping him/her on the way to making it big in Show Business.
Based in Burbank, California Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. is one of the largest producers of television programs and films. The other companies which are a part of Warner Bros. are Warner Bros. Studios, Warner Bros. Television, Warner Bros. Pictures, Warner Home Video, Warner Bros. Animation, The CW Television Network and DC Comics. The founders of the studio were the Warner Brothers - Harry Warner, Albert Warner, Sam Warner and Jack L. Warner. The first three brothers started with projecting movies in the Ohio and Pennsylvania. They bought their first theater the Cascade in 1903. They also founded Duquesne Amusement and Supply Company for distribution purpose in Pittsburg.
They began film production by the onset of World War I and they soon opened the Warner Bros. studio in 1918. Sam and Jack Warner were into film production and the other two brothers handled finance and distribution. Their first big success came after the creation of the character "Rin Tin Tin". It became so popular that it was used in twenty six subsequent movies. They bought the pioneer Vitagraph Company, which had presence all over the nation, with the help of loan taken from Goldman Sachs. They also took over many radio stations and also constructed many theaters. They incorporated music and special effects in their production and were the first ones to start talking pictures.
The Warner Bros. bought the Stanley Company and gained shares and control of the First National Pictures and the merger was named as A Warner Bros. - First National Picture. After the merger their first all-talking and all-color film caused the whole industry to change overnight. They made many musicals after that and after a point of time, the audience wanted a change. The production head Darryl F. Zanuck now concentrated on making more serious and realistic productions. These productions were said to be encourage gangsters and thus faced many censorships. The studios then changed their course of direction to historic dramas, melodramas and adaptation of best sellers to avoid scissors of censor. Though the Warner Bros. were ruling the industry for a while, MGM slowly took over them after some time.
In 1930s, Warner Bros. took a plunge into cartoons with Looney Tones cartoons. They launched their own Warner Bros. Records in 1958 but by 1960s the motion pictures were on a decline. Finally they decided to sell the studio to Seven Arts Productions and the company was renamed Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. Steve Ross purchased this company later and made Ted Ashley as the head of the studio and renamed it as Warner Bros. Pictures. Warner Bros. joined with Columbia Pictures for film distributions till 1988 and then made a joint venture with Walt Disney Pictures till 1993. Along with Tribune Company of Chicago they launched The WB Network in 1995.
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "Dawson's Creek"," Smallville", "7th Heaven" and" Charmed" caught the eye of millions of people. 7th Heaven went for eleven seasons making it the longest running family drama and Charmed went for eight seasons making it the longest running drama with actresses in the lead. CBS Corporation and Warner Bros. replaced The WB Network with The CW Television Network. They obtained rights to produce the famous Harry Potter series in the end of 1990s and the first Harry Potter movie was released in 2001 and till date a total of four Harry Potter movies have been released.
Universal Studios or Universal Pictures or Universal City Studios is one of the largest American film studios. It was established in 1906 when Carl Laemmle started his first theater in Chicago. He started by playing short silent movies. He later switched to production and distribution. To start the production of his own films, he opened the Independent Moving Picture Company in New York in 1909. His first work, Hiawatha, was released in the same year.
Laemmle's dream was to make his presence felt all over America. His next target was the west where he bought the Nestor Studio in Hollywood. He formed the Universal Film Manufacturing Company on June 8, 1912. This company which was New York based, incorporated the already existing Independent Moving Picture Company and five other companies into it. By that time he had already conquered the east and the west coast of
America and now he decided to centralize his production companies. He asked Isadore Bernstein to buy plots in Los Angeles. The two hundred and thirty acre land bought became the Universal City, the entertainment center of the world. Although film production here began in 1914 and in 1915 it was officially inaugurated on March 15, 1915. The first production of this studio was Damon and Pythias. Many films were released after the studio opened including comedies, drama, action, and adventure.
