Meryl Streep
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Mary Louise ("Meryl") Streep (born June 22, 1949) is an American two-time Academy Award winning actress who has worked in theatre, television, and film. She made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, and her screen debut came in 1977's made-for-television movie, The Deadliest Season. Streep made her film debut in Julia (1977), opposite Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave.
Both critical and commercial success came quickly with roles in The Deer Hunter, with Robert De Niro, and Kramer vs. Kramer, with Dustin Hoffman, the former giving Streep her first Oscar nomination and the latter her first win. Streep's work has earned her two Academy Awards, a Cannes award, six Golden Globe Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards (SAG), four Grammy Award nominations, two Emmy Awards, a BAFTA award, and a Tony Award nomination. She has received 14 Academy Award nominations, more than any other actor or actress in the history of the awards, and is tied with Jack Nicholson for most Golden Globe Award wins, with six each. She has been nominated a remarkable 21 times for a Golden Globe, second only to Jack Lemmon, who had 22. Streep is widely considered to be one of the most respected and talented film actors of all time.[1][2] She is also one of the few actors to have won all four major acting awards (Oscars, Golden Globes, SAG, and BAFTA awards).
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
Streep was born Mary Louise Streep in Summit, New Jersey, the daughter of Mary W. Streep, a commercial artist, and Harry William Streep, Jr., a pharmaceutical executive.[3][4] Streep's mother had Swiss, Irish, and English ancestry, and her father's family was of Dutch descent, with distant Sephardic Jewish ancestors from Spain (although Streep was raised Presbyterian).[5][6][7][8] She has two younger brothers, Dana and Harry.[9] Streep was raised in Bernardsville, New Jersey, where she attended and graduated from Bernards High School.[10] She received her B.A. in Drama at Vassar College and earned an M.F.A. from Yale University.
[edit] Early career
Streep's first feature film was Julia, in which she played a small but pivotal role during a flashback scene. The Deer Hunter (1978) was her second feature film, and it earned Streep her first Academy Award nomination (for Best Supporting Actress). The following year, she won an Academy Award for her role opposite Dustin Hoffman in Kramer vs. Kramer (Best Supporting Actress, 1979). In 1982 she won again, for Sophie's Choice (Best Actress), where she starred alongside Peter MacNicol and Kevin Kline.
In 1978, she won her first Emmy Award, for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series for the miniseries Holocaust. A year later, she appeared in her only Woody Allen film, Manhattan. Streep was engaged to John Cazale ("Fredo" in The Godfather), her costar in The Deer Hunter, until his death from bone cancer on March 12, 1978. In September 1978, she married sculptor Don Gummer. They have four children: Henry W. "Hank" Gummer (born in 1979 and attended Dartmouth College- same class as Kai Wong), Mamie Gummer (1983), Grace Jane Gummer (1986), and Louisa Jacobson Gummer (1991).[11] Mamie has chosen acting as a career, and made her off-Broadway debut as Lucy in a 2005 production of Mr. Marmalade at the Laura Pels Theatre.
[edit] 1980–present
In the 1980s, Streep appeared in the acclaimed films The French Lieutenant's Woman; Silkwood, with Kurt Russell and Cher; Out of Africa, with Robert Redford; and Ironweed, with Jack Nicholson. She received strong reviews and an Oscar nomination for Silkwood, portraying activist Karen Silkwood. In A Cry in the Dark, Streep portrayed Lindy Chamberlain, the Australian mother who was accused of being responsible for the death of her infant after claiming that a dingo took her baby. For her performance, she was awarded Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival. 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 took a greater variety of roles, including a strung-out B-movie actor in a screen adaptation of Carrie Fisher's novel Postcards from the Edge, with Dennis Quaid and Shirley MacLaine, and a farcical role in Death Becomes Her, with Goldie Hawn and Bruce Willis. Streep also appeared in the movie version of Isabel Allende's The House of the Spirits; Clint Eastwood's screen adaptation of The Bridges of Madison County; The River Wild; She-Devil; Marvin's Room (with Diane Keaton and Leonardo DiCaprio); One True Thing; and Music of the Heart, in a role that required her to learn to play the violin.
She was a voice actor for the animated series The Simpsons (playing Reverend Timothy Lovejoy's daughter) and King of the Hill. She also voiced the Blue Fairy character in the Steven Spielberg film A.I.
