title: Stephen King

text: In 1985, King wrote his first work for the comic book medium, writing a few pages of the benefit X-Men comic book "Heroes for Hope Starring the X-Men". The book, whose profits were donated to famine relief in Africa, was written by a number of different authors in the comic book field, such as Chris Claremont, Stan Lee, and Alan Moore, as well as authors not primarily associated with comics, such as Harlan Ellison. The following year, King published "It" (1986), which was the best-selling hardcover novel in the United States that year, and wrote the introduction to "Batman" No. 400, an anniversary issue where he expressed his preference for the character over Superman.


title: Stephen King

text: In the late 1970s, King began what became a series of interconnected stories about a lone gunslinger, Roland, who pursues the "Man in Black" in an alternate-reality universe that is a cross between J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth and the American Wild West as depicted by Clint Eastwood and Sergio Leone in their spaghetti Westerns. The first of these stories, "", was initially published in five installments by "The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction" under the editorship of Edward L. Ferman, from 1977 to 1981. "The Gunslinger" was continued as an eight-book epic series called "The Dark Tower", whose books King wrote and published infrequently over four decades (1978-2012).


title: Stephen King

text: In the late 1970s and early 1980s, King published a handful of short novels—"Rage" (1977), "The Long Walk" (1979), "Roadwork" (1981), "The Running Man" (1982) and "Thinner" (1984)—under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. The idea behind this was to test whether he could replicate his success again and to allay his fears that his popularity was an accident. An alternate explanation was that publishing standards at the time allowed only a single book a year. He picked up the name from the hard rock band Bachman-Turner Overdrive, of which he is a fan.


title: Stephen King

text: Richard Bachman was exposed as King's pseudonym by a persistent Washington, D.C. bookstore clerk, Steve Brown, who noticed similarities between the works and later located publisher's records at the Library of Congress that named King as the author of one of Bachman's novels. This led to a press release heralding Bachman's "death"—supposedly from "cancer of the pseudonym". King dedicated his 1989 book "The Dark Half", about a pseudonym turning on a writer, to "the deceased Richard Bachman", and in 1996, when the Stephen King novel "Desperation" was released, the companion novel "The Regulators" carried the "Bachman" byline.


title: Stephen King

text: In 2006, during a press conference in London, King declared that he had discovered another Bachman novel, titled "Blaze". It was published on June 12, 2007. In fact, the original manuscript had been held at King's Alma mater, the University of Maine in Orono, for many years and had been covered by numerous King experts. King rewrote the original 1973 manuscript for its publication.


title: Stephen King

text: King has used other pseudonyms. The short story "The Fifth Quarter" was published under the pseudonym John Swithen (the name of a character in the novel "Carrie"), by "Cavalier" in April 1972. The story was reprinted in King's collection "Nightmares & Dreamscapes" in 1993 under his own name. In the introduction to the Bachman novel "Blaze", King claims, with tongue-in-cheek, that "Bachman" was the person using the Swithen pseudonym.


title: Stephen King

text: The "children's book" "Charlie the Choo-Choo: From the World of The Dark Tower" was published in 2016 under the pseudonym Beryl Evans, who was portrayed by actress Allison Davies during a book signing at San Diego Comic-Con, and illustrated by Ned Dameron. It is adapted from a fictional book central to the plot of King's previous novel "".


title: Stephen King

text: In 2000, King published online a serialized horror novel, "The Plant". At first the public assumed that King had abandoned the project because sales were unsuccessful, but King later stated that he had simply run out of stories. The unfinished epistolary novel is still available from King's official site, now free. Also in 2000, he wrote a digital novella, "Riding the Bullet", and saying he foresaw e-books becoming 50% of the market "probably by 2013 and maybe by 2012". However, he also stated: "Here's the thing—people tire of the new toys quickly."


title: Stephen King

text: King wrote the first draft of the 2001 novel "Dreamcatcher" with a notebook and a Waterman fountain pen, which he called "the world's finest word processor".


title: Stephen King

text: In August 2003, King began writing a column on pop culture appearing in "Entertainment Weekly", usually every third week. The column was called "The Pop of King" (a play on the nickname "The King of Pop" commonly attributed to Michael Jackson).


title: Stephen King

text: In 2006, King published an apocalyptic novel, "Cell". The book features a sudden force in which every cell phone user turns into a mindless killer. King noted in the book's introduction that he does not use cell phones.


title: Stephen King

text: In 2008, King published both a novel, "Duma Key", and a collection, "Just After Sunset". The latter featured 13 short stories, including a previously unpublished novella, "N." Starting July 28, 2008, "N." was released as a serialized animated series to lead up to the release of "Just After Sunset."


title: Stephen King

text: In 2009, King published "Ur", a novella written exclusively for the launch of the second-generation Amazon Kindle and available only on Amazon.com, and "Throttle", a novella co-written with his son Joe Hill and released later as an audiobook titled "Road Rage", which included Richard Matheson's short story "Duel". King's novel "Under the Dome" was published on November 10 of that year; it is a reworking of an unfinished novel he tried writing twice in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and at 1,074 pages, it is the largest novel he has written since "It" (1986). "Under the Dome" debuted at No. 1 in "The New York Times" Bestseller List.


title: Stephen King

text: On February 16, 2010, King announced on his Web site that his next book would be a collection of four previously unpublished novellas called "Full Dark, No Stars". In April of that year, King published "Blockade Billy", an original novella issued first by independent small press Cemetery Dance Publications and later released in mass-market paperback by Simon & Schuster. The following month, DC Comics premiered "American Vampire", a monthly comic book series written by King with short-story writer Scott Snyder, and illustrated by Rafael Albuquerque, which represents King's first original comics work. King wrote the background history of the very first American vampire, Skinner Sweet, in the first five-issues story arc. Scott Snyder wrote the story of Pearl.


title: Stephen King

text: King's next novel, "11/22/63", was published November 8, 2011, and was nominated for the 2012 World Fantasy Award Best Novel. The eighth "Dark Tower" volume, "", was published in 2012. King's next book was "Joyland", a novel about "an amusement-park serial killer", according to an article in "The Sunday Times", published on April 8, 2012.


title: Stephen King

text: During his Chancellor's Speaker Series talk at University of Massachusetts Lowell on December 7, 2012, King indicated that he was writing a crime novel about a retired policeman being taunted by a murderer. With a working title "Mr. Mercedes" and inspired by a true event about a woman driving her car into a McDonald's restaurant, it was originally meant to be a short story just a few pages long. In an interview with "Parade", published on May 26, 2013, King confirmed that the novel was "more or less" completed he published it in June 2014. Later, on June 20, 2013, while doing a video chat with fans as part of promoting the upcoming "Under the Dome" TV series, King mentioned he was halfway through writing his next novel, "Revival", which was released November 11, 2014.


title: Stephen King

text: King announced in June 2014 that "Mr. Mercedes" is part of a trilogy; the second book, "Finders Keepers", was released on June 2, 2015. On April 22, 2015, it was revealed that King was working on the third book of the trilogy, "End of Watch", which was ultimately released on June 7, 2016.


title: Stephen King

text: During a tour to promote "End of Watch", King revealed that he had collaborated on a novel, set in a women's prison in West Virginia, with his son, Owen King, titled "Sleeping Beauties".


title: Stephen King

text: In 2018, he released the novel "The Outsider", which featured the character of Holly Gibney, and the novella "Elevation". In 2019, he released the novel "The Institute". In 2020, King released "If It Bleeds", a collection of four previously unpublished novellas. In 2022, King released his latest novel, "Fairy Tale".


title: Stephen King

text: King has written two novels with horror novelist Peter Straub: "The Talisman" (1984) and a sequel, "Black House" (2001). King has indicated that he and Straub would likely write the third and concluding book in this series, the tale of Jack Sawyer, but after Straub passed away in 2022 the future of the series is in doubt.


title: Stephen King

text: King produced an artist's book with designer Barbara Kruger, "My Pretty Pony" (1989), published in a limited edition of 250 by the Library Fellows of the Whitney Museum of American Art. Alfred A. Knopf released it in a general trade edition.


title: Stephen King

text: "" (2001) was a paperback tie-in for the King-penned miniseries "Rose Red" (2002). Published under anonymous authorship, the book was written by Ridley Pearson. The novel is written in the form of a diary by Ellen Rimbauer, and annotated by the fictional professor of paranormal activity, Joyce Reardon. The novel also presents a fictional afterword by Ellen Rimbauer's grandson, Steven. Intended to be a promotional item rather than a stand-alone work, its popularity spawned a 2003 prequel television miniseries to "Rose Red", titled "The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer". This spin-off is a rare occasion of another author being granted permission to write commercial work using characters and story elements invented by King. The novel tie-in idea was repeated on Stephen King's next project, the miniseries "Kingdom Hospital". Richard Dooling, King's collaborator on "Kingdom Hospital" and writer of several episodes in the miniseries, published a fictional diary, "The Journals of Eleanor Druse", in 2004. Eleanor Druse is a key character in "Kingdom Hospital", much as Dr. Joyce Readon and Ellen Rimbauer are key characters in "Rose Red."


title: Stephen King

text: "Throttle" (2009), a novella written in collaboration with his son Joe Hill, appears in the anthology "He Is Legend: Celebrating Richard Matheson". Their second novella collaboration, "In the Tall Grass" (2012), was published in two parts in "Esquire". It was later released in e-book and audiobook formats, the latter read by Stephen Lang.


title: Stephen King

text: King and his son Owen King wrote the novel "Sleeping Beauties", released in 2017, that is set in a women's prison.


title: Stephen King

text: King and Richard Chizmar collaborated to write Gwendy's Button Box (2017), a horror novella taking place in King's fictional town of Castle Rock. A sequel titled "Gwendy's Magic Feather" (2019) was written solely by Chizmar. In November 2020, Chizmar announced that he and King were writing a third installment in the series titled "Gwendy's Final Task", this time as a full-length novel, to be released in February 2022.


title: Stephen King

text: In 1988, the band Blue Öyster Cult recorded an updated version of its 1974 song "Astronomy". The single released for radio play featured a narrative intro spoken by King. The Blue Öyster Cult song "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" was also used in the King TV series "The Stand".


