Meryl Streep

Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep in Spain, 2008
Born	Mary Louise Streep (1949-06-22) June 22, 1949 Summit, New Jersey, U.S.
Alma mater	Vassar College; Yale School of Drama
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1971–present
Title	Doctor of Fine Arts (honorary) of Princeton University
Spouse	Don Gummer (1978–present)
Partner	John Cazale (1975–1978, his death)
Children	Henry Wolfe Gummer Mamie Gummer Grace Gummer Louisa Gummer

Meryl Streep (born Mary Louise Streep; June 22, 1949) is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television, and film. She is widely regarded as one of the most talented actresses of all time.

Streep made her professional stage debut in The Playboy of Seville (1971), before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season (1977). In that same year, she made her film debut with Julia (1977). Both critical and commercial success came quickly with roles in The Deer Hunter (1978) and Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), the former giving Streep her first Academy Award nomination and the latter her first win. She later won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performances in Sophie's Choice (1982) and The Iron Lady (2011).

Streep has received 17 Academy Award nominations, winning three, and 26 Golden Globe nominations, winning eight, more nominations than any other actor in the history of either award. Her work has also earned her two Emmy Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Cannes Film Festival award, five New York Film Critics Circle Awards, two BAFTA awards, an Australian Film Institute Award, five Grammy Award nominations, and a Tony Award nomination, amongst others. She was awarded the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2004 and the Kennedy Center Honor in 2011 for her contribution to American culture through performing arts, the youngest actress in each award's history.

Early life and education

Streep was born in Summit, New Jersey. Her mother, Mary Wolf (née Wilkinson; 1915–2001), was a commercial artist and former art editor, and her father, Harry William Streep, Jr. (1910–2003), was a pharmaceutical executive. She has two brothers, Dana David and Harry William III. Her patrilineal ancestry originates in Loffenau, Germany, from where her second great-grandfather, Gottfried Streep, emigrated to the United States, and where one of her ancestors served as mayor. Another line of her father's family was from Giswil in the canton of Obwalden, a small town in Switzerland. Her maternal ancestors lived in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, and were partly descended from 17th century immigrants from England. Her eighth great-grandfather, Lawrence Wilkinson, was one of the first Europeans to settle Rhode Island. Streep is also a distant relative of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, and records show that her family is among the first purchasers of land in the state.

She was raised a Presbyterian, and grew up in Bernardsville, New Jersey, where she attended Bernards High School. She had many school friends who were Catholic, and regularly attended Mass because she loved its rituals. She received her B.A., in Drama, at Vassar College in 1971 (where she briefly received instruction from actress Jean Arthur), but also enrolled as an exchange student at Dartmouth College for a quarter before it became coeducational. She subsequently earned an M.F.A. from the Yale School of Drama. While at Yale, she played a variety of roles onstage, from the glamorous Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream to an eighty-year-old woman in a wheelchair in a comedy written by then-unknown playwrights Christopher Durang and Albert Innaurato.

Personal life

Streep lived with actor John Cazale for three years until his death in March 1978. Streep married sculptor Don Gummer on September 30, 1978. They have four children: Henry Wolfe Gummer (born November 13, 1979), Mary Willa "Mamie" Gummer (born August 3, 1983), Grace Jane Gummer (born May 9, 1986), and Louisa Jacobson Gummer (born June 12, 1991). Both Mamie and Grace are actresses. Henry is a musician who performs under the name Henry Wolfe.

When asked if religion plays a part in her life, in an interview in 2009, Streep replied, "I follow no doctrine. I don't belong to a church or a temple or a synagogue or an ashram." Streep does not rule out the possibility that God exists; “I do have a sense of trying to make things better. Where does that come from?”

Career

1970s

Streep performed in several theater productions in New York and New Jersey after graduating from Yale School of Drama, including the New York Shakespeare Festival productions of Henry V, The Taming of the Shrew with Raúl Juliá, and Measure for Measure opposite Sam Waterston and John Cazale. At this time she entered a relationship with Cazale, with whom she lived until his death three years later. She starred on Broadway in the Brecht/Weill musical Happy End, and won an Obie for her performance in the all-sung off-Broadway production of Alice at the Palace.

