Kate Winslet Life's Journey

Actress. Born October 5, 1975, in Reading, England. The grandaughter of two theater managers (her maternal grandparents founded Reading Repertory Theatre) and the daughter of two actors, Winslet began acting as a child, making her first appearance on British television at age seven in a cereal commercial. In 1988, she appeared in the TV series Shrinks; three years later, she left school to pursue her fledgling acting career.

Winslet appeared on the British stage in productions such as Adrian Mole and Peter Pan and had a recurring role on the British sitcom Get Back before landing her debut film role, in Heavenly Creatures (1994), directed by Peter Jackson. In the film, Winslet played Juliet Hulme, a schoolgirl with tuberculosis whose obsessive friendship with a classmate leads the two girls to murder the classmate's mother in order to avoid separation.

Winslet attracted even more attention with her next role in Ang Lee's film adaptation of the Jane Austen novel, Sense and Sensibility (1995). The actress proved she could hold her own across from screen legends such as Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, and Alan Rickman. As the winsome Marianne Dashwood—the "sensibility" of the movie—Winslet earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. The film also earned high praise from critics.

In a similarly high-brow role, Winslet starred with Christopher Eccleston in the film Jude, a modern interpretation of the Thomas Hardy novel, Jude the Obscure. She then appeared as Ophelia in Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet (1996), and landed squarely on the A-list of leading ladies with her performance as Rose DeWitt, the heroine of James Cameron's record-breaking blockbuster Titanic. The film won numerous Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and scored Winslet her second Academy Award nomination for acting, this time for Best Actress. Her co-star, Gloria Stuart, also earned a nod in the supporting category for her portrayal of the older Rose DeWitt; the two actresses became the first ever to earn nominations for playing two versions of the same character.

On the heels of her first blockbuster hit, Winslet made two somewhat unlikely choices for her next projects: Hideous Kinky (1999) and Holy Smoke (1999). In Hideous Kinky, Winslet played a free-spirited single mother who brought her two daughters on a spiritual quest to Marrakech. For the Jane Campion-directed film, Holy Smoke, Winslet played Ruth Barron, a young woman who joined a religious cult. The film's frank depiction of the sexual connection between Barron and PJ Waters (played by Harvey Keitel) displayed Winslet's talent for portraying physical and emotional nudity onscreen. Winslet then returned to period drama in 2000 with the film Quills, a movie about the French novelist Marquis de Sade. In the movie, Winslet portrayed the laundress who helped the Marquis (Geoffrey Rush) smuggle his illicit writings out of an insane asylum during his committment there.

In 2001, Winslet lent her voice to the animated British feature, A Christmas Carol. A song from the movie, "What If," featured Winslet as the lead vocalist and became a top ten single in Britain. Her most notable film that year was Iris, a screenplay based on John Bailey's book, Elegy for Iris. Winslet played the young Iris Murdoch, an unconventional student. Judi Dench played the older Iris, whose husband (Jim Broadbent) tries to help her as she struggles with the growing effects of her Alzheimer's disease. All three Iris stars earned Academy Award nominations, making it the second time Winslet and a co-star both earned nominations for playing different versions of the same character.

That same year, Winslet co-starred as a code-breaker in the World War II-era spy drama Enigma (2002). She also appeared as a reporter interviewing a death-row inmate in The Life of David Gale, costarring Kevin Spacey and Laura Linney. In 2004, Winslet starred opposite Jim Carrey in Charlie Kaufman's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which earned her an Academy Award nomination for her performance. She also starred across from Johnny Depp in Finding Neverland (2004), which explored J.M. Barrie's inspiration for his best-known work, Peter Pan. In the film, Winslet played the widowed mother of four boys whom Barrie befriended.

In 2001, Winslet lent her voice to the animated British feature, A Christmas Carol. A song from the movie, "What If," featured Winslet as the lead vocalist and became a top ten single in Britain. Her most notable film that year was Iris, a screenplay based on John Bailey's book, Elegy for Iris. Winslet played the young Iris Murdoch, an unconventional student. Judi Dench played the older Iris, whose husband (Jim Broadbent) tries to help her as she struggles with the growing effects of her Alzheimer's disease. All three Iris stars earned Academy Award nominations, making it the second time Winslet and a co-star both earned nominations for playing different versions of the same character.

That same year, Winslet co-starred as a code-breaker in the World War II-era spy drama Enigma (2002). She also appeared as a reporter interviewing a death-row inmate in The Life of David Gale, costarring Kevin Spacey and Laura Linney. In 2004, Winslet starred opposite Jim Carrey in Charlie Kaufman's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which earned her an Academy Award nomination for her performance. She also starred across from Johnny Depp in Finding Neverland (2004), which explored J.M. Barrie's inspiration for his best-known work, Peter Pan. In the film, Winslet played the widowed mother of four boys whom Barrie befriended.

