BIOGRAPHY:

Meryl Streep is an American theater and film actress, producer. Experts often call the Hollywood celebrity one of the greatest representatives of modern cinema and the only one who has not turned herself into a brand, but manages to be like everyone at once. In terms of the number of Oscar nominations, she has no equal yet. Streep’s filmography includes many films for which she received a pittance fee only because she became interested in the filming process itself.

Childhood and youth:

Mary Louise Streep was born in New Jersey on June 22, 1949. The celebrity’s ancestors included representatives of different nationalities – Swiss, Irish and Dutch blood flows in her veins.

Meryl spent her childhood in a family where art was loved and respected. This especially applies to the artist mother. The woman raised in her children – daughter Mary and sons Dan and Harry – a love of beauty. My father worked as a manager in a pharmaceutical company and was more concerned about the financial well-being of the family.

After receiving secondary education, the girl began to study the art of transformation – first in college, and then at the Yale Drama School. The artist actively participated in school and then student performances, for which she even took music lessons.

TheaterAfter graduating from university, Streep set off to conquer Broadway in 1975. In the first year alone, she played six roles in such productions as Trelawney of Wells, Henry V, and The Taming of the Shrew.

Critics recognized Streep’s talent with an Obie Award for her performance in the off-Broadway play Alice in the Palace and a Tony nomination for her role in Twenty-Seven Cars of Cotton. The artist also has roles in the musical Happy End and the play “The Seagull” by Tom Stoppard based on the play by Anton Chekhov – both works earned her a Drama Desk Award nomination.

Films Of Meryl Streep:

In 1977, the actress’s cinematic biography began with the melodrama “Julia”. The film received three Oscar awards. Streep’s role was greatly reduced after filming ended, so the performer did not like her own work, she even decided not to act in film again, but Robert De Niro noticed her on Broadway, offering her a more prominent role in the war drama “The Deer Hunter.”

Meryl took on this job reluctantly, agreeing only because John Cazale, her lover, who already knew about his fatal illness, played in the film. The successful film introduced the performer to a wider audience and earned her an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress.

The following year brought the artist a role in the series “Holocaust.” Streep did not hide the fact that she withdrew due to money problems, but this step paid off: she was awarded an Emmy for Best Actress.

Despite critical acclaim, the performer still preferred the stage to the silver screen. This was mainly because she was not allowed to improvise or influence the characters in any way, sometimes she did not even see the full script of the film – the directors only gave out pages with her lines.

This situation changed on the set of the drama Kramer vs. Kramer. Streep, who played the role of a woman in a divorce case, studied the Upper East Side neighborhood where the events took place and brought a lot to the role. With the permission of director Robert Benton, she wrote the heroine’s dialogue in two key scenes, despite the fact that this resulted in a conflict with her on-screen husband Dustin Hoffman. The film attracted attention and controversy among feminists. Of the five Oscars awarded to him, one statuette went to Meryl, however, she forgot it in the ladies’ room after the performance. The actress also won the Golden Globe, the National Society of Film Critics award and others.

The actress received another Oscar for the drama Sophie’s Choice, in which she amazed viewers and critics with her emotional dramatic performance and believable Polish accent. The film was based on the novel of the same name by William Styron, who initially saw the former model and actress Ursula Andress in his heroine, but Meryl managed to get this role – her performance was called powerful and heartbreaking.

Streep proved herself not only as a dramatic actress. Robert Zemeckis’s eccentric black comedy Death Becomes Her, starring Bruce Willis and Goldie Hawn, has justified its 55 million budget almost three times at the box office. This film is known as a pioneer in the use of computer effects, which was noted by the Oscars. But even more important was the social effect: Goldie and Meryl in the leading roles returned Hollywood’s interest in women over thirty. The images of the film’s heroines became drag show favorites, and the project gained a large number of fans, especially in the LGBT community.

Another box office leader of the 90s was the film “The Bridges of Madison County,” where the main roles went to Meryl and Clint Eastwood (he also became the producer and director of the project). The romantic drama based on the best-selling book of the same name by Robert James Waller grossed $182 million in theaters around the world, and Streep received another Oscar nomination, but lost the award to Susan Sarandon in The Walking Dead.

Another film in which Streep performed brilliantly is “The Devil Wears Prada,” about the behind-the-scenes life of the fashion world. Here the actress reincarnated as Miranda Priestly, the editor of a fashion magazine, whose prototype was Anna Wintour. And again she received positive reviews from critics, a new portion of audience love and huge box office receipts that exceeded $300 million. And Wintour came to the premiere dressed from head to toe in Prada.

The film adaptation of the musical Mamma Mia! demonstrated even greater financial success. Here Meryl played with Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgård. Worldwide box office receipts amounted to almost $610 million, the film received many awards and generally positive reviews. But there were some complaints – Pierce Brosnan earned the Golden Raspberry anti-award. Ten years later, the actress returned to her role in the sequel, Mamma Mia! – 2.

The former head of the British government initially refused to watch the biopic about Margaret Thatcher, The Iron Lady. But film critics appreciated Streep’s performance. The actress won her third Oscar. His transformation into another real-life personality, TV presenter Julia Child, in “Julie and Julia: A Recipe for Happiness” was awarded another Golden Globe.

In 2009, the film “Simple Difficulties” was released. Meryl’s partners in the film were Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. The romantic story received prestigious awards, but critics praised only the performance of the cast – the script was attacked. All this did not prevent the film from collecting $224.6 million at the box office.

The artist’s filmography also includes a joint project with Steven Spielberg – together with Tom Hanks she starred in the political thriller “The Secret File”. This role could have brought Meryl new Oscar and Golden Globe awards, but critics recognized Frances McDormand as the best.