In 2002, she costarred with Nicolas Cage in Spike Jonze's quirky Adaptation. as real-life author Susan Orlean, and with Nicole Kidman and Julianne Moore in The Hours. She also appeared with Al Pacino and Emma Thompson in the HBO adaptation of Tony Kushner's six-hour play, Angels in America, in which she had four roles. She received her second Emmy Award for Angels in America, which reunited her with director Mike Nichols (who directed her in Silkwood, Heartburn, and Postcards from the Edge).
In addition, she appeared in Jonathan Demme's remake of The Manchurian Candidate, costarring Denzel Washington, in which she played a role made famous by Angela Lansbury. She also starred with Jim Carrey in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. Since 2002, Meryl Streep has hosted the annual event Poetry & the Creative Mind, a benefit in support of National Poetry Month and a program of the Academy of American Poets. Streep also cohosted the annual Nobel Peace Prize Concert with Liam Neeson in Oslo, Norway in 2001.
Streep's most recent film releases are Prime (2005); the Robert Altman film A Prairie Home Companion, with Lindsay Lohan and Lily Tomlin; and the box office success The Devil Wears Prada, with Anne Hathaway, which grossed nearly US$125 million and earned Streep the 2007 Golden Globe award for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy. On January 23, 2007, Streep earned her 14th Academy Award nomination (her 11th for Best Actress) for The Devil Wears Prada. Streep's newest film, Dark Matter, debuted at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.
She has been confirmed for the role of Donna in the film version of the ABBA musical Mamma Mia!, which will hit theaters July 18, 2008. She has also been confirmed to play Sister Aloysius in the 2008 film adaptation of John Patrick Shanley's Doubt, which will come to theatres in 2008. Other upcoming projects include Julie and Julia, as Julia Child; Dirty Tricks, as Martha Mitchell; and A Question of Mercy, which will come to theatres in 2009. (Source: imdb.com)
[edit] Theatre
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 latter, 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, which she originally appeared in off-Broadway at the Chelsea Theater Center. She received Drama Desk Award nominations for both productions. Once Streep's film career flourished, she took a long break from stage acting.
In July 2001, 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. The staging, directed by Mike Nichols, also featured Kevin Kline, Natalie Portman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Christopher Walken, Marcia Gay Harden, and John Goodman.
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.[12] The show performed to crowds that lined up for hours, sometimes in the pouring rain, to get highly coveted seats. It was originally written by Bertolt Brecht in 1939 and first performed in 1941. The Public Theater production was a new translation by famed 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 several songs and was in nearly every scene.
[edit] Awards
Streep holds the record for the most Academy Award nominations of any actor, having been nominated 14 times since her first nomination in 1979 for The Deer Hunter (11 for Best Actress and 3 for Best Supporting Actress).
Meryl Streep also holds the record for actress with the most Golden Globe Awards, with six wins. She is also the second-most nominated performer for a Golden Globe Award (she has 21 nominations to Jack Lemmon's 22). Streep is also tied with Jack Nicholson for most Golden Globes overall by an actor or actress (six wins). Streep has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
[edit] Academy Awards
Best Actress
- 1981: The French Lieutenant's Woman (Katharine Hepburn)
- 1982: Sophie's Choice
- 1983: Silkwood (Shirley MacLaine)
- 1985: Out of Africa (Geraldine Page)
- 1987: Ironweed (Cher)
- 1988: A Cry in the Dark (Jodie Foster)
- 1990: Postcards from the Edge (Kathy Bates)
- 1995: The Bridges of Madison County (Susan Sarandon)
- 1998: One True Thing (Gwyneth Paltrow)
- 1999: Music of the Heart (Hilary Swank)
- 2006: The Devil Wears Prada (Helen Mirren)
Best Supporting Actress
- 1978: The Deer Hunter (Maggie Smith)
- 1979: Kramer vs. Kramer
- 2002: Adaptation. (Catherine Zeta-Jones)
[edit] Emmy Awards
- Best Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie
- 1978: Holocaust
- 1997: First Do No Harm (Alfre Woodard)
- 2004: Angels in America
[edit] Work
[edit] Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1977 | Julia | Anne Marie | Fred Zinnemann | |
| 1978 | The Deer Hunter | Linda | Michael Cimino | |
