MERYL STREEP


'Mary Louise Streep', mostly known as 'Meryl Streep' (born June 22, 1949) is an Academy Award-winning American actress who has worked in theatre, television, and film. Streep 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 1977's ''Julia'' 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, six Golden Globes, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Grammy Award nomination, and a BAFTA award. She is the most nominated actor (both male and female) in Academy Award history with 14 nominations. Streep is widely considered one of the most respected[1] and talented[1] actresses of all time. She is also one of the select actors to have won all four major motion picture acting awards (Oscars, Golden Globes, SAG, and BAFTA awards).

Contents
Biography
Early life
Early career
Later career and recent credits
Theatre
Awards
Filmography
Television credits
Stage credits
References
External links

Biography


Early life

Streep was born 'Mary Louise Streep' in Summit, New Jersey, the daughter of Harry William Streep, Jr.,[3] a pharmaceutical executive, and Mary W., a commercial artist.[4] Streep's mother had Swiss, Irish and English ancestry and Streep's father's family was of Dutch descent, with distant Sephardic Jewish ancestors from Spain.[5][6] She has two younger brothers, Dana and Harry.[7] Streep was raised in Bernardsville, New Jersey, where she attended and graduated from Bernards High School.[8] She received her B.A. in Drama at Vassar College and earned a M.F.A. from the Yale School of Drama at Yale University.
Early career

In her first feature film, ''Julia'' (1977), she had 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 would win again for ''Sophie's Choice'' (Best Actress, 1982), where she starred alongside Peter MacNicol and Kevin Kline.
In 1978, she won her first Emmy Award, for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or TV Movie, for the miniseries ''Holocaust''. A year later she appeared in her only Woody Allen film, ''Manhattan''. Streep was engaged to ''The Deer Hunter'' co-star John Cazale ("Fredo" in ''The Godfather'') until his death from bone cancer on March 12th, 1978. In September 1978, she married sculptor Don Gummer. They have four children: Henry W. (Hank) (born in 1979), Mary Willa (Mamie)(born in 1983), Grace Jane (born in 1986), and Louisa Jacobson (born in 1991). Mamie Gummer 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.
Later career and recent credits

In the 1980s, Streep appeared in the acclaimed films ''The French Lieutenant's Woman'', ''Silkwood (1982)'' with Kurt Russell and Cher, ''Out of Africa'' with Robert Redford, and ''Ironweed,'' with Jack Nicholson. 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. 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-film actress 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 actress 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 co-starred 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'' co-starring Denzel Washington, in which Streep 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, a program of the Academy of American Poets. Streep has also co-hosted the annual Nobel Peace Prize Concert with Liam Neeson in Oslo, Norway in 2001. The winner of the prize was United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan.
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 $125 million dollars 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!'', she has also been confirmed for a role in the up-coming thriller Wanted along Jennifer Aniston and Martin Hernandez.[9]
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 which 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''. 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.[10] 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.

Awards


Streep holds the record for the most Academy Award nominations of any actor, having been nominated fourteen 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 for films with 6 wins. She is also the second-most nominated performer for a Golden Globe Award (she has twenty-one nominations to Jack Lemmon's twenty-two). Streep is also tied with Jack Nicholson for most Golden Globes overall by an actor or actress (6 wins). Streep has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
''List of Awards and Nominations''

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 Robert Benton
1981 ''The French Lieutenant's Woman'' Sarah/Anna Karel Reisz
1982 ''Still of the Night'' Brooke Reynolds Robert Benton
''Sophie's Choice'' Sophie Zawistowski 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 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 Bille August
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 '' Blue Mecha (voice) Steven Spielberg
2002 ''Adaptation.'' Susan Orlean Spike Jonze
''The Hours'' Clarissa Vaughan Stephen Daldry
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 David Frankel
''The Ant Bully'' Queen (voice) John A. Davis
2007 ''Dark Matter'' Joanna Silver Chen Shi-Zheng
''Evening'' Lila Wittenborn Lajos Koltai
''Rendition'' (completed) Gavin Hood
''Lions for Lambs'' Janine Roth (post-production) Robert Redford
2008 ''Mamma Mia!'' Donna Phyllida Lloyd
''First Man'' The President Diane English
''Doubt'' Sister Aloysius John Patrick Shanley
''Dirty Tricks'' Martha Mitchell Ryan Murphy
2009 ''A Question of Mercy'' (pre-production) Rodrigo García
''Wanted'' (announced) Michael Fuller
Michael Savisky

Television credits



★ ''Holocaust'' (1978)

★ "The Simpsons" as "Jessica Lovejoy" 1994

★ ''...First Do No Harm'' 1997

★ ''Angels in America'' (2003) (miniseries)

Stage credits


Stage Credits
Year Play Role Director
1975''Trelawny of the "Wells"''Miss Imogen ParrottA. J. Antoon
1976''27 Wagons Full of Cotton''Flora MeighanArvin Brown
1976''A Memory of Two Mondays''PatriciaArvin Brown
1976''Secret Service''Edith VarneyDaniel Freudenberger
1976''Henry V''KatherineJoseph Papp
1976''Measure for Measure''IsabellaJohn Pasquin
1977''Happy End''Lieutenant Lillian HolidayRobert Kalfin and Patricia Birch
1977''The Cherry Orchard''DunyashaAndrei Şerban
1978''Alice in Concert''AliceElizabeth Swados
1978''The Taming of the Shrew''KateWilford Leach
1979''Taken in Marriage''AndreaRobert Allan Ackerman
1980-81''Alice in Concert''AliceJoseph Papp
2001''The Seagull''Irina NikolayevnaMike Nichols
2006''Mother Courage and Her Children''Mother CourageGeorge C. Wolfe

References


1.
2.
3. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~battle/celeb/streep.htm
4. http://www.filmreference.com/film/65/Meryl-Streep.html
5. http://simplystreep.com/press/press1992movieline.htm
6. http://www.mtsu.edu/~socwork/frost/crazy/streep.htm
7. http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800018835/bio
8. "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..."
9. IMDb.com
10. http://theater2.nytimes.com/2006/08/22/theater/reviews/22moth.html

External links











merylstreeponline.net- official website

The most nominated actor in Academy Awards history

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