American actress Meryl Streep (1949) is one of the best actresses of her generation, known for her versatility and accents. She has been nominated for the Oscar an astonishing 21 times and has won it three times. Among her other accolades, she has received 32 Golden Globe nominations, more than any other person, and won eight.
British postcard, no. 140.
American postcard by Fotofolio, New York, NY, no. P 432. Photo: Brigitte Lacombe, 1988.
Ukrainian postcard by Magicard.biz.ua. Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada (David Frankel, 2006).
Mary Louise 'Meryl' Streep was born in 1949, in Summit, New Jersey. She is the daughter of Mary Wilkinson Streep (née Mary Wolf Wilkinson), a commercial artist and art editor; and Harry William Streep, Jr., a pharmaceutical executive. She has two younger brothers: Harry William Streep III and Dana David Streep, who are also actors.
At the age of 12, Streep was selected to sing at a school recital, leading to her having opera lessons from Estelle Liebling. She quit after four years. Although Streep appeared in numerous school plays during her high school years, she was uninterested in serious theatre until acting in the play 'Miss Julie' at Vassar College in 1969, in which she gained attention across the campus.
She received her B.A. cum laude from the college in 1971, before applying for an MFA from the Yale School of Drama. Streep played a variety of roles on stage, from Helena in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' to an 80-year-old woman in a wheelchair in a comedy written by then-unknown playwrights Christopher Durang and Albert Innaurato.
She received her MFA from Yale in 1975. That year, Streep made her stage debut in New York in 'Trelawny of the Wells' by Arthur Wing Pinero. The following year, she received a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play for appearing in the 1976 double bill of '27 Wagons Full of Cotton' by Tennessee Williams and 'A Memory of Two Mondays' by Arthur Miller.
She made her screen debut in the television film The Deadliest Season (Robert Markowitz, 1977), a sports drama with Michael Moriarty. Her film debut was the award-winning Holocaust drama Julia (Fred Zinnemann, 1977), starring Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave. It is based on a chapter from Lillian Hellman's book 'Pentimento' about the author's relationship with a lifelong friend, 'Julia,' who fought against the Nazis in the years prior to World War II. Streep had a small role during a flashback sequence.
She received her first Oscar nomination for the epic war drama The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino, 1978). Critic Pauline Kael remarked that she was a "real beauty" who brought much freshness to the film with her performance. The film, starring Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken, was also successful at the box office, grossing $49 million.
She also won an Emmy Award for her role in the miniseries Holocaust (Marvin J. Chomsky, 1978), which recounts the trajectory of the Holocaust from the perspectives of the fictional Weiss family of German Jews and that of a rising member of the SS (Michael Moriarty), who gradually becomes a merciless war criminal.
Streep travelled to Germany and Austria for filming while her partner, actor John Cazale, who had been diagnosed with lung cancer, remained in New York. Upon her return, Streep found that Cazale's illness had progressed, and she nursed him until his death in March 1978.
Streep starred opposite Dustin Hoffman in the legal drama Kramer vs. Kramer (Robert Benton, 1979). It tells the story of a couple's divorce, its impact on their young son (Justin Henry), and the subsequent evolution of their relationship and views on parenting. For Kramer vs. Kramer, Streep won both the Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, which she famously left in the ladies' room after giving her speech.
British postcard by Star Graphics, London, no. S 127.
British postcard. Photo: Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons in The French Lieutenant's Woman (Karel Reisz, 1981).
Meryl Streep's first leading role was in the British romantic drama The French Lieutenant's Woman (Karel Reisz, 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. She got an Oscar nomination for her performance.
Streep won the Oscar for Best Actress for Sophie's Choice (Alan J. Pakula, 1982). Streep was very determined to get the role. After obtaining a bootlegged copy of the script, she went after Pakula, and threw herself on the ground, begging him to give her the part. She portrayed a Polish survivor of Auschwitz, caught in a love triangle between a young naïve writer (Peter MacNicol) and a Jewish intellectual (Kevin Kline).
Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote: "Though it's far from a flawless movie, 'Sophie's Choice' is a unified and deeply affecting one. Thanks in large part to Miss Streep's bravura performance, it's a film that casts a powerful, uninterrupted spell."
In 1983, Streep played her first non-fictional character, the nuclear whistleblower and labor union activist Karen Silkwood, who died in a suspicious car accident while investigating alleged wrongdoing at the Kerr-McGee plutonium plant, in Mike Nichols' biographical drama Silkwood (Mike Nichols, 1983) with Cher.
