For nearly forty years, Meryl Streep has portrayed an astonishing array of characters in a career that has left audiences in awe from her work on the stage, to film and television. Meryl Streep was educated in the New Jersey public school system through high school, graduated with honors from Vassar College, and received her MFA with honors from Yale University in 1975. She began her professional life on the New York stage, where she quickly established her signature versatility and power as an actor. Within three years of graduation, she made her Broadway debut, won an Emmy (for HOLOCAUST) and received her first Oscar nomination (for THE DEER HUNTER). In 2010, in a record that is unsurpassed, she won her sixteenth Academy Award nomination for her role as Julia Child in Nora Ephron’s JULIE AND JULIA.
This is Meryl Streep’s 17th nomination and the 14th in this category. Her other leading role nominations were for The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981), Sophie’s Choice (1982), for which she won the Oscar, Silkwood (1983), Out of Africa (1985), Ironweed (1987), A Cry in the Dark (1988), Postcards from the Edge (1990), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), One True Thing (1998), Music of the Heart (1999), The Devil Wears Prada (2006), Doubt (2008) and Julie & Julia (2009). Her supporting role nominations were for The Deer Hunter (1978), Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), for which she took home the Oscar, and Adaptation (2002).
Meryl Streep has pursued her cause in fighting for the preservation of our environment through her work with Mothers and Others, a consumer advocacy group that she co-founded in 1989. M&O worked for ten years to promote sustainable agriculture, establish new pesticide regulations, and increase the availability of organic and sustainably grown local foods. She also lends her efforts to Equality Now, and Women for Women International, organizations that work to support and protect the human rights of women and girls worldwide, and Partners in Health. She is a member of the Vassar College Board of Trustees and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She has been accorded a Commandeur de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government, and a Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Film Institute, and this year, The National Medal of Arts by President Obama.
When asked about her Oscar win for best actress for her this year for her work in The Iron Lady, Ms. Streep stated, “Oh, I was thrilled! I thought I was so old and jaded, but they call your name, and you just go into sort of a… I don’t know, a white light. And it was just thrilling. It was like I was a kid again. I mean, it was I was a kid when I won this, like, thirty years ago. Two of the nominees were not even conceived!” Wisely considered the greatest actress of our time, Meryl Streep is a legend of our time. A further, current noble cause important to Meryl Streep today is an organization that is helping to empower women. We share that with you here in the link below, as she has requested.
The Hollywood Sentinel, (c) 2012, (c) A.M.P.A.S., All rights reserved.