Streep by Jack Mitchell

Streep began auditioning for film roles, and later recalled an unsuccessful audition for Dino De Laurentiis for the leading female role in King Kong. De Laurentiis commented to his son in Italian, "She's ugly. Why did you bring me this thing?" and was shocked when Streep replied to the insult in fluent Italian. In New York City, she appeared in the 1976 Broadway double bill of Tennessee Williams' 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Arthur Miller's A Memory of Two Mondays. For the former, she received a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play. Her other early Broadway credits include Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard and the Bertolt Brecht-Kurt Weill musical Happy End in which she originally appeared off-Broadway at the Chelsea Theater Center. She received Drama Desk Award nominations for both productions.

Streep's first feature film was Julia (1977), in which she played a small but pivotal role during a flashback scene. Streep was living in New York City with Cazale, who had been diagnosed with bone cancer. He was cast in The Deer Hunter (1978), and Streep was delighted to secure a small role because it allowed her to remain with Cazale for the duration of filming. She was not specifically interested in the part, commenting, "They needed a girl between the two guys and I was it."

She played a leading role in the television miniseries Holocaust (1978) as a German woman married to a Jewish artist in Nazi era Germany. She later explained that she had considered the material to be "unrelentingly noble", and had taken the role only because she had needed money. Streep travelled to Germany and Austria for filming while Cazale remained in New York. Upon her return, Streep found that Cazale's illness had progressed, and she nursed him until his death on March 12, 1978. She spoke of her grief and her hope that work would provide a diversion; she accepted a role in The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979) with Alan Alda, later commenting that she played it on "automatic pilot", and performed the role of Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew for Shakespeare in the Park. With an estimated audience of 109 million, Holocaust brought a degree of public recognition to Streep, who was described in August 1978 as "on the verge of national visibility". She won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie for her performance.

The Deer Hunter (1978) was released a month later, and Streep was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.

Streep played a supporting role in Manhattan (1979) for Woody Allen, later stating that she had not seen a complete script and was given only the six pages of her own scenes, and that she had not been permitted to improvise a word of her dialogue. Asked to comment on the script for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), in a meeting with the producer Stan Jaffee, director Robert Benton and star Dustin Hoffman, Streep insisted that the female character was not representative of many real women who faced marriage breakdown and child custody battles, and was written as "too evil". Jaffee, Benton and Hoffman agreed with Streep, and the script was revised. In preparing for the part, Streep spoke to her own mother about her life as a mother and housewife with a career, and frequented the Upper East Side neighborhood in which the film was set. Benton allowed Streep to write her dialogue in two of her key scenes, despite some objection from Hoffman. Jaffee and Hoffman later spoke of Streep's tirelessness, with Hoffman commenting, "She's extraordinarily hardworking, to the extent that she's obsessive. I think that she thinks about nothing else but what she's doing."

Streep drew critical acclaim for her performance in each of her three films released in 1979: the romantic comedy Manhattan, the political drama The Seduction of Joe Tynan and the family drama, Kramer vs. Kramer. She was awarded the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress, National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress and National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress for her collective work in the three films. Among the awards won for Kramer vs. Kramer were the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress.

1980s

Streep at the 61st Academy Awards, 1989

After prominent supporting roles in two of the 1970s' most successful films, the consecutive winners of the Academy Award for Best Picture, The Deer Hunter and Kramer vs. Kramer, and praise for her versatility in several supporting roles, Streep progressed to leading roles. Her first was The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981). A story within a story drama, the film paired Streep with Jeremy Irons as contemporary actors, telling their modern story as well as the Victorian era drama they were performing. A New York Magazine article commented that, while many female stars of the past had cultivated a singular identity in their films, Streep was a "chameleon", willing to play any type of role. Streep was awarded a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her work.