Then she portrayed a fighter for the French Resistance during World War II in the British drama Plenty (Fred Schepisi, 1985), adapted from the play by David Hare. Her next release, the epic romantic drama Out of Africa (Sydney Pollack, 1985), established her as a Hollywood superstar. In the film, Streep starred as the Danish writer Karen Blixen, opposite Robert Redford's Denys Finch Hatton. It earned her another Oscar nomination.
Karina Longworth notes in 'Meryl Streep: Anatomy of an Actor' (2013) that the dramatic success of Out of Africa led to a backlash of critical opinion against Streep in the years that followed, especially as she was now demanding $4 million a picture. Unlike other stars at the time, such as Sylvester Stallone and Tom Cruise, Streep "never seemed to play herself", and certain critics felt her technical finesse led people to literally see her acting.
French postcard by Editions "Humour à la Carte", Paris, no. ST-121. Photo: Meryl Streep in Plenty (Fred Schepisi, 1985).
Romanian postcard by Acin in the Colectia Cinefilului.
Meryl Streep's other Oscar-nominated roles were in Ironweed (Héctor Babenco, 1987) with Jack Nicholson, the Australian drama Evil Angels/A Cry in the Dark (Fred Schepisi, 1988), the comedy-drama Postcards from the Edge (Mike Nichols, 1990) with Shirley MacLaine, the romantic drama The Bridges of Madison County (Clint Eastwood, 1995), One True Thing (Carl Franklin, 1998) with Renee Zellweger, the musical drama Music of the Heart (Wes Craven, 1999), Adaptation (Spike Jonze, 2002) starring Nicholas Cage, the comedy-drama The Devil Wears Prada (David Frankel, 2006) with Anne Hathaway, the period drama Doubt (John Patrick Shanley, 2008), the comedy-drama Julie & Julia (Nora Ephron, 2009) with Amy Adams, August: Osage County (John Wells, 2013) with Julia Roberts, the musical fantasy Into the Woods (Rob Marshall, 2014), the biographical comedy-drama Florence Foster Jenkins (Stephen Frears, 2016) with Hugh Grant, and the historical political thriller The Post (Steven Spielberg, 2017), starring Tom Hanks.
Streep won the Best Actress Oscar again for The Iron Lady (Phyllida Lloyd, 2011), the British-French biographical drama based on the life and career of Margaret Thatcher. While the film was met with mixed reviews, Streep's performance was widely acclaimed and considered to be one of the greatest of her career.
Her stage roles include The Public Theater's 2001 revival of 'The Seagull', and her television roles include two projects for HBO, the acclaimed miniseries Angels in America (Mike Nichols, 2003), for which her performance won her another Emmy Award, and the drama series Big Little Lies (Andrea Arnold, 2019). Streep has also been the recipient of many honorary awards. She was awarded Commander of the Order of the Arts and Letters by French culture minister Jean-Jacques Aillagon in 2003.
In the cinema, she appeared as Emmeline Pankhurst, a British political activist, and leader of the British suffragette movement who helped women win the right to vote in the period drama Suffragette (Sarah Gavron, 2015), co-starring Carey Mulligan and Helena Bonham Carter. Streep reprised the role of Donna Sheridan in the musical sequel Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (Ol Parker, 2018). She also played a supporting part in Mary Poppins Returns (Rob Marshall, ), starring Emily Blunt in the title role.
In 2019, she starred in the biographical comedy The Laundromat (Steven Soderberg, 2019), the first Netflix film in which Streep starred. The film focused on the Panama Papers in particular and Beneficial ownership in general. Streep was whistleblower John Doe who released incriminating documents to the media. In addition, she played Aunt March in Little Women (Greta Gerwig, 2019).
Despite her stardom, for decades Streep has managed to maintain a relatively normal personal life. Streep lived with actor John Cazale for three years until his death from lung cancer in March 1978. Streep married sculptor Don Gummer six months after Cazale's death. They have four children: one son and three daughters, son Henry Wolfe Gummer (1979), a musician; daughters Mary Willa 'Mamie' Gummer (1983), an actress; Grace Jane Gummer (1986), an actress; and Louisa Jacobson Gummer (1991), a model. In February 2019, Streep became a grandmother for the first time, through her eldest daughter Mamie.
Vintage publicity photo. Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro in Falling in Love (Ulu Grosbard, 1984).
French postcard in the Collection Cinéma Couleur by Editions La Malibran, Paris, 1990, no. MC 41. Photo: Meryl Streep and Robert Redford in Out of Africa (Sydney Pollack, 1985).
