Actors - Meryl Streep

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	Actors - Meryl Streep

Meryl Streep (born Mary Louise Streep June 22, 1949) is an Oscar-winning American actress who has received numerous accolades for her work in movies and television and who, from the 1980s to the present day, has been regarded as one of the best in her field. She is the most nominated actor in the history of American motion picture industry with 13 Academy Award nominations.

Early life and career

Streep was born Mary Louise Streep in Summit, New Jersey, USA. Her father, Harry Streep Jr., was a pharmaceutical executive of Dutch descent; her mother, Mary, was a commercial artist of Irish, Swiss, and English descent. The family's original surname, Messerschnitz, was changed to Streep in the Netherlands by her Sephardic Jewish ancestors, although Streep's Jewish ancestry is distant and her father was raised an Episcopalian.

In September 1978 Meryl married sculptor Don Gummer and they are parents to four children: Henry, Mamie (Mary), Grace and Louisa. Her son Henry graduated Dartmouth College (also alma mater to Streep, for a year as a transfer student) and he attended NYU's Graduate Acting Program to earn his MFA. He is currently front man for New York indie band BRAVO SILVA. Her daughter Mamie has recently received critical acclaim for her off Broadway debut in Mr. Marmalade. Grace is currently an art and religion major in the class of 2008 at Vassar College. Streep's integrity in keeping her personal life personal is well known within the industry. Streep refers to herself as "an actress who goes home to her family when I'm finished working".

Meryl was raised in the small village of Bernardsville, New Jersey, majoring in drama at Vassar College and earning a Master of Fine Arts from the Yale School of Drama. She appeared in her first films, Julia
and The Deer Hunter
, in 1977 and 1978, the latter of which would earn her her first Academy Award nomination, for Best Supporting Actress. Streep has been nominated a total of 13 times—10 for Best Actress and 3 for Best Supporting Actress—making her the most-nominated actor of all time, surpassing Katharine Hepburn. She won Academy Awards for her roles in Kramer vs. Kramer
(Best Supporting Actress, 1979), and Sophie's Choice
(Best Actress, 1982).

Later career and recent work

Streep's career continued to climb in the 1980s, appearing in Woody Allen's Manhattan, The French Lieutenant's Woman
, Silkwood
, Out of Africa
, Ironweed
, Postcards from the Edge
, and playing Lindy Chamberlain in A Cry in the Dark
, the movie telling of one of the greatest Australian mysteries ever—the disappearance of Chamberlain's baby daughter Azaria at Uluru, and her claims (later substantiated in court) that a dingo had taken the child. Meryl's cry in the movie "That Dingo Ate My Baby" has been parodied in many comedy skits, the most famous being Seinfeld where Elaine says "Maybe the dingo ate your baby." MP3s with the phrase "The Dingo Took My Baby" greet people on many websites.

From 1984 to 1990, Streep won six People's Choice Awards for Favorite Motion Picture Actress and, in 1990, was named World-Favorite. Having been named on so many greatest movie star lists, Streep also defied expectations by her happy home life—marriage to sculptor Don Gummer, with four children—and her truthful approach toward the industry and her own presence within it. As she would say when collecting her Emmy award for Angels in America, "There are some days when even I think I'm overrated . . . but not today."

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Meryl Streep ]

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Actors - Meryl Streep

Early life and career

Later career and recent work

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