The film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s novel Little Women, released in 2019, was quickly dubbed the most anticipated Hollywood project of the year by the media. Meryl Streep, Emma Stone, Timothée Chalamet and Saoirse Ronan had to compete with the 1994 version in convincing transformation. That film, nominated for three Oscars, starred Susan Sarandon, Winona Ryder, Kirsten Dunst and Christian Bale.

Another notable project of 2019 with the participation of Streep is the second season of the series Big Little Lies. Critics called the actress’s character “the embodiment of a passive-aggressive grandmother.” Meryl agreed to star in this project without even reading the script, which happened for the first time in her film career.

In 2022, the actress made her debut as an executive producer of the full-length American dramedy Sell/Buy/Date. The world premiere of the film took place at the South by Southwest festival, and then the entertainment company Cinedigm acquired the rights to distribute it.

Social activities:

In politics, the actress considers herself to be on the American left. In 2017, during her speech at the Golden Globes, the actress criticized Donald Trump and accused him of neglecting people with disabilities. Trump entered the controversy by calling Meryl “one of the most overrated actresses in Hollywood.”

The actress promotes gender equality and blamed the review website Rotten Tomatoes for the disproportionate opinion of male film critics. According to Meryl, this has a negative impact on the distribution of films directed by women. Also among Streep’s achievements is a law banning the use of pesticides in food.

Personal life:

Streep’s personal life is full of both happy and tragic moments. In her youth, while working in New York on the play “Measure for Measure,” the actress met her colleague John Cazale. In 1976, an engagement took place. But the happiness was short-lived: doctors soon discovered John had rapidly progressing cancer. The couple lived together for three years. Casale died in the arms of the woman he loved.

The actress found salvation from severe depression in work. A meeting with the sculptor Don Gummer helped her overcome the blow of fate – he became Meryl’s husband six months after Casale’s death.

In this marriage four children were born – a son and three daughters. The eldest Henry is known as a musician, and his daughters Mary, Grace and Louise are actresses. In 2019, the artist became a grandmother for the first time. Now she already has five grandchildren.

In 2023, information appeared in the media that Streep and Gummer had separated after 45 years of marriage; the last time the couple appeared in public together was at the 90th Academy Awards in 2018. Although the press noted that Meryl still wears a wedding ring, the couple have lived separately for more than five years.

The performer is against plastic surgery, but even at the age of 70, she looks attractive in photos from various events, largely due to her impeccable taste in clothes and beautiful hairstyles. She consistently finds herself on the list of Hollywood stars who know how to age gracefully. Streep herself admitted in an interview that in her youth she considered herself unattractive for an actress.

Meryl Streep now Now Streep continues her creative career. In 2023, she appeared in Scott Barnes’ mystical series Extrapolations. The actress’s colleagues on the set in this project were Tobey Maguire, Marion Cotillard, and Forest Whitaker. Despite a stellar cast, the Apple TV+ drama about climate change in the near future has received mixed reviews from critics and viewers.

In June, Meryl took part in a strike by members of the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA, and later they were joined by screenwriters who also demanded satisfactory conditions and wages.

AWARDS:

Already in 1978, Meryl became an Oscar nominee for best supporting actress for her role in the film “The Deer Hunt.” During filming, she began an affair with actor John Keisel. The couple was going to get married, but John was given a fatal diagnosis: lung cancer. Meryl was by John’s side the whole time until his death, missing the Emmy Awards. The death of her loved one was a heavy blow for her and made it difficult to concentrate on work and personal life. During her

film career, Meryl Streep was nominated for an Oscar 21 times (!) and received the coveted statuette three times.

She also has four Emmys, nine Golden Globes, two BAFTA Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards and a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters. Success in cinema was accompanied by success in the actress’s personal life – in September 1978, Meryl married sculptor Don Gummer. Their marriage is considered one of the strongest in Hollywood, and family life is an example of prosperity. The couple has four children, with whom Meryl tries to spend as much time as possible.

Thanks to perfectionism and painstaking work on her roles, Meryl showed herself as a versatile actress. She is not afraid to seem funny or ridiculous and tries herself in a variety of images. Suffice it to recall her roles in the films “Restless Heart” (1985), “Out of Africa” (1985) and “Thistle” (1987), “She-Devil” and “Death Becomes Her” (1992).

Filmography:

1977 – “Julia”
1978 — “Holocaust”
1979 — “Kramer vs. Kramer”
1981 – “The French Lieutenant’s Woman”
1982 — “Sophie’s Choice”
1983 — “Silkwood”
1984 — “Lovers”
1985 — “Restless Heart”
1985 — “Out of Africa”
1986 — “Jealousy”
1987 — “Thistle”
1989 — “Devil”
1992 — “Death Becomes Her”
1993 — “House of Spirits”
1994 — “Wild River”
1995 — “The Bridges of Madison County”
1996 — “Before and After”
1998 — “True Values”
1999 — “Music of the Heart”
2002 — “Adaptation”
2003 — “Angels in America”
2004 — “The Manchurian Candidate”
2006 — “The Devil Wears Prada”
2008 — “Mamma Mia!”
2009 — “Julie and Julia: Cooking a recipe for happiness”
2011 — “The Iron Lady”
2015 — “Dedicated”
2016 — “Diva”
2019 — “Laundry”
2019 — “Little Women”
2020 — “Graduation”
2020 — “Let them talk”
2021 — “Don’t look up”
2023 — “Extrapolations”

Interesting facts:

For her role in the musical drama “Music of the Heart” (1999), Meryl had to learn Johann Sebastian Bach’s violin concerto.
The actress donated her wardrobe from The Devil Wears Prada, the only exception being stylish glasses.