title: Stephen King

text: King collaborated with Michael Jackson to create "Ghosts" (1996), a 40-minute musical video. King states he was motivated to collaborate as he is "always interested in trying something new, and for (him), writing a minimusical would be new". In 2005, King featured with a small spoken word part during the cover version of "Everlong" (by Foo Fighters) in Bronson Arroyo's album "Covering the Bases", at the time, Arroyo was a pitcher for Major League Baseball team Boston Red Sox of whom King is a longtime fan. In 2012, King collaborated with musician Shooter Jennings and his band Hierophant, providing the narration for their album, "Black Ribbons". King played guitar for the rock band Rock Bottom Remainders, several of whose members are authors. Other members include Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson, Scott Turow, Amy Tan, James McBride, Mitch Albom, Roy Blount, Jr., Matt Groening, Kathi Kamen Goldmark, Sam Barry, and Greg Iles. King and the other band members collaborated to release an e-book called "Hard Listening: The Greatest Rock Band Ever (of Authors) Tells All" (June 2013). King wrote a musical entitled "Ghost Brothers of Darkland County" (2012) with musician John Mellencamp.


title: Stephen King

text: King's formula for learning to write well is: "Read and write four to six hours a day. If you cannot find the time for that, you can't expect to become a good writer." He sets out each day with a quota of 2000 words and will not stop writing until it is met. He also has a simple definition for talent in writing: "If you wrote something for which someone sent you a check, if you cashed the check and it didn't bounce, and if you then paid the light bill with the money, I consider you talented."


title: Stephen King

text: When asked why he writes, King responds: "The answer to that is fairly simple—there was nothing else I was made to do. I was made to write stories and I love to write stories. That's why I do it. I really can't imagine doing anything else and I can't imagine not doing what I do." He is also often asked why he writes such terrifying stories and he answers with another question: "Why do you assume I have a choice?" King usually begins the story creation process by imagining a "what if" scenario, such as what would happen if a writer is kidnapped by a sadistic nurse in Colorado.


title: Stephen King

text: King often uses authors as characters, or includes mention of fictional books in his stories, novellas and novels, such as Paul Sheldon, who is the main character in "Misery", adult Bill Denbrough in "It", Ben Mears in "'Salem's Lot", and Jack Torrance in "The Shining". He has extended this to breaking the fourth wall by including "himself" as a character in "The Dark Tower" series from "" onwards. In September 2009 it was announced he would serve as a writer for "Fangoria".


title: Stephen King

text: King has called Richard Matheson "the author who influenced me most as a writer". In a current edition of Matheson's "The Shrinking Man", King is quoted as saying, "A horror story if there ever was one...a great adventure story—it is certainly one of that select handful that I have given to people, envying them the experience of the first reading."


title: Stephen King

text: Other acknowledged influences include H. P. Lovecraft, Arthur Machen, Ray Bradbury, Joseph Payne Brennan, Elmore Leonard, John D. MacDonald, and Don Robertson.


title: Stephen King

text: King's "The Shining" is immersed in gothic influences, including "The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe (which was directly influenced by the first gothic novel, Horace Walpole's "The Castle of Otranto"). The Overlook Hotel acts as a replacement for the traditional gothic castle, and Jack Torrance is a tragic villain seeking redemption.


title: Stephen King

text: King's favorite books are (in order): "The Golden Argosy"; "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"; "The Satanic Verses"; "McTeague"; "Lord of the Flies"; "Bleak House"; "Nineteen Eighty-Four"; "The Raj Quartet"; "Light in August"; and "Blood Meridian".


title: Stephen King

text: Science fiction editors John Clute and Peter Nicholls offer a largely favorable appraisal of King, noting his "pungent prose, sharp ear for dialogue, disarmingly laid-back, frank style, along with his passionately fierce denunciation of human stupidity and cruelty (especially to children) [all of which rank] him among the more distinguished 'popular' writers."


title: Stephen King

text: In his book "The Philosophy of Horror" (1990), Noël Carroll discusses King's work as an exemplar of modern horror fiction. Analyzing both the narrative structure of King's fiction and King's non-fiction ruminations on the art and craft of writing, Carroll writes that for King, "the horror story is always a contest between the normal and the abnormal such that the normal is reinstated and, therefore, affirmed."


title: Stephen King

text: In his analysis of post–World War II horror fiction, "The Modern Weird Tale" (2001), critic S. T. Joshi devotes a chapter to King's work. Joshi argues that King's best-known works are his worst, describing them as mostly bloated, illogical, maudlin and prone to "deus ex machina" endings. Despite these criticisms, Joshi argues that since "Gerald's Game" (1993), King has been tempering the worst of his writing faults, producing books that are leaner, more believable and generally better written.


title: Stephen King

text: In his short story collection "A Century of Great Suspense Stories", editor Jeffery Deaver noted that King "singlehandedly made popular fiction grow up. While there were many good best-selling writers before him, King, more than anybody since John D. MacDonald, brought reality to genre novels. He has often remarked that "'Salem's Lot" was ""Peyton Place" meets "Dracula". And so it was. The rich characterization, the careful and caring social eye, the interplay of story line and character development announced that writers could take worn themes such as vampirism and make them fresh again. Before King, many popular writers found their efforts to make their books serious blue-penciled by their editors. 'Stuff like that gets in the way of the story,' they were told. Well, it's stuff like that that has made King so popular, and helped free the popular name from the shackles of simple genre writing. He is a master of masters."


title: Stephen King

text: In 2003, King was honored by the National Book Awards with a lifetime achievement award, the Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. Some in the literary community expressed disapproval of the award: Richard E. Snyder, the former CEO of Simon & Schuster, described King's work as "non-literature" and critic Harold Bloom denounced the choice:


title: Stephen King

text: The decision to give the National Book Foundation's annual award for "distinguished contribution" to Stephen King is extraordinary, another low in the shocking process of dumbing down our cultural life. I've described King in the past as a writer of penny dreadfuls, but perhaps even that is too kind. He shares nothing with Edgar Allan Poe. What he is is an immensely inadequate writer on a sentence-by-sentence, paragraph-by-paragraph, book-by-book basis.


title: Stephen King

text: Let me assure you that King's work most definitely is literature, because it was written to be published and is read with admiration. What Snyder really means is that it is not the literature preferred by the academic-literary elite.


title: Stephen King

text: In 2008, King's book "On Writing" was ranked 21st on "Entertainment Weekly"s list of "The New Classics: The 100 Best Reads from 1983 to 2008".


title: Stephen King

text: In April 2008, King spoke out against HB 1423, a bill pending in the Massachusetts state legislature that would restrict or ban the sale of violent video games to anyone under the age of 18. King argued that such laws allow legislators to ignore the economic divide between the rich and poor and the easy availability of guns, which he believed were the actual causes of violence.


title: Stephen King

text: During the 2008 presidential election, King voiced his support for Democratic candidate Barack Obama. King was quoted as calling conservative commentator Glenn Beck "Satan's mentally challenged younger brother".


title: Stephen King

text: On March 8, 2011, King spoke at a political rally in Sarasota aimed against Governor Rick Scott (R-FL), voicing his opposition to the Tea Party movement.


title: Stephen King

text: On April 30, 2012, King published an article in "The Daily Beast" calling for rich Americans, including himself, to pay more taxes, citing it as "a practical necessity and moral imperative that those who have received much should be obligated to pay ... in the same proportion".


title: Stephen King

text: On January 25, 2013, King published an essay titled "Guns" via Amazon.com's Kindle single feature, which discusses the gun debate in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. King called for gun owners to support a ban on automatic and semi-automatic weapons, writing, "Autos and semi-autos are weapons of mass destruction...When lunatics want to make war on the unarmed and unprepared, these are the weapons they use." The essay became the fifth-bestselling non-fiction title for the Kindle.


title: Stephen King

text: In June 2018, King called for the release of the Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, who was jailed in Russia.


title: Stephen King

text: In the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, King endorsed Elizabeth Warren's campaign. Warren eventually suspended her campaign, and King later endorsed Joe Biden's campaign in the 2020 general election.


title: Stephen King

text: In 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, King expressed support for Ukraine. On his Twitter account, King posted a photo in an "I stand with Ukraine" t-shirt and later tweeted that he refuses to cooperate with Russian publishers.


title: Stephen King

text: In July 2022, Stephen King appeared in a video call with the Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus who played the role of Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In the call Stephen King said ""You can always find things about people to pull them down. Washington and Jefferson were slave owners — that doesn't mean they didn't do many good things to the United States of America. There are always people who have flaws, we are humans. On the whole, I think Bandera is a great man, and you're a great man, and Viva Ukraine!" However, King later realized that he was pranked and apologized on Twitter, noting that he wasn't the only victim and "other victims who fell for these guys include J.K. Rowling, Prince Harry, and Justin Trudeau".


title: Stephen King

text: King testified in an August 2022 in a case brought by the U.S. Justice Department to block a $2.2 billion merger of Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster (two of the "Big Five" book publishers). "The New York Times" credited King's high-profile testimony, which was against his own publisher, with helping to convince presiding judge Florence Y. Pan with ultimately blocking the merger.


title: Stephen King

text: King endorsed Shenna Bellows in the 2014 U.S. Senate election for the seat held by Republican Susan Collins.


title: Stephen King

text: King publicly criticized Paul LePage during LePage's tenure as Governor of Maine, referring to him as one of The Three Stooges (with then-Florida Governor Rick Scott and then-Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker being the other two). He was critical of LePage for incorrectly suggesting in a 2015 radio address that King avoided paying Maine income taxes by living out of state for part of the year. The statement was later corrected by the Governor's office, but no apology was issued. King said LePage was "full of the stuff that makes the grass grow green" and demanded that LePage "man up and apologize". LePage declined to apologize to King, stating, "I never said Stephen King did not pay income taxes. What I said was, Stephen King's not in Maine right now. That's what I said."


title: Stephen King

text: The attention garnered by the LePage criticism led to efforts to encourage King to run for Governor of Maine in 2018. King said he would not run or serve. King sent a tweet on June 30, 2015, calling LePage "a terrible embarrassment to the state I live in and love. If he won't govern, he should resign." He later clarified that he was not calling on LePage to resign, but to "go to work or go back home". On August 27, 2016, King called LePage "a bigot, a homophobe, and a racist".


title: Stephen King

text: King has stated that he donates approximately $4 million per year "to libraries, local fire departments that need updated lifesaving equipment (Jaws of Life tools are always a popular request), schools, and a scattering of organisations that underwrite the arts."