Her next film, the psychological thriller, Still of the Night (1982) reunited her with Robert Benton, the director of Kramer vs. Kramer, and co-starred Roy Scheider and Jessica Tandy. Vincent Canby, writing for The New York Times, noted that the film was an homage to the works of Alfred Hitchcock, but that one of its main weaknesses was a lack of chemistry between Streep and Scheider, concluding that Streep "is stunning, but she's not on screen anywhere near long enough".

As the Polish holocaust survivor in Sophie's Choice (1982), Streep's emotional dramatic performance and her apparent mastery of a Polish accent drew praise. William Styron wrote the novel with Ursula Andress in mind for the part of Sophie, but Streep was very determined to get the role. After she obtained a pirated copy of the script, she went to Alan J. Pakula and threw herself on the ground begging him to give her the part.." Streep filmed the "choice" scene in one take and refused to do it again, as she found shooting the scene extremely painful and emotionally exhausting. Among several notable acting awards, Streep won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance. Roger Ebert said of her performance, "Streep plays the Brooklyn scenes with an enchanting Polish-American accent (she has the first accent I've ever wanted to hug), and she plays the flashbacks in subtitled German and Polish. There is hardly an emotion that Streep doesn't touch in this movie, and yet we're never aware of her straining. This is one of the most astonishing and yet one of the most unaffected and natural performances I can imagine."

She followed this success with a biographical film, Silkwood (1983), in which she played her first real-life character, the union activist Karen Silkwood. She discussed her preparation for the role in an interview with Roger Ebert and said that she had met with people close to Silkwood to learn more about her, and in doing so realized that each person saw a different aspect of Silkwood. Streep concentrated on the events of Silkwood's life and concluded, "I didn't try to turn myself into Karen. I just tried to look at what she did. I put together every piece of information I could find about her... What I finally did was look at the events in her life, and try to understand her from the inside."

Her next films were a romantic drama, Falling in Love (1984) opposite Robert De Niro, and a British drama, Plenty (1985). Roger Ebert said of Streep's performance in Plenty that she conveyed "great subtlety; it is hard to play an unbalanced, neurotic, self-destructive woman, and do it with such gentleness and charm... Streep creates a whole character around a woman who could have simply been a catalogue of symptoms."

Out of Africa (1985) starred Streep as the Danish writer Karen Blixen and co-starred Robert Redford. A significant critical success, the film received a 63% "fresh" rating from Rotten Tomatoes. Streep co-starred with Jack Nicholson in her next two films, the dramas Heartburn (1986) and Ironweed (1987), in which she sang onscreen for the first time since the television movie, Secret Service, in 1977. In A Cry in the Dark, aka Evil Angels (1988), she played the biographical role of Lindy Chamberlain, an Australian woman who had been convicted of the murder of her infant daughter although Chamberlain said the baby had been taken by a dingo. Filmed in Australia, Streep won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, a Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival, the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress and was nominated for several other awards for her portrayal of Chamberlain. Chamberlain has recently been vindicated in her claim that the baby was taken by a dingo.

In She-Devil (1989), Streep played her first comedic film role, opposite Roseanne Barr. Richard Corliss, writing for Time, commented that Streep was the "one reason" to see the film and observed that it marked a departure from the type of role for which she had been known, saying, "Surprise! Inside the Greer Garson roles Streep usually plays, a vixenish Carole Lombard is screaming to be cut loose."

1990s

Meryl Streep at the 32nd Grammy Awards in 1990.

From 1984 to 1990, Streep won six People's Choice Awards for Favorite Motion Picture Actress and, in 1990, was named World Favorite.

In the 1990s, Streep continued to choose a great variety of roles, including a drug-addicted movie actress in a screen adaptation of Carrie Fisher's novel Postcards from the Edge, with Dennis Quaid and Shirley MacLaine. Streep and Goldie Hawn had established a friendship and were interested in making a film together. After considering various projects, they decided upon Thelma and Louise, until Streep's pregnancy coincided with the filming schedule, and the producers decided to proceed with Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis. They subsequently filmed the farcical black comedy, Death Becomes Her, with Bruce Willis as their co-star. Time's Richard Corliss wrote approvingly of Streep's "wicked-witch routine" but dismissed the film as "She-Devil with a make-over".

