Meryl Streep

Background

Mary Louise Streep, or Meryl Streep, was born in Summit, New Jersey, U.S., on June 22, 1949. Her younger brothers, Harry William and Dana David, are also actors. Her mother, Mary Wilkinson Streep, was a renowned commercial artist and art editor, while her father, Harry William Streep Jr., was a pharmaceutical executive. She attended Bernards High School in Bernardsville, New Jersey, where she was a cheerleader and won homecoming queen in her senior year. Streep was initially inclined toward opera but became interested in acting in college. She enrolled in the Yale School of Drama after finishing her graduation. She was nominated for her first Oscar Award for her role in “The Deer Hunter.” However, it was her heart-wrenching portrayal of an inmate mother in a Nazi death camp in “Kramer vs. Kramer” (1979), that won her an Academy Award for ‘Best Supporting Actress.’

She further demonstrated her range for rendering complex emotional states and seamless characterization in movies such as “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” (1981), “Silkwood” (1983), and “Out of Africa” (1985). She won ‘The Best Actress’ award at the Cannes Film Festival and the New York Film Critics Circle for her moving performance as Lindy Chamberlain in “A Cry in the Dark” (1988), in which she played a mother accused of killing her infant daughter.

Apart from acting, Streep has been involved in narrating audiobooks. She has narrated various books, including the children’s books, “Brae Irene,” “Spinky Sulks,” and “The One and Only Shrek.” She is also the spokesperson for the National Women’s History Museum and has also established two scholarships for students at the University of Massachusetts. She was in a three-year relationship with actor John Cazale, who died of lung ailments in March 1978. She then married sculptor Don Gummer; they have four children.