Meryl Streep

Meryl Streep, (1949- ), American motion-picture actor and two-time Academy Award winner. She was born Mary Louise Streep in Summit, New Jersey. Streep was educated at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, and the Yale School of Drama in New Haven, Connecticut. She played a number of roles in New York theater from 1975 to 1979 and appeared in several television dramas from 1977 to 1978. After a supporting role in the film Julia (1977), Streep appeared in leading parts in The Deer Hunter (1978), Manhattan (1979), Kramer vs. Kramer (1979; Academy Award, best supporting actress), The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981), Sophie’s Choice (1982; Academy Award, best actress), Silkwood (1983), Out of Africa (1985), Heartburn (1986), Ironweed (1987), A Cry in the Dark (1988), She-Devil (1989), Postcards from the Edge (1990), Defending Your Life (1991), Death Becomes Her (1992), The House of the Spirits (1994), The River Wild (1994), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), and Marvin’s Room (1996). Streep is an unusually versatile actor, savoring roles as widely divergent as the alcoholic vagrant in Ironweed and the mysterious Victorian lady in The French Lieutenant’s Woman. She is equally at home in comedic and dramatic roles.^[1]