Mary Louise “Meryl” Streep (born June 22, 1949) is an American actress. Mary Louise Streep was born in Summit, New Jersey to artist mother Mary Wilkinson Streep and pharmaceutical executive Harry William Streep Jr. Her father was of German and Swiss descent and her mother had English, German, and Irish ancestry.
Meryl Streep is “the best actress of her generation” She has received numerous accolades throughout her career spanning over four decades, including a record 21 Academy Award nominations, winning three, and a record 33 Golden Globe Award nominations, winning eight.
Education-
Streep was raised as a Presbyterian in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, and attended Cedar Hill Elementary School and the Oak Street School. In her junior high debut, she starred as Louise Heller in the play The Family Upstairs. In 1963, the family moved to Bernardsville, New Jersey, where she attended Bernards High School. At age 12, Streep was selected to sing at a school recital, leading to her having opera lessons from Estelle Liebling. She was a high school cheerleader for the Bernards High School Mountaineers.
Although Streep appeared in numerous school plays during her high school years, she was uninterested in serious theater until acting in the play Miss Julie at Vassar College in 1969, in which she gained attention across the campus. She received her BA in drama cum laude in 1971, before applying for an MFA from the Yale School of Drama. At Yale, she supplemented her course fees by working as a waitress and typist, and appeared in over a dozen stage productions per year; at one point, she became overworked and developed ulcers, so she contemplated quitting acting and switching to study law.
Streep played a variety of roles on stage during his study period. She received her MFA in drama from Yale in 1975. She also enrolled as a visiting student at Dartmouth College in 1970, and received an honorary Doctor of Arts degree from the college in 1981.
Carrier as an actress –
Streep made her stage debut in 1975 in Trelawny of the Wells, and received a Tony Award nomination the following year for a double-bill production of 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and A Memory of Two Mondays. In 1977, she made her feature film debut in Julia. She won her first Primetime Emmy Award in 1978 for the miniseries Holocaust, and received her first Oscar nomination for The Deer Hunter that same year. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing a troubled wife in Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), followed by the Academy Award for Best Actress for starring as a Holocaust survivor in Sophie’s Choice (1982). She continued to gain awards and critical acclaim for her film work throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Commercial success varied, with Out of Africa (1985), Death Becomes Her (1992), and The Bridges of Madison County (1995) earning the most money during that period.
Streep reclaimed her stardom in the ensuing decades with leading roles in Adaptation, The Hours (both 2002), The Devil Wears Prada (2006), Doubt, Mamma Mia! (both 2008), Julie & Julia, It’s Complicated (both 2009), Into the Woods (2014), The Post (2017) and Little Women (2019), and won her third Oscar for her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady (2011). Her television roles include the miniseries Angels in America (2003), for which she received her second Primetime Emmy, HBO’s Big Little Lies (2019), and Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building (2023).
Streep has been the recipient of many honorary awards, including the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2004, a Gala Tribute from the Film Society of Lincoln Center in 2008, and the Kennedy Center Honor in 2011 for her contribution to American culture through performing arts. President Barack Obama awarded her the National Medal of Arts in 2010 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014. In 2003, the French government made her a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters. She was awarded the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2017. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1998.
Meryl Streep’s best films and awards-
One of the most prolific actresses of screen and stage since her career’s inception in the late 1970s, Streep’s most acclaimed and highest-grossing films, include Julia (1977), The Deer Hunter (1978), Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981), Sophie’s Choice (1982), Silkwood (1983), A Cry in the Dark (1988),[d] Postcards from the Edge (1990), Defending Your Life (1991), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), Marvin’s Room (1996), Adaptation. (2002), The Devil Wears Prada (2007), Mamma Mia (2008), Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), The Homesman (2014), Florence Foster Jenkins (2016), Little Women (2019), and Let Them All Talk (2020). Her television projects include the miniseries Holocaust (1978), the television film …First Do No Harm (1997), the miniseries Angels in America (2003), and the drama series Big Little Lies (2019). Her stage roles include the Broadway theatre productions A Memory of Two Mondays, 27 Wagons Full of Cotton (both 1976) and The Cherry Orchard (1977), as well as multiple plays at the Delacorte Theater.
Streep has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) for the following performances:
51st Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Supporting Role, nomination, for The Deer Hunter (1978)
52nd Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Supporting Role, win, for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
54th Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role, nomination, for The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981)
55th Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role, win, for Sophie’s Choice (1982)
56th Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role, nomination, for Silkwood (1983)
58th Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role, nomination, for Out of Africa (1985)
60th Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role, nomination, for Ironweed (1987)
61st Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role, nomination, for A Cry in the Dark (1988)[d]
63rd Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role, nomination, for Postcards from the Edge (1990)
68th Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role, nomination, for The Bridges of Madison County (1995)
71st Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role, nomination, for One True Thing (1998)
72nd Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role, nomination, for Music of the Heart (1999)
75th Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Supporting Role, nomination, for Adaptation. (2002)
79th Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role, nomination, for The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
81st Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role, nomination, for Doubt (2008)
82nd Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role, nomination, for Julie & Julia (2009)
84th Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role, win, for The Iron Lady (2011) [277]
86th Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role, nomination, for August: Osage County (2013)
87th Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Supporting Role, nomination, for Into the Woods (2014)
89th Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role, nomination, for Florence Foster Jenkins (2016)
90th Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role, nomination, for The Post (2017)
These nominations make Streep the most Academy Award-nominated performer in history, with 21 in total (17 for Best Actress and four for Best Supporting Actress), as well as one of only 13 performers to win an Oscar in both acting categories and one of only three performers to win three Academy Awards across the two acting categories (with Ingrid Bergman and Jack Nicholson being the only others to achieve this feat).
She has also received six Grammy Award nominations, five Primetime Emmy Award nominations (with three wins), and one Tony Award nomination. Streep is one of few performers to be nominated for the Triple Crown of Acting and EGOT. Her other accolades include two BAFTA Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role (for The French Lieutenant’s Woman and The Iron Lady), eight Golden Globe Awards (as well as the honorary Cecil B. DeMille Award) and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. See full bio on Wiki
Personal life –
Streep lived with actor John Cazale in the 1970s, caring for him after his lung cancer diagnosis until he died in March 1978. Streep married sculptor Don Gummer six months after Cazale’s death. They have four children: musician Henry Wolfe Gummer (born 1979), and actresses Mary Willa “Mamie” Gummer (born 1983), Grace Jane Gummer (born 1986), and Louisa Jacobson Gummer (born 1991). In 1985, the family moved into a $1.8-million private estate in Connecticut and lived there until they bought a $3-million mansion in Brentwood, Los Angeles, in 1990. They later moved back to Connecticut. In 2023, it was reported that Streep and Gummer had been separated for more than six years. They were publicly last seen together at the 90th Academy Awards in 2018.
Meryl Streep’s Birth Chart-
