Through The Years With Meryl Streep

Meryl Streep is a real icon! Check out this gallery to see her amazing movies and career in pictures.

Mary Louise Streep was born on June 22, 1949 in Summit, New Jersey. During her younger years, Meryl was often seen singing and acting and home movies which is often the case with most actors. Streep only first began acting during her time in Vassar College where she was highly regarded for memorizing lines and accents at an alarming rate. Later on in her academic career, she ended up attending the Yale School of Drama where she received her MFA in 1975.

Her first, breakthrough role was in The Deer Hunter (1978) where she played a "vague and stocky" girlfriend. Her success in this motion picture brought her to the masses and was her first real role in a Hollywood film. Ultimately, Streep won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her part.

Her next big role was in 'The Seduction of Joe Tynan' alongside acting legend Alan Alda. She described the part to have come quite natural to her, as if she were on "auto pilot". What followed was something that the young actress never expected...

Meryl Streep landed the part in 'Kramer vs. Kramer' alongside Dustin Hoffman. She was supposed to play the role of a woman who is going through trial after abandoning her husband and child. At first, Streep wasn't all to enthusiastic about the role due to the fact that she thought her character was a bit "too evil". After the script's revision, her character sprang to life and shortly afterwards, Meryl was awarded both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress. Fun Fact: Meryl accidentally left her newly claimed Oscar at the award ceremony restroom back in 1980!

In 'The French Lieutenant's Woman,' Meryl Streep was given her first leading role which, of course, she did wonderfully well! After the movie was released, A New York magazine commented saying that Meryl was virtually an acting chameleon, adapting to any role she was given. She was given a BAFTA Award for Best Leading Actress in 1981.

'Sophie's Choice' was one of Meryl's most memorable roles of her career! She played a Holocaust survivor of Polish decent who is caught in a love triangle between two promising men. She described the production of the film to scenes to be quite exhausting and the scenes quite emotionally challenging. The most famous scene in the film where "Sophie" is ordered to choose which of her two children would be gassed, was filmed in one take due to Meryl's emotional struggles with the scene. She was awarded an Oscar for Best Actress for her role.

Following the World War II schematic, she ended up starring in British drama 'Plenty' (1985) where she played a neurotic and self-destructive woman with a charming and controlled outward appearance. Throughout the film's production, Streep was able to portray the character almost perfectly whilst personalizing the character of "Susan Traherne" almost completely! This is definitely one of her more ambitious and feminist roles!

Not every roles she's landed has been a hit! In 'The House of Spirits,' Meryl was given the oppourtunity to star alongside great actors like Wionna Ryder, Glenn Close and Jeremy Irons. Critics were quick to denounce the film and 'The New Yorker' claimed that these were some of the worst performances the actors had yet delivered. Of course, this didn't discourage Streep...

Her most recent, highly successful role was in 'The Iron Lady,' a biographical film about ex Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Even though most critics were more than satisfied with her performance, Thatcher's family wasn't quite as amused with the role stating that she was portrayed as biased and inaccurate. Luckily for Meryl, she won a three major awards for this masterpiece: a BAFTA, a Golden Globe and an Oscar, of course. This time she remembered to take the Oscar home with her...