When Titanic megastar Kate Winslet received her first Best Leading Actress nomination at the Academy Awards for James Cameron’s epic romance, it would take another twelve years before she finally stepped onto that podium. By the 2009 awards season, however, Kate had indisputably climbed to the absolute height of her career.
Kate snatched both the Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama and Best Supporting Actress trophies at the Golden Globes for her performances in Revolutionary Road and The Reader, respectively. Incidentally, the latter — poetically referencing Kate’s hometown of Reading, Berkshire — was categorized as a lead by the time the Oscars arrived, but that didn’t stop her from winning the prestigious award. As Sophia Loren, Shirley MacLaine, Marion Cotillard, Halle Berry, and Nicole Kidman welcomed her onto the stage, Kate was visibly trembling with excitement.
Throughout her speech, the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind could not help but exclaim and moan. After recalling childhood shenanigans like posing with a shampoo bottle, Kate thanked her parents, and the magic truly materialized. Noting her mom and dad were in the crowd, she casually asked her father to “whistle or something.” And whistle he did.
The moment Kate uttered those words, a brief silence swept the hall as the applause momentarily halted. Then came one of the most heartwarming moments in Academy Awards history — a tangible exemplification of the special bond between a father and his daughter. Seated in the back rows on the left-most side of the arena among the general public, Kate’s father responded with a powerful whistle that echoed across the vast hall, reaching every ear, rendering the spellbound Hollywood personalities to turn in that direction and spot the gentleman.
The entire gathering erupted in cheers and applause as Kate’s special moment manifested in surreal fashion. Tears streaming down her face, the Sense and Sensibility star remained at a loss for words, scanning the crowd to find him. She waved in her father’s direction, blowing kisses, and simply let out a delighted “Yeah!”. After a few seconds, while the applause continued, she added, “I love you,” as the cameras finally located Mr. Winslet.
Kate has shared that this isn’t her only relished memory of her father’s whistle. “My dad’s whistle,” she once recalled, “On holidays when I was a kid, we would all be off in the rock pools along the beach. When it came time to go, we’d hear the whistle and we’d all come running. Like dogs!”
Kate’s father, Roger John Winslet, had been a struggling actor himself, though financial responsibilities forced him to take on labor work to support his family. With the encouragement of her father, and her grandparents — who were also actors — Kate Winslet was fortunately propelled toward a career in acting.
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