| 1979 | Manhattan | Jill | Woody Allen | |
| The Seduction of Joe Tynan | Karen Traynor | Jerry Schatzberg | ||
| Kramer vs. Kramer | Joanna Kramer | Academy Award, Golden Globe | Robert Benton | |
| 1981 | The French Lieutenant's Woman | Sarah/Anna | Golden Globe, BAFTA Award | Karel Reisz |
| 1982 | Still of the Night | Brooke Reynolds | Robert Benton | |
| Sophie's Choice | Sophie Zawistowski | Academy Award, Golden Globe, NYFCC Award | Alan J. Pakula | |
| 1983 | Silkwood | Karen Silkwood | Mike Nichols | |
| 1984 | Falling in Love | Molly Gilmore | Ulu Grosbard | |
| 1985 | Plenty | Susan Traherne | Fred Schepisi | |
| Out of Africa | Karen Blixen | Sydney Pollack | ||
| 1986 | Heartburn | Rachel Samstat | Mike Nichols | |
| 1987 | Ironweed | Helen Archer | Hector Babenco | |
| 1988 | A Cry in the Dark | Lindy Chamberlain | Prix d'interprétation féminine (Cannes); NYFCC Award | Fred Schepisi |
| 1989 | She-Devil | Mary Fisher | Susan Seidelman | |
| 1990 | Postcards from the Edge | Suzanne Vale | Mike Nichols | |
| 1991 | Defending Your Life | Julia | Albert Brooks | |
| 1992 | Death Becomes Her | Madeline Ashton | Robert Zemeckis | |
| 1993 | The House of the Spirits | Clara del Valle Trueba | Bille August | |
| 1994 | The River Wild | Gail Hartman | Curtis Hanson | |
| 1995 | The Bridges of Madison County | Francesca Johnson | Clint Eastwood | |
| 1996 | Before and After | Dr. Carolyn Ryan | Barbet Schroeder | |
| Marvin's Room | Lee | Jerry Zaks | ||
| 1998 | Dancing at Lughnasa | Kate 'Kit' Mundy | Pat O'Connor | |
| One True Thing | Kate Gulden | Carl Franklin | ||
| 1999 | Chrysanthemum | Narrator | Virginia Wilkos | |
| Music of the Heart | Roberta Guaspari | Wes Craven | ||
| 2001 | Artificial Intelligence: A.I. | Blue Mecha | (voice) | Steven Spielberg |
| 2002 | Adaptation. | Susan Orlean | Golden Globe | Spike Jonze |
| The Hours | Clarissa Vaughan | Silver Bear Award | Stephen Daldry | |
| 2003 | Stuck on You | Herself | Farrelly brothers | |
| 2004 | The Manchurian Candidate | Eleanor Shaw | Jonathan Demme | |
| Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events | Aunt Josephine | Brad Silberling | ||
| 2005 | Prime | Lisa Metzger | Ben Younger | |
| 2006 | A Prairie Home Companion | Yolanda Johnson | Robert Altman | |
| The Music of Regret | The Woman | Laurie Simmons | ||
| The Devil Wears Prada | Miranda Priestly | Golden Globe | David Frankel | |
| The Ant Bully | Queen | (voice) | John A. Davis | |
| 2007 | Dark Matter | Joanna Silver | Chen Shi-Zheng | |
| Evening | Lila Wittenborn | Lajos Koltai | ||
| Rendition | Corrine Whitman | Gavin Hood | ||
| Lions for Lambs | Janine Roth | Robert Redford | ||
| 2008 | Mamma Mia! | Donna | awaiting release | Phyllida Lloyd |
| Doubt | Sister Aloysius | post-production | John Patrick Shanley | |
| 2009 | Julie & Julia | Julia Child | filming | Nora Ephron |
[edit] Television
- Holocaust (1978)
- The Simpsons as "Jessica Lovejoy" (1994)
- "A Beer Can Named Desire" episode of King of the Hill as Aunt Esme Dauterive (1999)
- ...First Do No Harm (1997)
- Angels in America (2003) (miniseries)
[edit] Stage
| Year | Play | Role | Director |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | Trelawny of the Wells | Miss Imogen Parrott | A.J. Antoon |
| 1976 | 27 Wagons Full of Cotton | Flora Meighan | Arvin Brown |
| 1976 | A Memory of Two Mondays | Patricia | Arvin Brown |
| 1976 | Secret Service | Edith Varney | Daniel Freudenberger |
| 1976 | Henry V | Katherine | Joseph Papp |
| 1976 | Measure for Measure | Isabella | John Pasquin |
| 1977 | Happy End | Lieutenant Lillian Holiday | Robert Kalfin and Patricia Birch |
| 1977 | The Cherry Orchard | Dunyasha | Andrei Şerban |
| 1978 | Alice at the Palace | Alice | Elizabeth Swados |
| 1978 | The Taming of the Shrew | Kate | Wilford Leach |
| 1979 | Taken in Marriage | Andrea | Robert Allan Ackerman |
| 1980-81 | Alice at the Palace | Alice | Joseph Papp |
| 2001 | The Seagull | Irina Nikolayevna | Mike Nichols |
| 2006 | Mother Courage and her Children | Mother Courage | George C. Wolfe |
[edit] References
- ^ Seiler, Andy (1998-09-09), “Meryl Streep's one true role Mom of four draws on life for her art”, USA TODAY, <http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/USAToday/access/33816305.html?dids=33816305:33816305&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Sep+9%2C+1998&author=Andy+Seiler&pub=USA+TODAY&edition=&startpage=01.D&desc=Meryl+Streep%27s+one+true+role+Mom+of+four+draws+on+life+for+her+art>
- ^ “Adaptable Meryl Streep”, Toronto Star, 2002-11-29
- ^ 1
- ^ Meryl Streep Biography (1949-)
- ^ That Madcap Meryl. Really!