Biographer Karen Hollinger describes this period as a downturn in the popularity of Streep's films, which reached its nadir with the failure of Death Becomes Her, attributing this partly to a critical perception that her comedies had been an attempt to convey a lighter image following several serious but commercially unsuccessful dramas, and more significantly to the lack of options available to an actress in her forties. Streep commented that she had limited her options by her preference to work in Los Angeles, close to her family, a situation that she had anticipated in a 1981 interview when she commented, "By the time an actress hits her mid-forties, no one's interested in her anymore. And if you want to fit a couple of babies into that schedule as well, you've got to pick your parts with great care."

In 1995, Streep played opposite Clint Eastwood in the love story The Bridges of Madison County (1995). Based on a best-selling novel by Robert James Waller, it relates the story of Robert Kincaid (Eastwood), a photographer working for National Geographic, who has a love affair with a middle-aged Italian farm wife in Iowa named Francesca (Streep). Streep and Eastwood got along famously during production and such was their on-screen chemistry that a number of people believed that the two were having an affair off-camera, although this was denied by both. The film was a hit at the box office and grossed $70 million in the United States. The film, unlike the novel, surprised film critics and was warmly received. Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that Clint had managed to create "a moving, elegiac love story at the heart of Mr. Waller's self-congratulatory overkill", while Joe Morgenstern of the The Wall Street Journal described The Bridges of Madison County as "one of the most pleasurable films in recent memory".

In 1999, Streep portrayed Roberta Guaspari, a real-life New Yorker who found passion and enlightenment teaching violin to inner-city kids in East Harlem, in the music drama Music of the Heart. A departure from director Wes Craven’s previous work on films like A Nightmare on Elm Street and the Scream series, Streep replaced singer Madonna who left the project before filming began due to creative differences with Craven. Required to perform on the violin, Streep went through two months of intense training, four to six hours a day.

In addition, Streep appeared with Glenn Close in the movie version of Isabel Allende's The House of the Spirits; The River Wild; Marvin's Room (with Diane Keaton and Leonardo DiCaprio); and One True Thing.

2000s

Main article: Meryl Streep in the 2000s

Streep entered the 2000s with Steven Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence, a science fiction film about a child-like android, played by Haley Joel Osment, uniquely programmed with the ability to love, voicing the Blue Fairy. The same year, Streep co-hosted the annual Nobel Peace Prize Concert concert with Liam Neeson which was held in Oslo, Norway on December 11, 2001 in honour of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, the United Nations and Kofi Annan.

In 2002, Streep returned to the stage for the first time in more than twenty years, playing Arkadina in The Public Theater's revival of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull, directed by Mike Nichols and co-starring Kevin Kline, Natalie Portman, and Philip Seymour Hoffman. The same year, she began work on Spike Jonze's comedy-drama Adaptation (2002), in which she portrayed real-life journalist Susan Orlean. Lauded by critics and viewers alike, the film won Streep her fourth Golden Globe in the Best Supporting Actress category. Also in 2002, Streep appeared alongside Nicole Kidman and Julianne Moore in Stephen Daldry's The Hours, based on the 1999 novel by Michael Cunningham. Focusing on three women of different generations whose lives are interconnected by the novel Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, the film was generally well received and won all three leading actresses a Silver Bear for Best Actress the following year.

Streep in St. Petersburg, Russia in 2004.

