Meryl Streep
Actor, three Academy Awards and a record 21 nominations
Born 1949
Photo: Ministry of culture, sports and Tourism- Lee Jeong-woo · CC BY-SA 4.0
«Acting is not about being someone different. It's finding the similarity in what is apparently different.»
Meryl Streep is the most nominated performer in the history of the Academy Awards, known for disappearing completely into accents and characters across five decades. She has played a Danish baroness, a British prime minister, a Polish Holocaust survivor and a fashion editor, and been convincing in all of them.
Key achievements
- Three Academy Awards and a record number of nominations
- Played about forty roles in three years at Yale
Universities
New Haven, Connecticut
Took a master of fine arts at the Yale School of Drama in 1975, playing around forty roles in three years.
Facts
- The workload at Yale Drama was so heavy that she developed an ulcer and considered quitting for law school.
- She learned to speak Polish and German for Sophie's Choice, and her accent was praised by native speakers of both.
- She was told early in her career that she was not pretty enough for a leading role in King Kong; the producer's comment was reported in Italian and she understood it.
Photographs
Photographs come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences; the author and licence are shown on each image.