- ^ Simply Streep.com | Press Archive
- ^ Meryl Streep
- ^ http://justwomen.asiaone.com.sg/news/highlife/20051123_001.html
- ^ Meryl Streep Biography - Yahoo! Movies
- ^ "N.J. TEACHERS HONOR 6 GRADUATES", The Philadelphia Inquirer, November 12, 1983. Accessed July 20, 2007. "Streep is a graduate of Bernards High School in Bernardsville..."
- ^ Meryl Streep Biography. The Biography Channel. Retrieved on 2008-04-03.
- ^ Mother Courage and Her Children - Review - Theater - New York Times
- Napoleon, Davi. 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, 1991.
- Finding Herself: The Prime of Meryl Streep by Molly Haskell, Film Comment, May/June 2008.
[edit] External links
- Meryl Streep at the Internet Broadway Database
- Meryl Streep at the Internet Movie Database
- Meryl Streep at the TCM Movie Database
- merylstreeponline.net- official website
- simplystreep.com- website
- The most nominated actor in Academy Awards history
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Dyan Cannon for Heaven Can Wait |
Golden Globe — Best Motion Picture Actress in a Supporting Role 1979 for Kramer vs. Kramer |
Succeeded by Mary Steenburgen for Melvin and Howard |
| Preceded by Mary Tyler Moore for Ordinary People |
Golden Globe — Best Motion Picture Actress, Drama 1981 for The French Lieutenant's Woman 1982 for Sophie's Choice |
Succeeded by Shirley MacLaine for Terms of Endearment |
| Preceded by Judy Davis for My Brilliant Career |
BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role 1981 for The French Lieutenant's Woman |
Succeeded by Katharine Hepburn for On Golden Pond |
| Preceded by Glenda Jackson for Stevie |
NYFCC Award for Best Actress 1982 for Sophie's Choice |
Succeeded by Shirley MacLaine for Terms of Endearment |
| Preceded by Holly Hunter for Broadcast News |
NYFCC Award for Best Actress 1988 for A Cry in the Dark |
Succeeded by Michelle Pfeiffer for The Fabulous Baker Boys |
| Preceded by Jodhi May, Barbara Hershey, and Linda Mvusi for A World Apart |
Award for Best Actress — Cannes Film Festival 1989 for A Cry in the Dark |
Succeeded by Krystyna Janda for Przesluchanie |
| Preceded by Nadine Garner for Mullaway |
Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role 1989 for Evil Angels |
Succeeded by Catherine McClements for Weekend with Kate |
| Preceded by Jennifer Connelly for A Beautiful Mind |
Golden Globe — Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture 2002 for Adaptation. |
Succeeded by Renée Zellweger for Cold Mountain |
| Preceded by Uma Thurman for Hysterical Blindness |
Golden Globe — Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television 2003 for Angels in America |
Succeeded by Glenn Close for The Lion in Winter |
| Preceded by Halle Berry for Monster's Ball |
Silver Bear for Best Actress — Berlin Film Festival 2003 for The Hours (tied with Nicole Kidman and Julianne Moore) |
Succeeded by Charlize Theron for Monster and Catalina Sandino Moreno for Maria Full of Grace |
| Preceded by Stockard Channing for The Matthew Shepard Story |
Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress — Miniseries or Television Movie 2003 for Angels in America |
Succeeded by Glenn Close for The Lion in Winter |
| Preceded by Robert De Niro |
AFI Life Achievement Award 2004 |
Succeeded by George Lucas |
| Preceded by Reese Witherspoon for Walk the Line |
Golden Globe — Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy 2006 for The Devil Wears Prada |
Succeeded by Marion Cotillard for La Vie en Rose |
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| Persondata | |
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| NAME | Streep, Meryl |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Streep, Mary Louise |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | actress |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 22, 1949 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Summit, New Jersey, U.S. |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