title: Stephen King

text: The Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, chaired by King and his wife, ranks sixth among Maine charities in terms of average annual giving, with over $2.8 million in grants per year, according to The Grantsmanship Center.


title: Stephen King

text: In November 2011, the STK Foundation donated $70,000 in matched funding via his radio station to help pay the heating bills for families in need in his home town of Bangor, Maine, during the winter.


title: Stephen King

text: In February 2021, King's Foundation donated $6,500 to help children from the Farwell Elementary School in Lewiston, Maine, to publish two novels on which they had been working over the course of several prior years, before being stopped due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Maine.


title: Stephen King

text: King married Tabitha Spruce on January 2, 1971. She too is a novelist and philanthropic activist. They own and divide their time between three houses: one in Bangor, Maine, one in Lovell, Maine, and for the winter a waterfront mansion located off the Gulf of Mexico in Sarasota, Florida. King's home in Bangor has been described as an unofficial tourist attraction, and , the couple plan to convert it into a facility housing his archives, as well as a writers' retreat.


title: Stephen King

text: The Kings have three children—a daughter and two sons. Their daughter Naomi is a Unitarian Universalist Church minister in Plantation, Florida, with her partner, Rev. Dr. Thandeka. Both of the Kings' sons are authors: Owen King published his first collection of stories, "We're All in This Together: A Novella and Stories", in 2005. Joseph Hillström King, who writes as Joe Hill, published his first collection of short stories, "20th Century Ghosts", in 2005.


title: Stephen King

text: King has a history of abusing alcohol and other drugs. He wrote of his struggles with addiction in "On Writing." Soon after "Carrie"s release in 1974, King's mother died of uterine cancer; King has written of his severe drinking problem at this time, stating that he was drunk while delivering the eulogy at his mother's funeral. King's substance addictions were so serious during the 1980s that, as he acknowledged in "On Writing" in 2000, he can barely remember writing "Cujo". Shortly after "Cujo"'s publication, King's family and friends staged an intervention, dumping in front of him evidence of his addictions taken from his office, including beer cans, cigarette butts, grams of cocaine, Xanax, Valium, NyQuil, Robitussin, and mouthwash. As King related in "On Writing", he then sought help, and became sober in the late 1980s. The first novel he wrote after becoming sober was "Needful Things".


title: Stephen King

text: King told "Bon Appétit" magazine in 2013 that he married Tabitha "because of the fish that she cooked for me." He said his favorite foods are baked salmon and cheesecake. A recipe from King, Lunchtime Gloop, is included in the 2020 cookbook "Maine Bicentennial Community Cookbook". The Rachael Ray magazine printed the recipe as made with "greasy hamburger" and canned spaghetti.


title: Stephen King

text: King and his wife Tabitha own Zone Radio Corp, a radio station group consisting of WZON/620 AM, WKIT/100.3 & WZLO/103.1.


title: Stephen King

text: In sports, King is a longtime fan of Major League Baseball team Boston Red Sox. His nonfiction book "Faithful" published in 2004, co-written with his friend and fellow author Stewart O'Nan, chronicles the exchanges between King and O'Nan (also a longtime fan of the Red Sox) about the historic 2004 Boston Red Sox season that culminated with the Red Sox winning the 2004 World Series, ending an 86-year championship drought.


title: Stephen King

text: On June 19, 1999, at about 4:30 p.m., King was walking on the shoulder of Maine State Route 5, in Lovell, Maine. Driver Bryan Edwin Smith, distracted by an unrestrained dog moving in the back of his minivan, struck King, who landed in a depression in the ground about 14 feet (four meters) from the pavement of Route 5. Early reports at the time from Oxford County Sheriff deputy Matt Baker claimed King was hit from behind, and some witnesses said the driver was not speeding, reckless, or drinking. However, Smith was later arrested and charged with driving to endanger and aggravated assault. He pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of driving to endanger and was sentenced to six months in county jail (suspended), and had his driving license suspended for a year. In his book "On Writing", King states he was heading north, walking against the traffic. Shortly before the accident took place, a woman in a car, also northbound, passed King first and then the light-blue Dodge van. The van was looping from one side of the road to the other, and the woman told her passenger she hoped "that guy in the van doesn't hit him."


title: Stephen King

text: King was conscious enough to give the deputy phone numbers to contact his family but was in considerable pain. He was transported to Northern Cumberland Hospital in Bridgton and then flown by air ambulance to Central Maine Medical Center (CMMC) in Lewiston. His injuries—a collapsed right lung, multiple fractures of his right leg, scalp laceration and a broken hip—kept him at CMMC until July 9. His leg bones were so shattered that doctors initially considered amputating his leg but stabilized the bones in the leg with an external fixator. After five operations in 10 days and physical therapy, King resumed work on "On Writing" in July, though his hip was still shattered and he could sit for only about 40 minutes before the pain became unbearable.


title: Stephen King

text: King's lawyer and two others purchased Smith's van for $1,500, reportedly to prevent it from appearing on eBay. The van was later crushed at a junkyard, to King's disappointment, as he had fantasized about smashing it.


title: Kate Winslet

text: Kate Elizabeth Winslet (; born 5 October 1975) is an English actress. Known for her work in independent films, particularly period dramas, and for her portrayals of headstrong and complicated women, she has received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, three BAFTA Awards, and five Golden Globe Awards. "Time" magazine named Winslet one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2009 and 2021. She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2012.


title: Kate Winslet

text: Winslet studied drama at the Redroofs Theatre School. Her first screen appearance, at age 15, was in the British television series "Dark Season" (1991). She made her film debut playing a teenage murderess in "Heavenly Creatures" (1994), and went on to win a BAFTA Award for playing Marianne Dashwood in "Sense and Sensibility" (1995). Global stardom followed with her leading role in the epic romance "Titanic" (1997), which was the highest-grossing film at the time. Winslet then eschewed parts in blockbusters in favour of critically acclaimed period pieces, including "Quills" (2000) and "Iris" (2001).


title: Kate Winslet

text: The science fiction romance "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" (2004), in which Winslet was cast against type in a contemporary setting, proved to be a turning point in her career, and she gained further recognition for her performances in "Finding Neverland" (2004), "Little Children" (2006), "Revolutionary Road" (2008), and "The Reader" (2008). For playing a former Nazi camp guard in the latter, she won the BAFTA Award and the Academy Award for Best Actress. Winslet's portrayal of Joanna Hoffman in the biopic "Steve Jobs" (2015) won her another BAFTA Award, and she received two Primetime Emmy Awards for her performances in the HBO miniseries "Mildred Pierce" (2011) and "Mare of Easttown" (2021).


title: Kate Winslet

text: For her narration of a short story in the audiobook "Listen to the Storyteller" (1999), Winslet won a Grammy Award. She performed the song "What If" for the soundtrack of her film "" (2001). A co-founder of the charity Golden Hat Foundation, which aims to create autism awareness, Winslet has written a book on the topic. Divorced from film directors Jim Threapleton and Sam Mendes, Winslet has been married to businessman Edward Abel Smith since 2012. She has a child from each marriage.


title: Kate Winslet

text: Kate Elizabeth Winslet was born on 5 October 1975, in Reading, Berkshire, to Sally Anne (née Bridges) and Roger John Winslet. She is of British descent, and also has Irish ancestry on her father's side and Swedish ancestry on her mother's side. Her mother worked as a nanny and waitress, and her father, a struggling actor, took labouring jobs to support the family. Her maternal grandparents were both actors and ran the Reading Repertory Theatre Company. Winslet has two sisters, Anna and Beth, both of whom are actresses, and a younger brother, Joss. The family had limited financial means; they lived on free meal benefits and were supported by a charity named the Actors' Charitable Trust. When Winslet was ten, her father severely injured his foot in a boating accident and found it harder to work, leading to more financial hardships for the family. Winslet has said her parents always made them feel cared for and that they were a supportive family.


title: Kate Winslet

text: Winslet attended St Mary and All Saints' Church of England primary school. Living in a family of actors inspired her to pursue acting from a young age. She and her sisters participated in amateur stage shows at school and at a local youth theatre, named Foundations. When she was five, Winslet made her first stage appearance as Mary in her school's production of the Nativity play. She describes herself as an overweight child, and was called "blubber" by her schoolmates and was bullied for her appearance. She said she did not let this stop her. At eleven, Winslet was accepted into the Redroofs Theatre School in Maidenhead. The school also functioned as an agency and took students to London to audition for acting jobs. She appeared in a Sugar Puffs commercial and dubbed for foreign films. At school, she was made head girl, took part in productions of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", and played the lead role of Wendy Darling in "Peter Pan". She worked simultaneously with the Starmaker Theatre Company in Reading. She participated in over twenty of their stage productions, but was rarely selected as the lead due to her weight. Nonetheless, she played key roles as Miss Agatha Hannigan in "Annie", the Mother Wolf in "The Jungle Book", and Lena Marelli in "Bugsy Malone".


title: Kate Winslet

text: In 1991, within two weeks of finishing her GCSE examinations, Winslet made her screen debut as one of the main cast members of the BBC science fiction television series "Dark Season". Her part was that of Reet, a schoolgirl who helps her classmates fight against a sinister man distributing free computers to her school. She did not earn much from the job and, at age sixteen, lack of funds forced Winslet to leave Redroofs. To support herself, she worked at a delicatessen. In 1992, she had a small part in the television film "Anglo-Saxon Attitudes", an adaptation of Angus Wilson's satirical novel. Winslet, who weighed at the time, played the daughter of an obese woman in it. During filming, an off-hand comment from the director Diarmuid Lawrence about the likeness between her and the actress who played her mother prompted Winslet to lose weight. She next took on the role of the young daughter of a bankrupt self-made man (played by Ray Winstone) in the television sitcom "Get Back" (1992–1993). She also had a guest role in a 1993 episode of the medical drama series "Casualty".


