Titanic’s Cast

At 23 years of age, LEONARDO DiCAPRIO (Jack Dawson) has developed into one of his generation’s most gifted and versatile talents. DiCaprio earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor at 19 for his work in "What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?" The actor’s second film at the time also got awards from the National Board of Review, Chicago Film Critics and the Los Angeles Film Critics, as well as a Golden Globe nomination.

A native of Los Angeles, DiCaprio began his acting career at age 14, appearing in commercials and educational films. He made his film debut opposite Robert DeNiro and Ellen Barkin in "This Boy’s Life" and has appeared in a variety of features, from the Western "The Quick and the Dead", with Sharon Stone and Gene Hackman, to "Total Eclipse", shot in Paris, opposite David Thewlis, in which DiCaprio played the poet Rimbaud.

In 1996, he starred with Claire Danes in the critically acclaimed modern adaptation of "William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet", as well as the screen adaptation of the successful play "Marvin’s Room", opposite Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton. DiCaprio will next co-star with Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich and Gerard Depardieu in "The Man in the Iron Mask", which recently completed filming in France. He has also joined the ensemble cast of Woody Allen’s latest project in 1998.

Visit the Official Leonardo DiCaprio website at www.leonardodicaprio.com. (www.titanicmovie.com/)

Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio was from the beginning a wild boy. He was born in Los Angeles, CA on the eleventh of November of 1974 to George and Irmalin DiCaprio. Leo was an only child, and his parents divorced each other within a year after his birth.

His mother is German and his father is Italian, and their backgrounds had a major influence on his upbringing. His father produced underground comic books and comic arts out of his garage. His mother was a secretary (before she began managing Leo's affairs.) They might be best described as liberal, pot-smoking hippies: "Whatever I did would be something they'd already done. I mean, my dad would welcome it if I got a nose ring." He remembers such household guests as comic-book artist Robert Crumb, writer Charles Bukowski, and novelist Hubert Selby, Jr.

Leo was educated at John Marshall High School in LA. He often cheated in school (especially in math), and seemed more interested in entertaining his classmates than in doing his homework. "School, I never truly got the knack of. I could never focus on things I didn't want to learn. I used to, like, take half of the school and do break-dancing with my friend in front of them at lunchtime."

Leo's acting debut was on the television show Romper Room, at age five. At age ten, on the way home from a casting call where he had just been rejected, he cried to his father, "Dad, I really want to become an actor, but if this is what it's all about I don't want to do it." Leo recalls his father put his arm around him and said, "Someday, Leonardo, it will happen for you. Remember these words. Just relax."

Leo was finally signed at the age of fourteen, and struggled to break into the movie industry through commercials and educational films such as "How to Deal With a Parent Who Takes Drugs" and "Mickey's Safety Club." He took part in over thirty commercials in all, and on such television shows as Lassie, The Outsiders, Roseanne, and Parenthood. He was cast in his first movie in 1991. At sixteen, he finally landed a successful, regular role as a homeless boy in the teen show Growing Pains that lasted for a year. Though only a small part, Leo's performance proved he had great potential; he easily outshined the rest of the cast.

His big break was undoubtedly his leading role as Tobias Wolff in This Boy's Life. Thanks to his natural, brilliant performance in this movie, he gained recognition as a talented rising actor. Leo received a few prestigious awards for his performance and here began his rise to fame.

Now having the opportunity to be picky about his roles, Leo chooses them carefully. He has turned down such commercially popular roles as Robin in Batman Forever, and continues to look for the more challenging roles such as Arnie Grape, the mentally handicapped teenager in What's eating Gilbert Grape, the drug-troubled Jim Carrol in Basketball Diaries, and the French poet Arthur Rimbaud in Total Eclipse. "I want to take my time with each role and that's how you plan a long career. I turned down a lot of movies and a few little comedies as well."

