British star Kate Winslet made it sixth time lucky at the Oscars here Sunday, capping her childhood dreams of winning the best actress statuette after five previous Academy nominations ended in defeat.
Winslet, 33, won for her haunting performance in "The Reader" as a former Nazi death camp guard who starts a love affair with a teenage boy in post-war Germany who is later put on trial for war crimes.
Winslet admitted she had been dreaming of Oscars gold for a very long time.
"I'd be lying if I haven't made a version of this speech before. I think I was probably eight years old and staring into the bathroom mirror and this would have been a shampoo bottle," she told the glittering audience at the 81st Academy Awards ceremony.
"It's not a shampoo bottle now," Winslet quipped. "I feel very fortunate to have made it all the way from there to here and I'd like to thank some of the people along the way who had faith in me."
She also called on her father to whistle from the audience so she could see him in the crowd, which he obliging did, drawing laughter and applause.
Other nominees for the Oscar included Meryl Streep for "Doubt," Anne Hathaway for "Rachel Getting Married," Angelina Jolie for "Changeling," and Melissa Leo for "Frozen River."
Winslet paid tribute to her fellow nominees "these goddesses."
"I can't believe we're in a category with Meryl Streep at all," Winslet said. "I'm sorry, Meryl, but you have to just suck that up."
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