title: Kate Winslet

text: Winslet was among 175 girls to audition for Peter Jackson's psychological drama "Heavenly Creatures" (1994), and was cast after impressing Jackson with the intensity she brought to her part. The New Zealand-based production is based on the Parker–Hulme murder case of 1954, in which Winslet played Juliet Hulme, a teenager who assists her friend, Pauline Parker (played by Melanie Lynskey), in the murder of Pauline's mother. She prepared for the part by reading the transcripts of the girls' murder trial, their letters and diaries, and interacted with their acquaintances. She has said she learnt tremendously from the job. Jackson filmed in the real murder locations, and the experience left Winslet traumatised. She found it difficult to detach herself from her character, and said that after returning home, she often cried. The film was a critical breakthrough for Winslet; Desson Thomson, a reviewer for "The Washington Post", called her "a bright-eyed ball of fire, lighting up every scene she's in". Winslet recorded "Juliet's Aria" for the film's soundtrack. Also that year, she appeared as Geraldine Barclay, a prospective secretary, in the Royal Exchange Theatre production of Joe Orton's farce "What the Butler Saw".


title: Kate Winslet

text: While promoting "Heavenly Creatures" in Los Angeles, Winslet auditioned for the minor part of Lucy Steele for a 1995 film adaptation of Jane Austen's novel "Sense and Sensibility", written by and starring Emma Thompson. Impressed by her reading, Thompson cast her in the much larger part of the recklessly romantic teenager Marianne Dashwood. The director Ang Lee wanted Winslet to play the part with grace and restraintaspects that he felt were missing from her performance in "Heavenly Creatures"and thus asked her to practise tai chi, read gothic literature, and learn to play the piano. David Parkinson of "Radio Times" considered Winslet to be a standout among the cast, and Mick LaSalle of the "San Francisco Chronicle" took note of how well she had portrayed her character's growth and maturity. The film grossed over $134 million worldwide. She won the Screen Actors Guild and British Academy Film Award for Best Supporting Actress, and received nominations for the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award in the same category. Also in 1995, Winslet featured in the poorly received Disney film "A Kid in King Arthur's Court".


title: Kate Winslet

text: Winslet had roles in two period dramas of 1996"Jude" and "Hamlet". As with "Heavenly Creatures", her roles in these films were those of women with a "mad edge". In Michael Winterbottom's "Jude", based on the novel "Jude the Obscure" by Thomas Hardy, she played Sue Bridehead, a young woman with suffragette leanings who falls in love with her cousin, Jude (played by Christopher Eccleston). The critic Roger Ebert believed the part allowed Winslet to display her acting range, and praised her for the defiance she brought to the role. After unsuccessfully auditioning for Kenneth Branagh's 1994 film "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein", she was cast for the part of Ophelia, the doomed lover of the title character, in Branagh's adaptation of William Shakespeare's tragedy "Hamlet". Winslet, aged 20, was intimidated by the experience of performing Shakespeare with such established actors as Branagh and Julie Christie, saying the job required a level of intellect that she thought she did not possess. Mike Jeffries of "Empire" believed that she had played the part "well beyond her years". Despite the acclaim, "Jude" and "Hamlet" earned little at the box office.


title: Kate Winslet

text: Winslet was keen on playing Rose DeWitt Bukater, a socialite aboard the ill-fated RMS "Titanic", in James Cameron's epic romance "Titanic" (1997). Cameron was initially reluctant to cast her, preferring the likes of Claire Danes and Gwyneth Paltrow, but she pleaded with him, "You don't understand! I am Rose! I don't know why you're even seeing anyone else!" Her persistence led him to give her the part. Leonardo DiCaprio featured as her love interest, Jack. "Titanic" had a production budget of $200 million, and its arduous principal photography was held at Rosarito Beach where a replica of the ship was created. Filming proved taxing for Winslet; she almost drowned, caught influenza, suffered from hypothermia, and had bruises on her arms and knees. The workload allowed her only four hours of sleep per day and she felt drained by the experience. Writing for "Newsweek", David Ansen commended Winslet for capturing her character's zeal with delicacy, and Mike Clark of "USA Today" considered her to be the film's prime asset. Against expectations, "Titanic" went on to become the highest-grossing film to that point, earning over $2 billion in box office receipts worldwide, and established Winslet as a global star. The film won eleven Academy Awardstied for most for a single filmincluding Best Picture and earned the 22-year-old Winslet a nomination for a Best Actress in a Leading Role, making her the fourth-youngest nominee in the category at that time. She also received Golden Globe and SAG nominations for Best Actress.


title: Kate Winslet

text: Winslet did not view "Titanic" as a platform for bigger salaries. She avoided parts in blockbuster films in favour of independent productions that were not widely seen, believing that she "still had a lot to learn" and was unprepared to be a star. She later said her decision ensured career longevity. "Hideous Kinky", a low-budget drama shot before the release of "Titanic", was Winslet's sole film release of 1998. She turned down offers to star in "Shakespeare in Love" (1998) and "Anna and the King" (1999) to do the film. Based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Esther Freud, "Hideous Kinky" tells the story of a single British mother yearning for a new life in 1970s Morocco. Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" praised Winslet's decision to follow-up "Titanic" with such an offbeat project, and took note of how well she had captured her character's "obliviousness and optimism".


title: Kate Winslet

text: Jane Campion's psychological drama "Holy Smoke!" (1999) featured Winslet as an Australian woman who joins an Indian religious cult. She found the script brave and was challenged by the idea of playing an unlikeable, manipulative woman. She learnt to speak in an Australian accent and worked closely with Campion to justify her character's vileness. The film required her to perform explicit sex scenes with co-star Harvey Keitel, and featured a scene in which her character appears naked and urinates on herself. David Rooney of "Variety" wrote, "Showing the kind of courage few young thesps would be capable of and an extraordinary range [...] from animal cunning to unhinged desperation, [Winslet] holds nothing back." That same year, she voiced a fairy for the animated film "Faeries", and won the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for narrating the short story "The Face in the Lake" for the children's audiobook "Listen to the Storyteller".


title: Kate Winslet

text: In "Quills" (2000), a biopic of the erratic Marquis de Sade, starring Geoffrey Rush and Joaquin Phoenix, Winslet played the supporting role of a sexually repressed laundress working in a mental asylum. Hailing her as the "most daring actress working today", James Greenberg of "Los Angeles" magazine praised Winslet for "continuing to explore the bounds of sexual liberation". She received a SAG Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. The following year, she played a fictitious mathematician involved in the cracking of the Enigma ciphers in Michael Apted's espionage thriller "Enigma". Winslet's character was vastly expanded from a subsidiary love-interest in the novel it was based on to a prominent code-breaker in the film. She was pregnant while filming, and to prevent this from showing, she wore corsets under her costume.


title: Kate Winslet

text: The biopic "Iris" (2001) featured Winslet and Judi Dench as the novelist Iris Murdoch at different ages. The director Richard Eyre cast the two actresses after finding a "correspondence of spirit between them". Winslet was drawn to the idea of playing an intellectual and zesty female lead, and in research, she read Murdoch's novels, studied her husband's memoir "Elegy for Iris", and watched televised interviews of Murdoch. The project was filmed over four weeks and allowed Winslet to bring her daughter, who was six months old at the time, on set. Writing for "The Guardian", Martin Amis remarked that "the seriousness and steadiness of [Winslet's] gaze effectively suggest the dawning amplitude of the Murdoch imagination". She received her third Oscar nomination for "Iris", in addition to BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actress. Winslet's third film release of 2001 was the animated film "", based on Charles Dickens' novel. For the film's soundtrack she recorded "What If", which proved to be a commercial hit. After a year-long absence from the screen, Winslet starred as a headstrong journalist interviewing a professor on death row in the thriller "The Life of David Gale" (2003). She agreed to the project to work with the director Alan Parker, whom she admired, and believed the film raised pertinent questions about capital punishment. Mick LaSalle thought the film had muddled the subject and disliked both the film and Winslet's performance.


title: Kate Winslet

text: To avoid typecasting in historical dramas, Winslet actively sought roles in contemporary-set films. She found it in the science fiction romance "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" (2004) in which she played Clementine, a neurotic and impetuous woman who decides to erase memories of her ex-boyfriend (played by Jim Carrey). Unlike her previous assignments, the role allowed her to display the quirky side to her personality. Gondry encouraged Winslet and Carrey to improvise on set, and to keep herself agile she practised kickboxing. "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" proved to be a modest financial success and several critics have regarded it as one of the best films of the 21st century. Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" described it as a "uniquely funny, unpredictably tender and unapologetically twisted romance" and found Winslet to be "electrifying and bruisingly vulnerable" in it. A journalist for "Premiere" magazine commended her for abandoning her "corseted English rose persona", and ranked it as the 81st greatest film performance of all-time. Winslet considers it to be a favourite among her roles, and she received Best Actress nominations at the Oscar and BAFTA award ceremonies. She has said the film marked a turning point in her career and prompted directors to offer her a wide variety of parts.


title: Kate Winslet

text: Winslet was paid £6 million to star in her next release of the year, the drama "Finding Neverland". It is about the relationship between J. M. Barrie (played by Johnny Depp) and the Llewelyn Davies boys, which inspired Barrie to write Peter Pan; she played the boys' mother, Sylvia. Despite her reluctance to star in another period piece, Winslet agreed to the project after empathising with her character's love for the children. Ella Taylor of "LA Weekly" found her to be "radiant and earthy as ever", and CNN's Paul Clinton thought she was "exceptional in a delicate and finely tuned performance". She received a second Best Actress nomination at that year's BAFTA Award ceremony. With a box office gross of $116 million, "Finding Neverland" became her most widely seen film since "Titanic".


title: Kate Winslet

text: In 2005, Winslet took on a guest role in an episode of the British comedy sitcom "Extras", starring Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. She played a satirical version of herself in itan actress, who in an effort to win an Oscar, takes the role of a nun in a Holocaust film. She received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series nomination. Within three months of giving birth to her second child, Winslet returned to work on "Romance & Cigarettes", a musical romantic comedy directed by John Turturro, in which she played Tula, a promiscuous and foulmouthed woman. The part required her to sing and dance, and it helped her lose weight gained during the pregnancy. She twisted her ankle while filming one of the dance sequences. Derek Elley of "Variety" wrote that despite her limited screen time, Winslet had "the showiest role and filthiest one-liners". She turned down an offer from Woody Allen to star in "Match Point" (2005) to spend more time with her children.