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
British postcard, no. 140.
American postcard by Fotofolio, New York, NY, no. P 432. Photo: Brigitte Lacombe, 1988.
Ukrainian postcard by Magicard.biz.ua. Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada (David Frankel, 2006).
A real beauty bringing much freshness
Mary Louise 'Meryl' Streep was born in 1949, in Summit, New Jersey. She is the daughter of Mary Wilkinson Streep (née Mary Wolf Wilkinson), a commercial artist and art editor; and Harry William Streep, Jr., a pharmaceutical executive. She has two younger brothers: Harry William Streep III and Dana David Streep, who are also actors.
At the age of 12, Streep was selected to sing at a school recital, leading to her having opera lessons from Estelle Liebling. She quit after four years. Although Streep appeared in numerous school plays during her high school years, she was uninterested in serious theatre until acting in the play 'Miss Julie' at Vassar College in 1969, in which she gained attention across the campus.
She received her B.A. cum laude from the college in 1971, before applying for an MFA from the Yale School of Drama. Streep played a variety of roles on stage, from Helena in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' to an 80-year-old woman in a wheelchair in a comedy written by then-unknown playwrights Christopher Durang and Albert Innaurato.
She received her MFA from Yale in 1975. That year, Streep made her stage debut in New York in 'Trelawny of the Wells' by Arthur Wing Pinero. The following year, she received a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play for appearing in the 1976 double bill of '27 Wagons Full of Cotton' by Tennessee Williams and 'A Memory of Two Mondays' by Arthur Miller.
She made her screen debut in the television film The Deadliest Season (Robert Markowitz, 1977), a sports drama with Michael Moriarty. Her film debut was the award-winning Holocaust drama Julia (Fred Zinnemann, 1977), starring Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave. It is based on a chapter from Lillian Hellman's book 'Pentimento' about the author's relationship with a lifelong friend, 'Julia,' who fought against the Nazis in the years prior to World War II. Streep had a small role during a flashback sequence.
She received her first Oscar nomination for the epic war drama The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino, 1978). Critic Pauline Kael remarked that she was a "real beauty" who brought much freshness to the film with her performance. The film, starring Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken, was also successful at the box office, grossing $49 million.
She also won an Emmy Award for her role in the miniseries Holocaust (Marvin J. Chomsky, 1978), which recounts the trajectory of the Holocaust from the perspectives of the fictional Weiss family of German Jews and that of a rising member of the SS (Michael Moriarty), who gradually becomes a merciless war criminal.
Streep travelled to Germany and Austria for filming while her partner, actor John Cazale, who had been diagnosed with lung cancer, remained in New York. Upon her return, Streep found that Cazale's illness had progressed, and she nursed him until his death in March 1978.
Streep starred opposite Dustin Hoffman in the legal drama Kramer vs. Kramer (Robert Benton, 1979). It tells the story of a couple's divorce, its impact on their young son (Justin Henry), and the subsequent evolution of their relationship and views on parenting. For Kramer vs. Kramer, Streep won both the Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, which she famously left in the ladies' room after giving her speech.
British postcard by Star Graphics, London, no. S 127.
British postcard. Photo: Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons in The French Lieutenant's Woman (Karel Reisz, 1981).
Portraying a Polish survivor of Auschwitz
Meryl Streep's first leading role was in the British romantic drama The French Lieutenant's Woman (Karel Reisz, 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. She got an Oscar nomination for her performance.
Streep won the Oscar for Best Actress for Sophie's Choice (Alan J. Pakula, 1982). Streep was very determined to get the role. After obtaining a bootlegged copy of the script, she went after Pakula, and threw herself on the ground, begging him to give her the part. She portrayed a Polish survivor of Auschwitz, caught in a love triangle between a young naïve writer (Peter MacNicol) and a Jewish intellectual (Kevin Kline).
Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote: "Though it's far from a flawless movie, 'Sophie's Choice' is a unified and deeply affecting one. Thanks in large part to Miss Streep's bravura performance, it's a film that casts a powerful, uninterrupted spell."
In 1983, Streep played her first non-fictional character, the nuclear whistleblower and labor union activist Karen Silkwood, who died in a suspicious car accident while investigating alleged wrongdoing at the Kerr-McGee plutonium plant, in Mike Nichols' biographical drama Silkwood (Mike Nichols, 1983) with Cher.
