KATE WINSLET - OSCAR GLORY FOR BEST ACTRESS KATE WINSLET

OSCAR GLORY FOR BEST ACTRESS KATE WINSLET

British star Kate Winslet has won the best actress Oscar for Holocaust drama The Reader.

Nominated for an Academy award for the sixth time, the 33-year-old finally claimed a statuette at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles for her portrayal of concentration camp guard Hanna Schmitz.

"I'd be lying if I haven't made a version of this speech before I was eight years old in the bathroom mirror with a shampoo bottle. And it's not a shampoo bottle now!" the Titanic star said as she followed her Bafta and Golden Globe awards with an Oscar.

"Stephen, working with you is an experience I will never forget," Winslet said of Daldry, Oscar-nominated director of The Reader.

Winslet dedicated the award to the late Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack as well as her fellow nominees, Meryl Streep, Angelina Jolie, Anne Hathaway and Melissa Leo.

Sean Penn was named best actor for his portrayal of a groundbreaking gay politician in Milk.