title: Kate Winslet

text: Winslet had four film releases in 2006. She first appeared in "All the King's Men", a political thriller set in 1940s Louisiana, featuring Sean Penn and Jude Law. She played the supporting part of the love interest to Law's character. The film received negative reviews for its lack of political insight and narrative cohesiveness, and failed to recoup its $55 million investment. Her next release, the drama "Little Children", was better received. Based on the novel of the same name, the film tells the story of Sarah Pierce, an unhappy housewife who has an affair with a married neighbour (played by Patrick Wilson). Winslet was challenged by the role of an uncaring mother, as she did neither understand nor respect her character's actions. Scenes requiring her to be hostile towards the child actress who played her daughter proved upsetting for her. Having given birth to two children, she was nervous about the sex scenes in which she had to be nude; she took on the challenge to present a positive image for women with, in her words, "imperfect bodies". A. O. Scott of "The New York Times" wrote that Winslet had successfully "register[ed] every flicker of Sarah's pride, self-doubt and desire, inspiring a mixture of recognition, pity and concern". Once again, she received BAFTA Award and Academy Award nominations for Best Actress; the latter making her, at 31, the youngest performer to accrue five Oscar nominations.


title: Kate Winslet

text: After "Little Children", Winslet played a part she found more sympathetic in Nancy Meyers's romantic comedy "The Holiday". She played Iris, a Briton who temporarily exchanges homes with an American (played by Cameron Diaz) during the Christmas holiday season. It became her biggest commercial success in nine years, grossing over $205 million worldwide. Critic Justin Chang found the film formulaic yet pleasing, and took note of Winslet's radiance and charm. In her final release of the year, she voiced Rita, a scavenging sewer rat, in the animated film "Flushed Away". Her sole project of 2007 was as the narrator for the English version of the French children's film "The Fox and the Child".


title: Kate Winslet

text: Winslet had two critically acclaimed roles in 2008. After reading Justin Haythe's script for "Revolutionary Road", an adaptation of Richard Yates's debut novel, Winslet recommended the project to her then-husband, director Sam Mendes, and her "Titanic" co-star Leonardo DiCaprio. The film traces the tribulations of a young married couple in 1950s suburban America. Winslet was drawn to the idea of playing a woman whose aspirations had not been met, and she read "The Feminine Mystique" to understand the psychology of unhappy housewives from the era. Mendes encouraged DiCaprio and Winslet to spend time together, and she believed the small set they used helped them to develop their characters' strained relationship. Hailing Winslet as "the best English-speaking film actress of her generation", David Edelstein of "New York" magazine wrote that "there isn't a banal moment in Winslet's performancenot a gesture, not a word".


title: Kate Winslet

text: To avoid a scheduling conflict with "Revolutionary Road", Winslet turned down an offer to star in "The Reader". After her replacement Nicole Kidman left the project due to her pregnancy, Winslet was signed to it. Directed by Stephen Daldry, "The Reader" is based on Bernhard Schlink's novel "Der Vorleser" and is about Hanna Schmitz, an illiterate Nazi concentration camp guard (Winslet), who has an affair with a teenage boy. Winslet researched the Holocaust and the SS guards. To educate herself on the stigma of illiteracy, she spent time with students at the Literacy Partners, an organisation that teaches adults to read and write. She was unable to sympathise with Schmitz and struggled to play the part honestly without humanising the character's actions. Despite this, some historians criticised the film for making Schmitz an object of the audience's sympathy and accused the filmmakers of Holocaust revisionism. Todd McCarthy commended Winslet for supplying "a haunting shell to this internally decimated woman", and writing for "The Daily Telegraph", Sukhdev Sandhu considered her to be "absolutely fearless here, not just in her willingness to expose herself physically, but her refusal to expose her character psychologically".


title: Kate Winslet

text: Winslet received significant awards attention for her performances in "Revolutionary Road" and "The Reader". She won a Golden Globe Award for each of these films, and for the latter, she was awarded the Academy Award and BAFTA Award for Best Actress. At age 33, she surpassed her own record as the youngest performer to accrue six Oscar nominations. She also became the third actress in history to win two Golden Globe Awards at the same ceremony. Exhausted by the media attention during this period, Winslet took two years off work until she was ready to creatively engage again.


title: Kate Winslet

text: Winslet returned to acting with the five-part HBO miniseries "Mildred Pierce" (2011), an adaptation of James M. Cain's novel from the director Todd Haynes. It is about the titular heroine (Winslet), a divorcée during the Great Depression struggling to establish a restaurant business while yearning for the respect of her narcissistic daughter (played by Evan Rachel Wood). Winslet, who had recently divorced Mendes, believed certain aspects of her character's life mirrored her own. She was intimidated by the scope of the production, as she featured in every scene of the 280-page script. She was disturbed and upset by the story, and was particularly fascinated by the complex relationship between the mother-daughter pair. She collaborated closely with the production and costume designers, and learnt to bake pies and prepare chickens. The broadcast received a limited audience but gained positive reviews. Matt Zoller Seitz of "Salon" called the series a "quiet, heartbreaking masterpiece" and described Winslet's performance as "terrificintelligent, focused and seemingly devoid of ego". She received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress, in addition to Golden Globe and SAG Award wins.


title: Kate Winslet

text: The ensemble thriller "Contagion" from Steven Soderbergh was Winslet's first film release of 2011. She was cast as a disease detective for the CDC, and she modelled her role on Anne Schuchat, the director of the NCIRD. "Contagion" was a commercial success, and David Denby of "The New Yorker" credited Winslet for capturing the essence of an exasperated woman. Her next project was the Roman Polanski-directed "Carnage", adapted from the play "God of Carnage" by Yasmina Reza. Set entirely inside an apartment, the black comedy follows two sets of parents feuding over their respective children. Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly, and Christoph Waltz co-starred. The cast rehearsed the script like a play for two weeks, and Winslet brought her children with her to Paris for the eight weeks of filming. Critics found the adaptation to be less compelling than the play, but praised the performances of Winslet and Foster. They both received Golden Globe nominations for it.


title: Kate Winslet

text: Winslet said her workload in 2011 helped her overcome heartbreak from her divorce, and after completing work on "Carnage" she took a break from acting to focus on her children. A short part that she had filmed four years prior for the anthology film "Movie 43" was her sole screen appearance of 2012, and it yielded the worst reviews of her career. Winslet also performed an audiobook recording of Émile Zola's novel "Thérèse Raquin". She was reluctant to accept Jason Reitman's offer to star in his 2013 film adaptation of Joyce Maynard's novel "Labor Day", but agreed after Reitman postponed the production for a year to accommodate Winslet's commitment to her children. Set over a Labor Day weekend, it tells the story of Adele (Winslet), an agoraphobic single mother, who falls in love with an escaped convict. Describing Adele's characterisation as having "more vulnerability than strength", Winslet found her a departure from the strong-willed women she typically played. A scene in the film required her to make a pie, for which she drew on her baking experience from "Mildred Pierce". Reviews of the film were negative; Chris Nashawaty of "Entertainment Weekly" dismissed it as "mawkish and melodramatic" but credited Winslet for adding layers to her passive role. She received her tenth Golden Globe nomination.


title: Kate Winslet

text: The novelty of playing a villain drew Winslet to the part of Jeanine Matthews in the science fiction film "Divergent" (2014). Set in a dystopian future, the adaptation of Veronica Roth's young adult novel stars Shailene Woodley as a heroine fighting an oppressive regime headed by Winslet's character. She was pregnant with her third child during production, and her tight-fitting costumes had to be altered to accommodate the pregnancy. To maintain her character's intimidating persona, she remained aloof from her co-stars for much of the filming. Richard Lawson of "Vanity Fair" compared the film unfavourably to the "Hunger Games" series, and found Winslet to be underutilised in it. The film grossed $288 million worldwide. "A Little Chaos" marked her return to the period film genre. Directed by Alan Rickman, it is about a rivalry among gardeners commissioned to create a fountain at the Palace of Versailles. Winslet's role was that of fictional architect Sabine de Barra, a character she believed had overcome extreme grief and hardship like herself. Catherine Shoard of "The Guardian" took note of the "emotional honesty" Winslet brought to her part, but criticised the implausibility of her role. Also that year, she read audiobooks of Roald Dahl's children's novels "Matilda" and "The Magic Finger".


title: Kate Winslet

text: In 2015, Winslet reprised the role of Jeanine Matthews in the second instalment of the "Divergent" series, subtitled "", which despite negative reviews grossed $297 million worldwide. Her next film, an adaptation of the Australian gothic novel "The Dressmaker", was described by the director Jocelyn Moorhouse as being reminiscent of the western "Unforgiven" (1992). Winslet starred as the femme fatale Tilly Dunnage, a seamstress who returns to her hometown years after she was accused of murder. She learnt to sew for the part and designed some of her own costumes. The project was filmed in the Australian desert and she found it difficult to wear couture dresses in the harsh weather. Despite disliking the film, Robert Abele of the "Los Angeles Times" credited Winslet for underplaying her over-the-top part. The film emerged as one of the highest-grossing Australian films of all time, but earned little elsewhere. Winslet won the AACTA Award for Best Actress.


title: Kate Winslet

text: While filming "The Dressmaker", Winslet became aware of a forthcoming Steve Jobs biopic written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by Danny Boyle. Keen on playing Jobs's marketing chief and confidante Joanna Hoffman, she sent a picture of herself dressed as Hoffman to the film's producer. "Steve Jobs", starring Michael Fassbender in the title role, is told in three acts, each depicting a key milestone in Jobs's career. In preparation, Winslet spent time with Hoffman, and worked with a dialect coach to speak in Hoffman's accent, a mixture of Armenian and Polish, which she considered to be the most difficult of her career. The cast rehearsed each act like a play and filmed it in sequence. Winslet collaborated closely with Fassbender, and their off-screen relationship mirrored the collegial dynamic between Jobs and Hoffman. The film earned her some of the best reviews of her career, though it was a box-office flop. Peter Howell of the "Toronto Star" commended Winslet for finding "strength and grace" in her part, and Gregory Ellwood of HitFix thought she had improved on Hoffman's characterisation. She won the Golden Globe and BAFTA Awards for Best Supporting Actress, and received her seventh Oscar nomination.