The following year, Streep had a cameo as herself in the Farrelly brothers comedy Stuck on You (2003) and reunited with Mike Nichols to star with Al Pacino and Emma Thompson in the HBO adaptation of Tony Kushner's six-hour play Angels in America, the story of two couples whose relationships dissolve amidst the backdrop of Reagan Era politics. Streep, who was cast in four roles in the mini-series, received her second Emmy Award and fifth Golden Globe for her performance. In 2004, Streep was awarded the AFI Life Achievement Award by the Board of Directors of the American Film Institute,. She appeared in Jonathan Demme's moderately successful remake of The Manchurian Candidate, co-starring Denzel Washington, playing the role of a woman who is both a U.S. senator and the manipulative, ruthless mother of a vice-presidential candidate. The same year, she played the supporting role of Aunt Josephine in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events alongside Jim Carrey, based on the first three novels in Snicket's book series. The black comedy received generally favorable reviews from critics, and won the Academy Award for Best Makeup.

Streep was next cast in the 2005 comedy Prime, directed by Ben Younger. In the film, she played Lisa Metzger, the Jewish psychoanalyst of a divorced and lonesome business-woman, played by Uma Thurman, who enters a relationship with Metzger's 23-year-old son (Bryan Greenberg). A modest mainstream success, it eventually grossed US$67.9 million internationally. In August and September 2006, she starred onstage at The Public Theater's production of Mother Courage and Her Children at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park. The Public Theater production was a new translation by playwright Tony Kushner (Angels in America), with songs in the Weill/Brecht style written by composer Jeanine Tesori (Caroline, or Change); veteran director George C. Wolfe was at the helm. Streep starred alongside Kevin Kline and Austin Pendleton in this three-and-a-half-hour play in which she sang and appeared in almost every scene.

Also in 2006, Streep, along with Lily Tomlin, portrayed the last two members of what was once a popular family country music act in Robert Altman's final film A Prairie Home Companion. A comedic ensemble piece featuring Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Kline and Woody Harrelson, the film revolves around the behind-the-scenes activities at the long-running public radio show of the same name. The film grossed over US$26 million, the majority of which came from domestic markets. Commercially, Streep fared better with a role in The Devil Wears Prada (2006), a loose screen adaptation of Lauren Weisberger's 2003 novel of the same name. Streep portrayed the powerful and demanding Miranda Priestly, fashion magazine editor (and boss of a recent college graduate played by Anne Hathaway), and her performance drew rave reviews from critics and earned her many award nominations, including her record-setting 14th Oscar bid, as well as another Golden Globe. Upon its commercial release, the film became Streep's biggest commercial success yet, grossing more than US$326.5 million worldwide.

Streep with her fellow cast and all four members of ABBA at the Swedish premiere of Mamma Mia! in July 2008.

In 2007, Streep was cast in four films. She portrayed a wealthy university patron in Chen Shi-zheng's much-delayed feature drama Dark Matter (2007), a film about a Chinese science graduate student who becomes violent after dealing with academic politics at a U.S. university. Inspired by the events of the 1991 University of Iowa shooting, and initially scheduled for a 2007 release, producers and investors decided to shelve Dark Matter out of respect for the Virginia Tech massacre in April 2007. The drama received negative to mixed reviews upon its limited 2008 release. Streep played a U.S. government official who investigates an Egyptian foreign national suspected of terrorism in the political thriller Rendition (2007), directed by Gavin Hood. Keen to get involved in a thriller film, Streep welcomed the opportunity to star in a film genre for which she was not usually offered scripts and immediately signed on to the project. Upon its release, Rendition was less commercially successful, and received mixed reviews.

Also in 2007, Streep had a short role alongside Vanessa Redgrave, Glenn Close and her eldest daughter Mamie Gummer in Lajos Koltai's drama film Evening, based on the 1998 novel of the same name by Susan Minot. Switching between the present and the past, it tells the story of a bedridden woman, who remembers her tumultuous life in the mid-1950s. The film was released to lukewarm reactions by critics, who called it "beautifully filmed, but decidedly dull [and] a colossal waste of a talented cast." Streep's last film of 2007 was Robert Redfords Lions for Lambs, a film about the connection between a platoon of United States soldiers in Afghanistan, a U.S. senator, a reporter, and a California college professor.