Some of the popular movies that were produced in this studio are "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", "Dracula", "Bride of Frankenstein"," The Phantom of the Opera", "The Mummy", and "All Quiet on the Western Front". Laemmle developed a habit of inviting guests to watch the movie making procedure and to give suggestions to improve them. It then became a tradition at Universal studios, and later temporarily visitors were banned because of the disturbances on the sets. Carl retired in 1936 and sold the company to Standard Capital Company. In 1946, Universal merged with International and it was named as Universal-International. In 1947, the company produced "Hamlet" which won the Best Picture Academy Award. In 1952, Universal-International was sold to Decca Records. Decca Universal gave many hits in Milt Rackmil. Music Corporation of America, Inc. bought the Universal City studio and shifted its studio there and both the companies merged officially in 1962. Jules Stein was the founder of MCA, Inc., who was later joined by Lew Wasseman in 1936. At first this company prepared bands to perform in clubs and parties. Later it became the leading talent agency and conquered the entertainment world. They made motion pictures and also serials for television. Later they also ventured into the world of musical entertainment around 1960s to 1980s. The tradition of tours was started once again.
The company was taken over by Matsushita Electrical Industrial Company Ltd. in 1991. The Seagram Company Ltd. Bought large number of shares in 1995 and MCA Inc. was finally named as Universal Studios on December 10, 1996. The Universal International television operations merged with USA Networks in 1998. At the end of the year the company took over PolyGram and Universal Music Group became the largest music company in the world. The Seagram collaborated with Vivendi and Canal in June 2000 and today Universal Studios is a part of Vivendi Universal, a global media and communications company.
The California based Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation formed after the merger of two companies Fox Film Corporation and Twentieth Century Pictures in 1935. Darryl F. Zanuck, Raymond Griffith, William Goetz and Joseph Schenck started the Twentieth Century Pictures in 1933 and the Fox Film Corporation's founder was William Fox who founded it in the year 1915. William Fox built many theaters and created many legends in his impressive career. Sound Fox bought the rights of a German film sound processing technique and Fox was able to produce movies with music and effect track in 1926. The company
was growing and more land was required for expanding. He bought around three hundred acre of land in Beverly Hills where he built the Movietone City. After the death of his rival, Marcus Loew, William thought of buying Loew's Inc. It had nearly two hundred theaters and also MGM studios under it. The deal was made and the companies were officially merged in 1929. But the owner of MGM studios, Louis B. Mayer, wasn't happy with this idea and he revolted by calling on the Justice Department's anti-trust unit and using political influence.
Luck wasn't on William's side and he was injured in a car crash and by the time he was back to normal again the stock market crashed and he was totally bankrupt. He lost all his fortune and was even had to go to jail. The only way out was to merge with another larger company. This is when the merger of Twentieth Century and Fox took place. Fox had nearly two hundred theaters under its belt, but at that time the Twentieth Century was in better financial condition, so the name of the new company was Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, which began functioning on May 31, 1935. Schenck became the chief executive and Zanuck was the head of production. The leading actor of this company Will Rogers was killed in a plane crash and the leading actress Janet Gaynor also began losing popularity. Zanuck then decided to sign up new artists with some fresh talent. That was when Tyrone Power, Betty Grable, Henry Fonda, Sonja Henie, and Don Ameche became a part of the Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation. They made many musical-dramas and movies on famous biographies, which became huge hit with the audiences.
The fortune of the company was rising rapidly and it became the third profitable studio of America, by overtaking RKO and MGM. During the World War II, Zanuck went to serve the country and his partner William Goetz took over the company. He made many lighthearted movies. But after Zanuck returned from the war, he wanted to produce some serious entertainment and made movies like "Gentleman's Agreement", "Pinky", "Wilson" and "Boomerang" which also fell into adult films category.
After the World War, public were more attracted to television. Fox started experimenting on new ideas so as to bring the crowd back to the theater. With the help of three projectors the movie was projected on a huge concave curve, which created the illusion of three-dimensional character. The effect was achieved without polarized glasses with the help of French anamorphic projection, and this feature was named Cinemascope. They made other theater owners to switch to this technology and also bore the conversion costs. "The Robe"
and "How to Marry a Millionaire" were the first experimental films using this technology. After seeing their success other rival studios also adopted this technique. Although this attracted audiences for a while the numbers started to diminish again by 1956. The same year Zanuck announced his resignation.