title: Kate Winslet

text: John Hillcoat's ensemble crime-thriller "Triple 9" (2016) featured Winslet as Irina Vlaslov, a ruthless Russian-Israeli gangster. The critic Ann Hornaday of "The Washington Post" felt Winslet had failed to effectively portray her. Her next release of the year, "Collateral Beauty", about a man (played by Will Smith) struggling with the death of his daughter, was panned by critics. Writing for "New York" magazine, Emily Yoshida dismissed the film as a vacuous remake of "A Christmas Carol" and added that Winslet had "never looked more painted and tired". It was a modest earner at the box office. Winslet agreed to the romantic disaster film "The Mountain Between Us" (2017) to take on the challenge of a role requiring physical exertion. It featured Idris Elba and her as two strangers who crash land on an icy and isolated mountain range. They filmed in the mountains of Western Canada at above sea level where the temperature was well below freezing. Winslet performed her own stunts and described it as the most physically gruelling experience of her career. Moira Macdonald of "The Seattle Times" opined that the duo's charisma and chemistry had enhanced a mediocre film.


title: Kate Winslet

text: Woody Allen's "Wonder Wheel", a drama set in 1950s Coney Island, was Winslet's final release of 2017. She played Ginny, a temperamental housewife having an affair with a lifeguard (played by Justin Timberlake). She described her character as permanently dissatisfied and uneasy; playing the part proved difficult for Winslet, who suffered from anxiety. Manohla Dargis of "The New York Times" disliked Allen's writing but credited Winslet for filling her "shabby character with feverish life". When asked during the film's promotion about her decision to work with Allen despite an allegation of child molestation against him, Winslet chose not to comment on the filmmaker's personal life but stated she was pleased with the collaboration. She would later go on to express regret over working with both Allen and Roman Polanski. In 2019, Winslet provided her voice to "Moominvalley", an animated television series about the Moomins, and took on a leading role alongside Susan Sarandon and Mia Wasikowska in "Blackbird", a remake of the Danish film "Silent Heart" (2014). Benjamin Lee of "The Guardian" dismissed it as "less of a film and more of an actors' workshop" and found Winslet miscast.


title: Kate Winslet

text: Winslet portrayed palaeontologist Mary Anning in "Ammonite" (2020), a period drama about a romance between Anning and Charlotte Murchison (played by Saoirse Ronan) set in 1840s England. She dropped out of Wes Anderson's "The French Dispatch" to have more preparation time for the project. She collaborated closely with Ronan, and they choreographed their own sex scenes. For much of the filming, she lived in isolation in a rented cottage in Dorset, where the film was shot, to get into her character's headspace. Caryn James of the BBC credited Winslet for portraying Anning as "stern and brittle but immensely sympathetic" and considered her "contained, potent performance" to be one of the best of her career, and Manuel Betancourt of "New York" magazine welcomed it as a "return to form". She next voiced the titular horse in a film adaptation of the novel "Black Beauty", which was released on Disney+.


title: Kate Winslet

text: In 2021, Winslet executive produced and starred in "Mare of Easttown", an HBO miniseries about a troubled police detective solving a murder case. Set in Delaware County, Winslet insisted on using the "Delco accent", a version of Philadelphia English used in the county; she considered it to be the one of the hardest accents she has had to learn. To play Mare, a woman who has lost a child to suicide, she created a backstory for her character and collaborated closely with a grief counsellor. The series and Winslet's performance received critical acclaim; Richard Roeper wrote that she "adds to a long list of magnificent, disappear-into-the-character performances" and Lucy Mangan of "The Guardian" opined, "If you can have a defining performance this late in a career, this is surely Winslet's." "Mare of Easttown" proved to be a ratings hit for HBO, and Winslet once again won the Primetime Emmy, Golden Globe, and SAG Awards for Best Actress in a miniseries.


title: Kate Winslet

text: Following "Mare of Easttown", Winslet took a year off work to spend time with her family. She narrated the documentary "Eleven Days in May" (2022), about the 2021 bombing of Gaza by Israel. She starred with her daughter Mia Threapleton in an improvised feature-length episode of the Channel 4 anthology series "I Am...", titled "I Am Ruth", about the negative effects of social media. "", a science fiction sequel to James Cameron's 2009 film, which she had filmed using motion capture technology in 2017 and 2018, followed next. She learnt freediving for her role and was able to hold her breath underwater for seven minutes, setting a new record for any film scene shot underwater.


title: Kate Winslet

text: Winslet will next portray the model and war photographer Lee Miller in the biopic "Lee", which she will also produce. Production in Croatia was suspended for a short period when Winslet slipped and fell while filming.


title: Kate Winslet

text: Journalists consider Winslet to be among the finest actresses of her generation. Despite achieving stardom early in her career with the blockbuster "Titanic", she has rarely acted in commerce-driven films. A journalist for "Elle" believes that her choices reflect the "soul and attitude of a jobbing actress, trapped in the body of a movie star".


title: Kate Winslet

text: Winslet belongs to a group of esteemed British actresses who are typically showing "restraint, rendering emotions through intellect rather than feelings, and a sense of irony, which demonstrates the heroine's superior understanding". Tom Perrotta, the author of "Little Children", has said that Winslet "gravitates toward troubling roles in smaller films", typically those of "thorny, potentially unsympathetic" women. The journalist Mark Harris writes that she specialises in "unsentimentalized, restless, troubled, discontented, disconcerted, difficult women" and John Hiscock of "The Daily Telegraph" has identified a theme of characters who are free-spirited with a sexual edge to them. Anthony Lane of "The New Yorker" associates Winslet with stubbornness, writing that "the set of her jaw and the blaze of her glance suggest a self-freeing spirit who knows the path ahead and is determined to take it". Stephen Whitty of NJ.com associates Winslet with "serious, almost despairing material", although he finds it hard to pigeonhole her as an actress. Josephine Livingstone of "The New Republic", however, finds Winslet unconvincing in roles where she has "no real emotional vulnerability," believing that the actress is most compelling when she has "the opportunity to get hysterical".


title: Kate Winslet

text: Leonardo DiCaprio, her co-star in "Titanic" and "Revolutionary Road", considers Winslet to be "the most prepared and well-researched actor on set", and Jude Law, her co-star in "The Holiday", believes that despite her seriousness she remains "very calm and good-natured". Her "Steve Jobs" director Danny Boyle has identified a willingness in Winslet to avoid typecasting and said that she takes an effort "to reposition directors' and producers' perspective on her" to allow herself to be challenged as an artist.


title: Kate Winslet

text: Winslet has said she is interested in playing "angst-ridden women" with strong dispositions masking flaws and insecurities, and that she connects with "women who are either finding their way out of a situation, looking for love, having some struggle within love, or questioning the big things in life". Drawn to parts that are in tandem with her personal struggles at certain points in her life, she finds it difficult to detach herself from her roles, saying that "you have to confront your true feelings every single day. And that's pretty exhausting. Then you have to go home and make dinner". Even so, she finds it therapeutic to perform. Winslet is known for her willingness to perform nude scenes, having done so in twelve of her films, although she considers its contribution to the narrative before agreeing to it. She believes that such scenes promote a positive body image among women.


title: Kate Winslet

text: While filming "Dark Season", fifteen-year-old Winslet began a romantic relationship with actor-writer Stephen Tredre, who was twelve years her senior. She considered him a major influence in her life and they lived together in London from 1991. They broke up in 1995, but remained close until Tredre died of bone cancer two years later. Winslet absented herself from the premiere of "Titanic" to attend his funeral. In 2008, she admitted to not overcoming his death.


title: Kate Winslet

text: A year after Tredre's death, Winslet met Jim Threapleton on the set of "Hideous Kinky", on which he served as an assistant director. They married in November 1998 at her primary school in Reading, and their daughter, Mia, was born in 2000. Describing her marriage to Threapleton as a "mess", Winslet later said she had lost control of her instincts during this period. They divorced in 2001. Soon after separating from Threapleton, she met director Sam Mendes when he offered her a part in a play; she turned down the offer but began dating him. Dismayed at how the British tabloids portrayed her personal life, Winslet relocated to New York City. She married Mendes in May 2003 on the island of Anguilla, and their son, Joe, was born later that year. The family divided their time in New York with frequent visits to their estate in the Cotswolds, England. Amid intense media speculation of an affair between Mendes and actress Rebecca Hall, he and Winslet announced their separation in 2010 and were divorced a year later. She admitted to being heartbroken by the split, but affirmed her determination to look after her children in spite of her marital breakups.


title: Kate Winslet

text: While holidaying at Richard Branson's estate on Necker Island in 2011, Winslet met his nephew Edward Abel Smith (legally known as Ned Rocknroll from 2008 to 2019) during a house fire. They married in December 2012 in New York, and their son, Bear, was born the following year. After moving back to her native England, Winslet purchased a property worth £3.25 million by the sea in West Wittering, Sussex, where she lives with Smith and her children . In a 2015 interview, she commented on how much she enjoyed living in the countryside.


title: Kate Winslet

text: Winslet has stated that despite three marriages and a family structure that might be perceived by some as "unconventional", she does not consider it to be any "less of a family". She turns down offers of work that otherwise would take her away from her children for too long, and likes to schedule her filming commitments around their school holidays. Discussing her parenting style, she said she enjoys packing lunches and doing the school run.


title: Kate Winslet

text: Winslet has lent her support to several charities and causes, along with financial donations and items for auctions. In 2006, she became a patron of a Gloucester-based charity, the Family Haven, which provides counselling services to vulnerable families. The same year, hand-made envelopes designed by Winslet were auctioned for the "Pushing the Envelope" campaign created by the National Literacy Trust. Winslet was one of the celebrities to participate in a 2007 auction to raise funds for the Afghanistan Relief Organization. In 2009, she contributed to the Butterfly Book, a compilation of doodles made by several celebrities, to raise money for leukaemia research. Also in 2009, Winslet participated in a joint effort with "Titanic" co-star Leonardo DiCaprio, James Cameron, and Celine Dion, financially to help Millvina Dean, the then last-living survivor of the sinking of the "Titanic". The donation amounted to $30,000 which was used to pay the fees of the nursing home in the United Kingdom where Dean was living.


title: Kate Winslet

text: In 2009, Winslet narrated the English version of an Icelandic documentary named "A Mother's Courage: Talking Back to Autism", about Margret Ericsdottir, whose child Keli Thorsteinsson has non-verbal autism. Inspired by the story, she teamed with Ericsdottir in 2010 to form an NGO named the Golden Hat Foundation. The organisation aims to create autism awareness and was named after a poem written by Thorsteinsson. As the ambassador for the luxury brands Lancôme and Longines, Winslet partnered with these companies to raise awareness and funds for the foundation. She created a make-up collection for Lancôme in 2011 and, in 2017, she designed a new watch for Longines.