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Leonardo DiCaprio Life's Journey

Actor. Born Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio on November 11, 1974, in Los Angeles, California, to parents Irmelin and George DiCaprio. The couple's only child, DiCaprio was just a year-old when his parents separated, leaving the young boy to largely be raised by his mother, a legal secretary born in Germany.

Despite his parents' early divorce, DiCaprio remained close to his father, a comic book artist and distributor. With his parents urging Leonardo explored his creative side. Acting caught his attention early and at the age of five he landed a spot on the children's television show, Romper Room. Commercial work soon followed.

"I knew I didn't want to be one of the set things they said I should be at school," DiCaprio told The New York Times in 1993. "Doctor, lawyer, blah blah blah." He signed with an agent who recommended DiCaprio change his name to Lenny Williams. But in an early sign that the actor would push to do things his own way, Leonardo didn't bite.

His stubbornness paid off. By the early 1990s, DiCaprio began landing regular television work. The credits included programs like The New Lassie, Roseanne, and the short-lived Parenthood.

In 1991, DiCaprio took a leap forward when he was cast as a semi-regular on the ABC comedy, Growing Pains. That same year, he made his film debut in the low-budget horror flick, Critters 3.

Two years later, DiCaprio proved to the critics that he was more than a good looking teenager, when he played opposite Robert De Niro in This Boy's Life, a role he'd secured after beating out 400 other actors. That same year he turned heads again and earned an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor for his role as a mentally disabled child in What's Eating Gilbert Grape?.

His performance solidified DiCaprio's reputation as a serious actor and a heartthrob. Other movies followed, including a pair of 1995 releases, The Basketball Diaries and Total Eclipse.

Then came 1997 and the mammoth movie (Titanic) about a mammoth boat that turned DiCaprio into a mammoth star. Co-starring Kate Winslet, Titanic smashed box office records on its way toward raking in more than $600 million in ticket sales. The film also pushed its male lead toward a level of celebrity that few actors could be ready for.

"I got to be wild and nuts," DiCaprio told Rolling Stone in 2010. He added: "I didn't care what anyone thought."

Still, DiCaprio was levelheaded enough to know there were certain pitfalls to avoid. Enough of that had been drilled into him a few years before with the death of River Phoenix, an actor DiCaprio greatly admired.

"It was also about avoiding the tornado of chaos, of potential downfall," he told Rolling Stone. "It was, 'Wow, how lucky are we to not have hung out with that crowd or done those things?' My two main competitors in the beginning, the blond-haired kids I went to audition with, one hung himself and the other died of a heroin overdose... . I was never into drugs at all. There aren't stories of me in a pool of my own vomit in a hotel room on the Hollywood Strip."

Notoriety such as being named one of PEOPLE's 50 Most Beautiful People in 1997 and again in 1998, did little for him. "You want to be remembered for your work rather than being sort of the hunk of the month," he said at the time. "There's always a new pretty face."

DiCaprio backed up his words, becoming increasingly selective about the movies he was willing to attach his name to. Over the next few years his films included The Man in the Iron Mask (1998)

and the disappointing, The Beach (2000), which nabbed just $40 million at the box office, despite paying its leading star some$20 million to be in it.

In 2002, DiCaprio again demonstrated his range as an actor in two noteworthy films, Catch Me if You CanGangs of New York, the latter serving as the first of several films he'd go on to do with director Martin Scorsese. Two years later, and

he took on the difficult task of playing Howard Hughes in The Aviator.

As the new decade took shape, so did DiCaprio's willingness to take on increasingly daring roles. In 2006 he starred in a pair of well-received films, Blood Diamond, and the Martin Scorsese directed, The Departed.

In 2008 DiCaprio reunited with Kate Winslet in Revolutionary Road, a tense film about a 1950s suburban couple that struggles to weather a myriad of personal problems.

As the actor's star power has glowed, so has the glare on his personal life. For several bumpy years his relationship with supermodel Gisele Bundchen was fodder for celebrity magazines and Web sites.

Off-screen and away from the attention of the paparazzi DiCaprio has demonstrated his passion for environmental issues. In 2000 he hosted an Earth Day celebration as well interviewed President Bill Clinton for a television segment about global warming. He's also served on the boards of the Natural Resources Defense Council and Global Green USA. In 2007 a documentary about the environment, which DiCaprio wrote and narrated, debuted. In addition, the actor is one of the founders of The Leonardo DiCaprio Fund at California Community Foundation, a non-profit that supports environmental causes.

None of this, however, has slowed his filmmaking career. He's on tap to play a real-life killer in the film adaptation of the best-selling novel, The Devil in the White City. In addition, he's slated to star as well produce Legacy of Secrecy, a feature that delves deep into the assassination of President Kennedy.

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