In 2008, Streep found major commercial success when she starred in Phyllida Lloyd's Mamma Mia!, a film adaptation of the musical of the same name, based on the songs of Swedish pop group ABBA. Co-starring Amanda Seyfried, Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgård and Colin Firth, Streep played a single mother and a former backing singer, whose daughter (Seyfried), a bride-to-be who never met her father, invites three likely paternal candidates to her wedding on an idyllic Greek island. An instant box office success, Mamma Mia! became Streep's highest-grossing film to date, with box office receipts of US$602.6 million, also ranking it first among the highest-grossing musical films of all-time. Nominated for another Golden Globe, Streep's performance was generally well received by critics, with Wesley Morris of the Boston Globe commenting "the greatest actor in American movies has finally become a movie star."

Streep with Alec Baldwin and Josh Wood in January 2009.

Streep's other film of 2008 was Doubt featuring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis. A drama revolving around the stern principal nun (Streep) of a Bronx Catholic school in 1964 who brings charges of pedophilia against a popular priest (Hoffman), the film became a moderate box office success, but was hailed by many critics as one of the best of 2008. The film received five Academy Awards nominations, for its four lead actors and for Shanley's script.

In 2009, Streep played chef Julia Child in Nora Ephron's Julie & Julia, co-starring Amy Adams and Stanley Tucci. The first major motion picture based on a blog, it contrasts the life of Child in the early years of her culinary career with the life of young New Yorker Julie Powell (Adams), who aspires to cook all 524 recipes in Child's cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking in 365 days, a challenge she described on her popular blog, The Julie/Julia Project, that would make her a published author. The same year, Streep also starred in Nancy Meyers' romantic comedy It's Complicated, with Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. She also received nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for both of these films and won the award for the former. Streep later received her 16th Oscar nomination for Julie & Julia. She also lent her voice to Mrs. Felicity Fox in the stop-motion film Fantastic Mr. Fox.

2010s

Streep at the 69th Golden Globe Awards in January 2012.

Streep's first film of the 2010s was Phyllida Lloyd's The Iron Lady (2011), a British biographical film about Margaret Thatcher, which takes a look at the Prime Minister during the Falklands War and her years in retirement. Streep, who sat through a session at the House of Commons to observe British MPs in action in preparation for her role, called her cast "a daunting and exciting challenge," and further added: "I am trying to approach the role with as much zeal, fervour and attention to detail as the real Lady Thatcher possesses – I can only hope my stamina will begin to approach her own." While the film met with mixed critics, Streep's performance got rave reviews, earning her Best Actress awards at the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs as well as her third win at the Academy Awards.

Streep will star alongside Julia Roberts in the upcoming film August: Osage County, which is being filmed on-site in Oklahoma as of September 2012 and is slated for release in mid-2013. The film is based on Tracy Letts's Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name and is being directed by John Wells.

In July 2010, it was announced that Streep would star in an upcoming comedy entitled Mommy & Me alongside Tina Fey who would play her daughter. The film was to be directed by Stanley Tucci. However, no further news of this project has since been announced and its current status is unknown.

Accents and dialects

Streep is well known for her ability to imitate foreign and domestic accents, from Danish in Out of Africa (1985); to British RP in Plenty (also 1985), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981) and The Iron Lady (2011); and from Italian in The Bridges of Madison County (1995); to a Minnesota accent in A Prairie Home Companion (2006). In A Cry in the Dark (1988), critics were impressed with Streep's ability to master an Australian accent with shades of New Zealand English. For her role in the film Sophie's Choice (1982), she took language courses to speak both English and German with a Polish accent. In The Iron Lady, she reproduced the vocal style of Margaret Thatcher, from the time before she became Britain's Prime Minister, and after she had taken elocution lessons to change her pitch, pronunciation and delivery. Despite the accolades accorded to her, Streep has emphasised that adopting accents is an element she simply considers an obvious part of creating a character. When asked whether accents helped her get into character, she responded, "I'm always baffled by this question... How could I play that part and talk like me?" When questioned as to how she reproduces different accents, Streep replied, "I listen."

Music

After Streep appeared in Mamma Mia!, her rendition of the song "Mamma Mia" rose to popularity in the Portuguese music charts, where it peaked at #8 in October 2008.