Buddy Adler fitted into the shoes of Darryl Zanuck but he also died after a year. Others who followed couldn't do anything to bring success to the company. Producer Walter Wagner convinced Elizabeth Taylor to star in "Cleopatra" and the movie proved to be a hit. Actress Marilyn Monroe was also roped in to work in "Something's Got to Give". But due to her untimely death the film was left uncompleted. Other movies were also rushed and Spyros Skouras the successor of Buddy Adler wasn't able to manage the
company properly. Zanuck returned back again and somehow made the directors to take him back. He made his son Richard Zanuck the president. At first Zanuck was able to give big hits like "The Sound of Music" but his credential were questioned again there string of flops after that. Eventually he was removed from the company and president Dennis Stanfill and production head Alan Ladd, Jr. pulled the company back. Many investors joined the bandwagon and great hits were produced ever after that.
Paramount Pictures Corporation owned by media conglomerate Viacom was founded in the year 1912. The founder Adolph Zukor of Famous Players Film Company decided to make feature films that would fulfill the demands of immigrants. By the mid of next year he made five successful films. In the same year Jesse L. Lasky founded Lasky Feature Play Company and hired Cecil B. DeMille for his first movie "The Squaw Man". Both these production companies sought help of Paramount Pictures to release their movies. Paramount Pictures was a new company at that time and was a merger of many small firms by W. W. Hokinson. The idea was appreciated and the new company, Famous Players-Lasky, got a good start.
Lasky and his brother-in-law, Goldfish became in charge of the production, along with DeMille. Hiram Abrams was responsible for the distribution where as Zukor made plans for the development of the company. The company soon touched great heights. In 1916, Zukor decided to talk about the merging of the three companies with Lasky and Hodkinson. Public can take guided tour into the Paramount Studios situated in Hollywood, California.
Zukor made the first slogan of the company "Famous Players in Famous Plays". He was the man behind successful actors like Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino, Mary Pickford, Wallace Reid and Gloria Swanson. Paramount Pictures were the first to introduce the concept of block booking; this meant that if a particular firm wanted to buy the rights of a particular actor, they were also required to buy the other productions of Paramount Productions for that year. This concept proved to be a huge success and boosted the company's sale.
Under the leadership of Zukor, Paramount had huge success. He was responsible for building number of theaters which had nearly two thousand screens altogether. He also had big investments in radio and in 1926 he gained control over the Balaban & Katz chain. Barney Balaban became the president and Sam Katz handled the Paramount Publix theater chain. The company's name, Famous Players-Lasky was changed to Paramount-Publix Corporation, in 1927. Due to the success of Publix theater chain the name was changed to Paramount-Publix Corporation in 1930.
By 1932 Zukon left all his old partners behind as the company was facing bankruptcy due to the enormous expansion projects. A bank reorganization team, consisting of Otto Kahn and John Hertz took over the company but kept Zukon in the company. After dealing with bankruptcy, the company was named Paramount Pictures, Inc. and Barney Balaban became the chairman. Many actors and singers were roped in and on a yearly basis; the company was producing nearly seventy movies a year. They also tried their hand at cartoon and the two characters, Popeye the Sailor and Betty Boop became an instant hit.
The government was having problems with the block booking, so the company decided to end it in 1940, after which the company's production went down to twenty movies a year. While the company was making an effort to attract audience during the World War II, the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department reopened the case, U.S. vs. Paramount Pictures and the Supreme Court ordered the split of the company into two. Due to the loss of theater chains, the position of Paramount Pictures was very unstable and the company was sold to Gulf and Western Industries.
Paramount collaborated with Universal Studios to form Cinema International Corporation in 1970. They began producing for television. After the realease of movies "Grease" and "Saturday Night Fever", the interest in movies were back again. Paramount Pictures began making albums when they purchased rights for Paramount Records. Cinema International Corporation became United International Pictures, in 1981, which was renamed as Paramount Communications in 1989. Paramount became a prominent name in Hollywood once again and gave tough competition to its rivals. Some survived by moving to another place like Warner Bros. and some closed down like for instance RKO.
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CyberSpace2Day
In 2006 she gave her voice to animated movie "Flushed Away" and also starred in "All the King's Men" opposite Sean Penn. She was also part of the extremely successful "Little children" which won her an Oscar nomination again for the best actress. 
Apart from being a successful person Kate Winslet is known to be a good person who plays mischievous pranks and is