title: Kate Winslet

text: In 2012, Winslet wrote a book about autism, entitled "The Golden Hat: Talking Back to Autism", which was published by Simon & Schuster. It contains correspondence between Winslet and Ericsdottir, personal statements from various celebrities, and contributions from Thorsteinsson. A reviewer for "Publishers Weekly" praised the book for its "warmth and sincerity". The United Nations featured the book during a ceremony on the World Autism Awareness Day of 2012. For her work with the Golden Hat Foundation, Winslet received Spain's Yo Dona award for Best Humanitarian Work.


title: Kate Winslet

text: Winslet narrated a video for PETA in 2010 that showed animal cruelty in the production of foie gras. She encouraged chefs to remove the item from their menu and urged consumers to boycott it. In 2015, she lent her support to the UNICEF campaign World's Largest Lesson, which creates awareness among children about sustainable development and global citizenship. Teased as a child for her weight, Winslet takes a stand against body-shaming and bullying. She narrated an Australian animated short film named "Daisy Chain" (2015), about a victim of cyberbullying. In 2017, Winslet teamed with Leonardo DiCaprio's environmental foundation for a fundraiser on global warming. Also that year, she and DiCaprio auctioned a private dinner with themselves to raise money for a British woman's cancer treatment. Winslet teamed with Lancôme and the National Literacy Trust in 2018 to launch a programme that aims to educate underprivileged women in the UK. In 2020, Winslet read a bedtime story as part of "Save with Stories" to raise funds for Save the Children's Emergency Coronavirus Appeal. In 2021, Winslet commented on homophobia in Hollywood, saying that she knew actors "who are terrified their sexuality will be revealed and that it will stand in the way of their being cast in straight roles".


title: Kate Winslet

text: In a 2015 article for "Elle", Sally Holmes described Winslet's ability to establish rapport with her manner. Jo Ellison of "Vogue" writes that she has an "authoritative, almost ambassadorial aura", and Kira Cochrane of "The Guardian" considers her to be "articulate, sophisticated, [with] a definite hint of grandeur". Describing Winslet as plain-spoken, Krista Smith of "Vanity Fair" believes that despite her stardom she is unpretentious.


title: Kate Winslet

text: Winslet's weight fluctuations over the years have been well-documented by the media. She has been outspoken in her refusal to allow Hollywood to dictate her weight. In 2003, the British edition of "GQ" magazine published photographs of Winslet which had been digitally altered to make her look thinner and taller. She said the alterations were made without her consent, and "GQ" subsequently issued an apology. In 2007, Winslet won a libel case against "Grazia" magazine after it claimed she had visited a dietitian. She claimed £10,000 in damages, and donated the amount to an eating disorder charity. She won another case in 2009 against the British tabloid "Daily Mail" after it claimed she had lied about her exercise regimen. She received an apology and a payout of £25,000.


title: Kate Winslet

text: Winslet was included on "People" magazine's "Most Beautiful People" listing in 2005. Her beauty and sex appeal have been picked up by several other publications, including "Harper's Bazaar", "Who", and "Empire" magazines. She has said she does not subscribe to the beauty ideal of Hollywood, and uses her celebrity to empower women to accept their appearance with pride. She has spoken against Botox and plastic surgery. In an effort to encourage natural ageing, she formed the British Anti-Cosmetic Surgery League, alongside fellow actresses Emma Thompson and Rachel Weisz. She instructs magazines and brands not to digitally smooth her wrinkles in photographs. Winslet is reluctant to discuss the gender pay gap in the film industry, as she dislikes speaking publicly about her salary. She has expressed an aversion to elaborate press junkets and red carpet events, terming them a waste of money.


title: Kate Winslet

text: In 2009, "Forbes" reported her annual salary to be $2 million, a majority of that stemming from her endorsement deals. Also that year, the UK Film Council calculated that she had earned £20 million from her acting roles since 1995. She was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by "Time" magazine in 2009 and 2021. Madame Tussauds in London unveiled a wax statue of Winslet in 2011. The following year, she received the Honorary César award, and in 2014, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Winslet was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2012 Birthday Honours for her services to drama.


title: Kate Winslet

text: Prolific in film since 1994, Winslet's most acclaimed and highest-grossing films, according to the online portal Box Office Mojo and the review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, include "Heavenly Creatures" (1994), "Sense and Sensibility" (1995), "Hamlet" (1996), "Titanic" (1997), "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" (2004), "Finding Neverland" (2004), "The Holiday" (2006), "Contagion" (2011), "Divergent" (2014), "" (2015), "Steve Jobs" (2015), and "" (2022). Her television projects include the miniseries "Mildred Pierce" (2011) and "Mare of Easttown" (2021).


title: Kate Winslet

text: Winslet has been recognised by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the following performances:


title: Kate Winslet

text: Winslet has won three BAFTA Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role for "The Reader" (2008); and Best Actress in a Supporting Role for "Sense and Sensibility" (1995) and "Steve Jobs" (2016). She has also won two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Actress in a Leading Role in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for "Mildred Pierce" (2011), and "Mare of Easttown" (2021) as well as the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for narrating the children's audiobook "Listen to the Storyteller" (1999). Winslet is the recipient of five Golden Globe Awards from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, winning Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture for "The Reader" and "Steve Jobs", Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for "Revolutionary Road", and Best Actress in a Miniseries or Motion Picture – Television for "Mildred Pierce" and "Mare of Easttown". She is among the few actresses to have won three of the four major American entertainment awards.


title: Sean Connery

text: Sir Sean Connery (born Thomas Connery; 25 August 1930 – 31 October 2020) was a Scottish actor. He was the first actor to portray fictional British secret agent James Bond on film, starring in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983. Originating the role in "Dr. No", Connery played Bond in six of Eon Productions' entries and made his final appearance in "Never Say Never Again". Following his third appearance as Bond in "Goldfinger" (1964), in June 1965 "Time" magazine observed "James Bond has developed into the biggest mass-cult hero of the decade".


title: Sean Connery

text: Connery began acting in smaller theatre and television productions until his breakout role as Bond. Although he did not enjoy the off-screen attention the role gave him, the success of the Bond films brought Connery offers from notable directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Sidney Lumet and John Huston. Their films in which Connery appeared included "Marnie" (1964), "The Hill" (1965), "Murder on the Orient Express" (1974), and "The Man Who Would Be King" (1975). He also appeared in "A Bridge Too Far" (1977), "Highlander" (1986), "The Name of the Rose" (1986), "The Untouchables" (1987), "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" (1989), "The Hunt for Red October" (1990), "Dragonheart" (1996), "The Rock" (1996), and "Finding Forrester" (2000). Connery officially retired from acting in 2006, although he briefly returned for voice-over roles in 2012.


title: Sean Connery

text: His achievements in film were recognised with an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards (including the BAFTA Fellowship), and three Golden Globes, including the Cecil B. DeMille Award and a Henrietta Award. In 1987, he was made a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters in France, and he received the US Kennedy Center Honors lifetime achievement award in 1999. Connery was knighted in the 2000 New Year Honours for services to film drama.


title: Sean Connery

text: Thomas Connery was born at the Royal Maternity Hospital in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 25 August 1930; he was named after his paternal grandfather. He was brought up at No. 176 Fountainbridge, a block which has since been demolished. His mother, Euphemia McBain "Effie" McLean, was a cleaning woman. She was born the daughter of Neil McLean and Helen Forbes Ross, and named after her father's mother, Euphemia McBain, wife of John McLean and daughter of William McBain from Ceres in Fife. Connery's father, Joseph Connery, was a factory worker and lorry driver.


title: Sean Connery

text: Two of his paternal great-grandparents emigrated to Scotland from Wexford, Ireland in the mid-19th century, with his great-grandfather James Connery being an Irish Traveller. The remainder of his family was of Scottish descent, and his maternal great-grandparents were native Scottish Gaelic speakers from Fife and Uig on Skye. His father was a Roman Catholic, and his mother was a Protestant. Connery had a younger brother Neil and was generally referred to in his youth as "Tommy". Although he was small in primary school, he grew rapidly around the age of 12, reaching his full adult height of at 18. Connery was known during his teen years as "Big Tam", and he said that he lost his virginity to an adult woman in an ATS uniform at the age of 14. He had an Irish childhood friend named Séamus; when the two were together, those who knew them both called Connery by his middle name Sean, emphasizing the alliteration of the two names. Since then Connery preferred to use his middle name.


title: Sean Connery

text: Connery's first job was as a milkman in Edinburgh with St. Cuthbert's Co-operative Society. In 2009, Connery recalled a conversation in a taxi:


title: Sean Connery

text: In 1946, at the age of 16, Connery joined the Royal Navy, during which time he acquired two tattoos. Connery's official website says "unlike many tattoos, his were not frivolous – his tattoos reflect two of his lifelong commitments: his family and Scotland. ... One tattoo is a tribute to his parents and reads 'Mum and Dad', and the other is self-explanatory, 'Scotland Forever'". He trained in Portsmouth at the naval gunnery school and in an anti-aircraft crew. He was later assigned as an Able Seaman on HMS "Formidable". Connery was discharged from the navy at the age of 19 on medical grounds because of a duodenal ulcer, a condition that affected most of the males in previous generations of his family.


title: Sean Connery

text: Afterwards, he returned to the co-op and worked as a lorry driver, a lifeguard at Portobello swimming baths, a labourer, an artist's model for the Edinburgh College of Art, and after a suggestion by former Mr. Scotland Archie Brennan, as a coffin polisher, among other jobs. The modelling earned him 15 shillings an hour. Artist Richard Demarco, at the time a student who painted several early pictures of Connery, described him as "very straight, slightly shy, too, too beautiful for words, a virtual Adonis".


title: Sean Connery

text: Connery began bodybuilding at the age of 18, and from 1951 trained heavily with Ellington, a former gym instructor in the British Army. While his official website states he was third in the 1950 Mr. Universe contest, most sources place him in the 1953 competition, either third in the Junior class or failing to place in the Tall Man classification. Connery said he was soon deterred from bodybuilding when he found that Americans frequently beat him in competitions because of sheer muscle size and, unlike Connery, refused to participate in athletic activity which could make them lose muscle mass.