At the 35th People's Choice Awards, her version of Mamma Mia won an award for "Favorite Song From A Soundtrack". In 2008, Streep was nominated for a Grammy Award (her fifth nomination) for her work on the Mamma Mia! soundtrack.

Philanthropy

Streep is the spokesperson for the National Women's History Museum, to which she has donated a significant amount of money (including her fee for The Iron Lady) and hosted numerous events.

Awards and nominations

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Meryl Streep

Streep receiving her honorary degree from Harvard University on May 27, 2010

In 1999, Streep was awarded The George Eastman Award, given by George Eastman House for distinguished contribution to the art of film. Streep holds the record for the most Academy Award nominations of any actor, having been nominated 17 times since her first nomination in 1979 for her performance in The Deer Hunter (fourteen for Best Actress and three for Best Supporting Actress) – five more than both Katharine Hepburn and Jack Nicholson, who are tied in second place. With her third Oscar win for her performance as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady (2011) in 2012, Streep became the fifth performer to receive three Academy Awards: Nicholson, Ingrid Bergman and Walter Brennan all earned three, while Hepburn won four.

In 2009, Streep became the most-nominated performer in Golden Globe Awards history when her double lead actress nods for Doubt (2008) and Mamma Mia! (2008) gave her 23 in total, breaking the tie with Jack Lemmon, who had received 22 lead nominations before his death in 2001. The following year, Streep surpassed Jack Nicholson and Angela Lansbury, with six Golden Globe awards wins each, after receiving her seventh Globe for her performance as Julia Child in Julie & Julia (2009). In 2012, she broke her own record when she garnered her 26th nomination and overall eighth win for The Iron Lady at the 69th Golden Globe Awards.

Streep holds the BAFTA record for most nominations at 14 in total. She received her second Best Actress award for The Iron Lady at the 65th ceremony in February 2012, following her first win in 1981 for her performance in Sophie's Choice (1981).

In 1983, Yale University, from which Streep graduated in 1975, awarded her an honorary degree, a Doctorate of Fine Arts. The first university to award her an honorary degree was Dartmouth College, where she spent time as a transfer student in 1970, in 1981. (Nashua Telegraph June 15, 1981 page 2). In 1998, Women in Film awarded Streep with the Crystal Award, an honor for outstanding women who, through their endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry. The same year, Streep received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In 2003, Streep was awarded an honorary César Award by the French Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma. In 2004, at the Moscow International Film Festival, Streep was honored with the Stanislavsky Award for the outstanding achievement in the career of acting and devotion to the principles of Stanislavsky's school. Also in 2004, Streep received the AFI Life Achievement Award. In 2008, Streep was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame. In 2009, she was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts by Princeton University. In 2010, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Arts degree by Harvard University.

On December 4, 2011 (program aired on CBS-TV on December 27, 2011), Streep received the 2011 Kennedy Center Honor (along with Neil Diamond, Yo-Yo Ma, Sonny Rollins, and Barbara Cook). On February 14, 2012, Streep received the Honorary Golden Bear at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival. She previously won the Berlinale Camera at the 49th Berlin International Film Festival in 1999.