With the modern-day adaptation of Romeo and Juliet by Baz Luhrman, DiCaprio finally began to reach out to a larger audience. He also worked again with Robert de Niro. However, his career didn't truly explode until Titanic, the blockbuster movie that brought eleven Oscars. His good looks and outstanding acting skills made this romantic lover of the third class an instant idol around the world. Though Leo wasn't among the Oscar nominees for Titanic, he remained busy with promotional tours and starring in his new movie, The Man in the Iron Mask.

He now has his own Los Angeles-based production company, Appian Way and with Initial Entertainment Group, he will develop projects in which he will serve as producer and/or star. The first one could be "Alexander", directed by Martin Scorcese.

Leo is a favorite of many professional and amateur critics because of his unique ability to play the "boy/man" border with such ease and natural charm. Though 29, Leo's boyish looks allow him to apply his experience to younger roles that many of his competitors cannot handle. "The best thing about acting is that I get to lose myself in another character and actually get paid for it. As for myself, I'm not sure who I am. It seems that I change every day."

(/www.dicaprio.com/biographical_info.html)

KATE WINSLET (Rose DeWitt Bukater).

Date and location of birth: 5 October 1975, Reading, Berkshire, England, UK

Mini biography

Her parents Roger and Sally were both stage actors. Kate came into her talent at an early age. She scored her first professional gig at 11, dancing opposite the Honey Monster in a commercial. She started acting lessons around the same time, which led to formal training at a performing arts high school. Over the next few years she appeared on stage regularly. Her first big break came at age 17, when she was cast in Heavenly Creatures (1994). The film, based on the true story of two girls who commit a brutal murder, received modest distribution but was praised by critics.

Still a relative unknown, Winslet attended an audition the next year for Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility (1995). She made an immediate impression on the film's star, Emma Thompson. Her efforts were rewarded with both a British Academy Award and an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Winslet followed up with two more pieces, playing the rebellious heroine in Jude (1996) and Ophelia in Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet (1996).

The role that transformed Winslet from art house attraction to international star was Rose DeWitt Bukater, the passionate, rosy-cheeked aristocrat in James Cameron's Titanic (1997). Young girls the world over both idolized and identified with Winslet, noting her healthy, beautiful body. Winslet's performance also brought a Best Actress nomination, making her the youngest actress to ever receive two Academy awards.

After unexpected attention surrounding Titanic (1997), Winslet started independent projects. She turned down the lead roles in both Shakespeare in Love (1998) and Anna and the King (1999) in order to play adventurous soul searchers in Hideous Kinky (1998) and Holy Smoke (1999). The former cast her as a young single mother traveling through 1960s Morocco with her daughters; the latter, as a follower of a guru in the Australian countryside. The next year she appeared as the Marquis de Sade's chambermaid in Quills (2000).

Off camera, Winslet is known for her jokes and familial devotion. She has two sisters, Anna Winslet and Beth Winslet (both actresses), and a brother, Joss. In 1998 she married James Threapleton, whom she met on the set of Hideous Kinky (1998); the pair had a daughter, Mia, in October of 2000.

"After Titanic (1997) it would have been completely foolish for me to go and try and top that. I'm an English girl, I've always loved England, I've never felt the desire to leave it for any particular reason. And while I'm ambitious and care very much about what I do, I'm not competitive. I also don't want to act every day of my life. ... So it was important to me after 'Titanic' to just remind myself."

"I was on the tube just before Christmas, and this girl turned round to me and said, `Are you Kate Winslet? And I said, `Well, yes. I am actually'. And she said, `And you're getting the tube?' And I said, `Yes'. And she said, `Don't you have a big car that drives you around?' And I said, `No'. And she was absolutely stunned that I wasn't being driven round in some flash car all the time."

"I'd rather do theatre and British films than move to L.A. in hopes of getting small roles in American films."

Salary: Enigma (2001) –£300,000; Quills (2000) – £450,000; Holy Smoke (1999) – £360,000; Titanic (1997) – $2,000,000. (www.imdb.com/name/nm0000701/bio)