title: Sean Connery

text: Connery was a keen footballer, having played for Bonnyrigg Rose in his younger days. He was offered a trial with East Fife. While on tour with "South Pacific", Connery played in a football match against a local team that Matt Busby, manager of Manchester United, happened to be scouting. According to reports, Busby was impressed with his physical prowess and offered Connery a contract worth £25 a week () immediately after the game. Connery said he was tempted to accept, but he recalls, "I realised that a top-class footballer could be over the hill by the age of 30, and I was already 23. I decided to become an actor and it turned out to be one of my more intelligent moves".


title: Sean Connery

text: Seeking to supplement his income, Connery helped out backstage at the King's Theatre in late 1951. During a bodybuilding competition held in London in 1953, one of the competitors mentioned that auditions were being held for a production of "South Pacific", and Connery landed a small part as one of the Seabees chorus boys. By the time the production reached Edinburgh, he had been given the part of Marine Cpl. Hamilton Steeves and was understudying two of the juvenile leads, and his salary was raised from £12 to £14–10s a week. The production returned the following year, out of popular demand, and Connery was promoted to the featured role of Lieutenant Buzz Adams, which Larry Hagman had portrayed in the West End.


title: Sean Connery

text: While in Edinburgh, Connery was targeted by the Valdor gang, one of the most violent in the city. He was first approached by them in a billiard hall where he prevented them from stealing his jacket and was later followed by six gang members to a 15-foot-high (4.6 m) balcony at the Palais de Danse. There, Connery singlehandedly launched an attack against the gang members, grabbing one by the throat and another by the biceps and cracking their heads together. From then on, he was treated with great respect by the gang and gained a reputation as a "hard man".


title: Sean Connery

text: Connery first met Michael Caine at a party during the production of "South Pacific" in 1954, and the two later became close friends. During this production at the Opera House, Manchester, over the Christmas period of 1954, Connery developed a serious interest in the theatre through American actor Robert Henderson who lent him copies of the Ibsen works "Hedda Gabler", "The Wild Duck", and "When We Dead Awaken", and later listed works by the likes of Proust, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Bernard Shaw, Joyce, and Shakespeare for him to digest. Henderson urged him to take elocution lessons and got him parts at the Maida Vale Theatre in London. He had already begun a film career, having been an extra in Herbert Wilcox's 1954 musical "Lilacs in the Spring" alongside Errol Flynn and Anna Neagle.


title: Sean Connery

text: Although Connery had secured several roles as an extra, he was struggling to make ends meet and was forced to accept a part-time job as a babysitter for journalist Peter Noble and his actress wife Marianne, which earned him 10 shillings a night. He met Hollywood actress Shelley Winters one night at Noble's house, who described Connery as "one of the tallest and most charming and masculine Scotsmen" she'd ever seen, and later spent many evenings with the Connery brothers drinking beer. Around this time, Connery was residing at TV presenter Llew Gardner's house. Henderson landed Connery a role in a £6 a week Q Theatre production of Agatha Christie's "Witness for the Prosecution", during which he met and became friends with fellow-Scot Ian Bannen. This role was followed by "Point of Departure" and "A Witch in Time" at Kew, a role as Pentheus opposite Yvonne Mitchell in "The Bacchae" at the Oxford Playhouse, and a role opposite Jill Bennett in Eugene O'Neill's play "Anna Christie".


title: Sean Connery

text: During his time at the Oxford Theatre, Connery won a brief part as a boxer in the TV series "The Square Ring", before being spotted by Canadian director Alvin Rakoff, who gave him multiple roles in "The Condemned", shot on location in Dover in Kent. In 1956, Connery appeared in the theatrical production of "Epitaph", and played a minor role as a hoodlum in the "Ladies of the Manor" episode of the BBC Television police series "Dixon of Dock Green". This was followed by small television parts in "Sailor of Fortune" and "The Jack Benny Program" (on a special episode filmed in Europe).


title: Sean Connery

text: In early 1957, Connery hired agent Richard Hatton who got him his first film role, as Spike, a minor gangster with a speech impediment in Montgomery Tully's "No Road Back" alongside Skip Homeier, Paul Carpenter, Patricia Dainton, and Norman Wooland. In April 1957, Rakoffafter being disappointed by Jack Palancedecided to give the young actor his first chance in a leading role, and cast Connery as Mountain McLintock in BBC Television's production of "Requiem for a Heavyweight", which also starred Warren Mitchell and Jacqueline Hill. He then played a rogue lorry driver, Johnny Yates, in Cy Endfield's "Hell Drivers" (1957) alongside Stanley Baker, Herbert Lom, Peggy Cummins, and Patrick McGoohan. Later in 1957, Connery appeared in Terence Young's poorly received MGM action picture "Action of the Tiger" opposite Van Johnson, Martine Carol, Herbert Lom, and Gustavo Rojo; the film was shot on location in southern Spain. He also had a minor role in Gerald Thomas's thriller "Time Lock" (1957) as a welder, appearing alongside Robert Beatty, Lee Patterson, Betty McDowall, and Vincent Winter; this commenced filming on 1 December 1956 at Beaconsfield Studios.


title: Sean Connery

text: Connery had a major role in the melodrama "Another Time, Another Place" (1958) as a British reporter named Mark Trevor, caught in a love affair opposite Lana Turner and Barry Sullivan. During filming, Turner's possessive gangster boyfriend, Johnny Stompanato, who was visiting from Los Angeles, believed she was having an affair with Connery. Connery and Turner had attended West End shows and London restaurants together. Stompanato stormed onto the film set and pointed a gun at Connery, only to have Connery disarm him and knock him flat on his back. Stompanato was banned from the set. Two Scotland Yard detectives advised Stompanato to leave and escorted him to the airport, where he boarded a plane back to the United States. Connery later recounted that he had to lay low for a while after receiving threats from men linked to Stompanato's boss, Mickey Cohen.


title: Sean Connery

text: In 1959, Connery landed a leading role in director Robert Stevenson's Walt Disney Productions film "Darby O'Gill and the Little People" (1959) alongside Albert Sharpe, Janet Munro, and Jimmy O'Dea. The film is a tale about a wily Irishman and his battle of wits with leprechauns. Upon the film's initial release, A. H. Weiler of "The New York Times" praised the cast (save Connery whom he described as "merely tall, dark, and handsome") and thought the film an "overpoweringly charming concoction of standard Gaelic tall stories, fantasy and romance". He also had prominent television roles in Rudolph Cartier's 1961 productions of "Adventure Story" and "Anna Karenina" for BBC Television, the latter of which he co-starred with Claire Bloom. Also in 1961 he portrayed the title role in a CBC television film adaptation of Shakespeare's "Macbeth" with Australian actress Zoe Caldwell cast as Lady Macbeth.


title: Sean Connery

text: Connery's breakthrough came in the role of British secret agent James Bond. He was reluctant to commit to a film series, but understood that if the films succeeded, his career would greatly benefit. Between 1962 and 1967, Connery played 007 in "Dr. No", "From Russia with Love", "Goldfinger", "Thunderball", and "You Only Live Twice", the first five Bond films produced by Eon Productions. After departing from the role, Connery returned for the seventh film, "Diamonds Are Forever", in 1971. Connery made his final appearance as Bond in "Never Say Never Again", a 1983 remake of "Thunderball" produced by Jack Schwartzman's Taliafilm. All seven films were commercially successful. James Bond, as portrayed by Connery, was selected as the third-greatest hero in cinema history by the American Film Institute.


title: Sean Connery

text: Connery's selection for the role of James Bond owed a lot to Dana Broccoli, wife of producer Albert "Cubby" Broccoli, who is reputed to have been instrumental in persuading her husband that Connery was the right man. James Bond's creator, Ian Fleming, originally doubted Connery's casting, saying, "He's not what I envisioned of James Bond looks," and "I'm looking for Commander Bond and not an overgrown stunt-man", adding that Connery (muscular, 6'2", and a Scot) was unrefined. Fleming's girlfriend Blanche Blackwell told him Connery had the requisite sexual charisma, and Fleming changed his mind after the successful "Dr. No" première. He was so impressed, he wrote Connery's heritage into the character. In his 1964 novel "You Only Live Twice", Fleming wrote that Bond's father was Scottish and from Glencoe in the Scottish Highlands.


title: Sean Connery

text: Connery's portrayal of Bond owes much to stylistic tutelage from director Terence Young, who helped polish him while using his physical grace and presence for the action. Lois Maxwell, who played Miss Moneypenny, related that "Terence took Sean under his wing. He took him to dinner, showed him how to walk, how to talk, even how to eat". The tutoring was successful; Connery received thousands of fan letters a week after "Dr. No's" opening, and he became a major sex symbol in film.


title: Sean Connery

text: Following the release of the film "Dr. No" in 1962, the line "Bond ... James Bond", became a catch phrase in the lexicon of Western popular culture. Film critic Peter Bradshaw writes, "It is the most famous self-introduction from any character in movie history. Three cool monosyllables, surname first, a little curtly, as befits a former naval commander. And then, as if in afterthought, the first name, followed by the surname again. Connery carried it off with icily disdainful style, in full evening dress with a cigarette hanging from his lips. The introduction was a kind of challenge, or seduction, invariably addressed to an enemy. In the early 60s, Connery's James Bond was about as dangerous and sexy as it got on screen".


title: Sean Connery

text: During the filming of "Thunderball" in 1965, Connery's life was in danger in the sequence with the sharks in Emilio Largo's pool. He had been concerned about this threat when he read the script. Connery insisted that Ken Adam build a special Plexiglas partition inside the pool, but this was not a fixed structure, and one of the sharks managed to pass through it. He had to abandon the pool immediately.


title: Sean Connery

text: Although Bond had made him a star, Connery grew tired of the role and the pressure the franchise put on him, saying "[I am] fed up to here with the whole Bond bit" and "I have always hated that damned James Bond. I'd like to kill him". Michael Caine said of the situation, "If you were his friend in these early days you didn't raise the subject of Bond. He was, and is, a much better actor than just playing James Bond, but he became synonymous with Bond. He'd be walking down the street and people would say, 'Look, there's James Bond'. That was particularly upsetting to him".