Selected filmography

Main article: Meryl Streep filmography

year	film	role	Notes
1978	The Deer Hunter	Linda	American Movie Award for Best Supporting Actress National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated - Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture
1979	Manhattan	Jill	Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
1979	Kramer vs. Kramer	Joanna Kramer	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress (and also The Seduction of Joe Tynan) Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
1981	The French Lieutenant's Woman	Sarah/Anna	BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress
1982	Sophie's Choice	Sophie Zawistowski	Academy Award for Best Actress Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress National Board of Review Award for Best Actress National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
1983	Silkwood	Karen Silkwood	Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
1984	Falling in Love	Molly Gilmore	David di Donatello Award for Best Foreign Actress (Migliore Attrice Straniero)
1985	Out of Africa	Karen Blixen	David di Donatello Award for Best Foreign Actress (Migliore Attrice Straniero) Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
1986	Heartburn	Rachel Samstat	Valladolid International Film Festival for Best Actress
1987	Ironweed	Helen Archer	Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress
1988	A Cry in the Dark	Lindy Chamberlain	Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress Best Actress Award (Cannes Film Festival) Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
1989	She-Devil	Mary Fisher	Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1990	Postcards from the Edge	Suzanne Vale	American Comedy Award for Funniest Actress in a Motion Picture (Leading Role) Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1992	Death Becomes Her	Madeline Ashton	Nominated - Saturn Award for Best Actress Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1994	The River Wild	Gail	Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
1995	The Bridges of Madison County	Francesca Johnson	Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
1996	Marvin's Room	Lee	Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama Nominated - Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
1997	...First Do No Harm	Lori Reimuller	Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film Nominated - Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film
1998	One True Thing	Kate Gulden	Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
1998	Dancing at Lughnasa	Kate Mundy	Nominated - Irish Film and Television Awardsfor Best Actor in a Female Role
1999	Music of the Heart	Roberta Guaspari	Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
2002	Adaptation.	Susan Orlean	Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture Silver Bear for Best Actress Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated - Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role Nominated - Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated - London Film Critics Circle Award for Actress of the Year Nominated - Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated - Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated - Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2002	The Hours	Clarissa Vaughan	Silver Bear for Best Actress in Berlin International Film Festival (with Julianne Moore and Nicole Kidman) Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama Nominated - Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated - Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2003	Angels in America	Ethel Rosenberg The Rabbi Hannah Pitt Angel Australia	Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie Satellite Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film Gracie Award for Outstanding Female Lead in a Drama Special Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
2004	The Manchurian Candidate	Eleanor Shaw	Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture Nominated - Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress
2006	The Devil Wears Prada	Miranda Priestly	Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy London Film Critics Circle Award for Actress of the Year National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress Satellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role Nominated - Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated - Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated - Teen Choice Awards for Choice Chemistry Nominated - Teen Choice Awards for Choice Sleazebag Nominated - MTV Movie Award for Best Villain Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
2008	Mamma Mia!	Donna	Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated - Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Nominated - London Film Critics Circle Award for Actress of the Year
2008	Doubt	Sister Aloysius Beauvier	Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress National Board of Review Award for Best Cast Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role Nominated - Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast Nominated - Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama Nominated - London Film Critics Circle Award for Actress of the Year Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2009	Julie & Julia	Julia Child	Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress Satellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role Nominated - Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated - London Film Critics Circle Award for Actress of the Year Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
2009	It's Complicated	Jane Adler	Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
2011	The Iron Lady	Margaret Thatcher	Academy Award for Best Actress AACTA International Award for Best Actress BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role Denver Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress New York Film Critics Online Award for Best Actress London Film Critics Circle Award for Actress of the Year Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated - Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress Nominated - Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated - Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated - Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated - Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress Nominated - Houston Film Critics Society Award for Best Actres Nominated - Iowa Film Critics Awards for Best Actress Nominated - Irish Film & Television Award for Best International Actress Nominated - National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress Nominated - Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress Nominated - Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Nominated - St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated - Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress Nominated - Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role

See also

• List of people from New Jersey
• List of American actresses
• List of actors with two or more Academy Awards in acting categories

Bibliography

• Napoleon, Davi (1991). Chelsea on the Edge: The Adventures of an American Theater. Includes discussion of Streep's performance in Robert Kalfin's production of Happy End at the Chelsea Theater and on Broadway. Iowa State University Press. ISBN-0-8138-1713-7.
• Finding Herself: The Prime of Meryl Streep by Molly Haskell, Film Comment, May/June 2008.
• Hollinger, Karen (2006). The Actress – Hollywood Acting and the Female Star. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-97792-4.

External links

• Official web site
• Meryl Streep at the Internet Broadway Database
• Meryl Streep at IMDb
• Meryl Streep at the TCM Movie Database
• Meryl Streep at BAFTA forty-minute webcast, January 2009
• Meryl Streep at Emmys.com