Then she portrayed a fighter for the French Resistance during World War II in the British drama Plenty (Fred Schepisi, 1985), adapted from the play by David Hare. Her next release, the epic romantic drama Out of Africa (Sydney Pollack, 1985), established her as a Hollywood superstar. In the film, Streep starred as the Danish writer Karen Blixen, opposite Robert Redford's Denys Finch Hatton. It earned her another Oscar nomination.
Karina Longworth notes in 'Meryl Streep: Anatomy of an Actor' (2013) that the dramatic success of Out of Africa led to a backlash of critical opinion against Streep in the years that followed, especially as she was now demanding $4 million a picture. Unlike other stars at the time, such as Sylvester Stallone and Tom Cruise, Streep "never seemed to play herself", and certain critics felt her technical finesse led people to literally see her acting.
French postcard by Editions "Humour à la Carte", Paris, no. ST-121. Photo: Meryl Streep in Plenty (Fred Schepisi, 1985).
Romanian postcard by Acin in the Colectia Cinefilului.
One of the greatest performances of her career
Meryl Streep's other Oscar-nominated roles were in Ironweed (Héctor Babenco, 1987) with Jack Nicholson, the Australian drama Evil Angels/A Cry in the Dark (Fred Schepisi, 1988), the comedy-drama Postcards from the Edge (Mike Nichols, 1990) with Shirley MacLaine, the romantic drama The Bridges of Madison County (Clint Eastwood, 1995), One True Thing (Carl Franklin, 1998) with Renee Zellweger, the musical drama Music of the Heart (Wes Craven, 1999), Adaptation (Spike Jonze, 2002) starring Nicholas Cage, the comedy-drama The Devil Wears Prada (David Frankel, 2006) with Anne Hathaway, the period drama Doubt (John Patrick Shanley, 2008), the comedy-drama Julie & Julia (Nora Ephron, 2009) with Amy Adams, August: Osage County (John Wells, 2013) with Julia Roberts, the musical fantasy Into the Woods (Rob Marshall, 2014), the biographical comedy-drama Florence Foster Jenkins (Stephen Frears, 2016) with Hugh Grant, and the historical political thriller The Post (Steven Spielberg, 2017), starring Tom Hanks.
Streep won the Best Actress Oscar again for The Iron Lady (Phyllida Lloyd, 2011), the British-French biographical drama based on the life and career of Margaret Thatcher. While the film was met with mixed reviews, Streep's performance was widely acclaimed and considered to be one of the greatest of her career.
Her stage roles include The Public Theater's 2001 revival of 'The Seagull', and her television roles include two projects for HBO, the acclaimed miniseries Angels in America (Mike Nichols, 2003), for which her performance won her another Emmy Award, and the drama series Big Little Lies (Andrea Arnold, 2019). Streep has also been the recipient of many honorary awards. She was awarded Commander of the Order of the Arts and Letters by French culture minister Jean-Jacques Aillagon in 2003.
In the cinema, she appeared as Emmeline Pankhurst, a British political activist, and leader of the British suffragette movement who helped women win the right to vote in the period drama Suffragette (Sarah Gavron, 2015), co-starring Carey Mulligan and Helena Bonham Carter. Streep reprised the role of Donna Sheridan in the musical sequel Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (Ol Parker, 2018). She also played a supporting part in Mary Poppins Returns (Rob Marshall, ), starring Emily Blunt in the title role.
In 2019, she starred in the biographical comedy The Laundromat (Steven Soderberg, 2019), the first Netflix film in which Streep starred. The film focused on the Panama Papers in particular and Beneficial ownership in general. Streep was whistleblower John Doe who released incriminating documents to the media. In addition, she played Aunt March in Little Women (Greta Gerwig, 2019).
Despite her stardom, for decades Streep has managed to maintain a relatively normal personal life. Streep lived with actor John Cazale for three years until his death from lung cancer in March 1978. Streep married sculptor Don Gummer six months after Cazale's death. They have four children: one son and three daughters, son Henry Wolfe Gummer (1979), a musician; daughters Mary Willa 'Mamie' Gummer (1983), an actress; Grace Jane Gummer (1986), an actress; and Louisa Jacobson Gummer (1991), a model. In February 2019, Streep became a grandmother for the first time, through her eldest daughter Mamie.
Vintage publicity photo. Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro in Falling in Love (Ulu Grosbard, 1984).
French postcard in the Collection Cinéma Couleur by Editions La Malibran, Paris, 1990, no. MC 41. Photo: Meryl Streep and Robert Redford in Out of Africa (Sydney Pollack, 1985).
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
3 comments:
nice
Excellent biography content.Great know about this!
Post a Comment