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Meryl
Streep
| Full
NAME |
Mary
Louise Streep |
 |
| BORN |
22
June 1949 (Summit, NJ, USA) |
| ASSOCIATION |
Actress |
| NATIONALITY |
American |
|
HEIGHT |
168 cm |
| REVIEWED
ENTRIES |
32
(29) |
| MAX.
RATING |
(The Bridges of Madison
County) |
| MIN.
RATING |
|
| AVERAGE
RATING |
4.02 |
FILMOGRAPHY
(REVIEWED ENTRIES ONLY)
BIO
 The
graceful and down-to-earth Meryl Streep has, ever since the late 1970s,
been a powerful advocate for the regular woman in an increasingly glamour-focused and superficial Hollywood. She has
brought substance, credibility, and – not least – soul to both the industry and
a wide range of characters.
Born Mary Louise Streep,
she grew up on the American East Coast and set her sights on an
acting career from an early age. She studied theatre at Vassar, Dartmouth, and
Yale before making a name for herself on the New York stage in the early
1970s.
Following a few television productions in the mid-70s, she landed a
small
role in the feature film Julia, which marked the start of a
brilliant film career.
After meeting
John
Cazale – one of
the most revered character actors of the 1970s – Streep was cast in
Michael Cimino's magnum opus The Deer
Hunter, for
which she received both Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. Soon
after the film's release, however, Cazale died of cancer – a devastating
loss for the young Streep. She later met her future husband, Don
Gummer, and by 1979 she had established herself as one of the hottest
new names in Hollywood, starring in films such as
Manhattan and
Kramer vs. Kramer,
the latter earning her her first Academy Award.
Throughout the 1980s,
Streep consolidated her status as one of the most distinguished film actresses
in cinema history, consistently choosing strong roles and delivering
captivating performances. After a minor lull in the early 1990s, she
returned to top form with
Clint Eastwood's
The Bridges of Madison
County, and
she has maintained a remarkably high level ever since. Early in her career,
her mature screen presence led to roles beyond her actual age, but she has aged
with rare grace, allowing her to spend several decades portraying middle-aged
women. When she
was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Spike Jonze's Adaptation.
in 2003, she became the most Oscar-nominated performer – male or female
– in history.
WHAT
DO THE CRITICS SAY?
 The French Lieutenant's Woman
- "Meryl Streep gives an immaculate, technically accomplished performance as Sarah
Woodruff (...)" - Pauline Kael
- "Streep was showered with praise for her remarkable double performance, and she deserved it. She is offhandedly contemporary one moment, and then gloriously, theatrically Victorian the next."
- Roger Ebert
Sophie's Choice
- "Meryl Streep is a wonder as Sophie. She does not quite look or sound or feel like the Meryl Streep we have seen before in THE DEER HUNTER or MANHATTAN or THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN. There is something juicier about her this time; she is merrier and sexier, more playful and cheerful in the scenes before she begins to tell Stingo the truth about her past. Streep plays the Brooklyn scenes with an enchanting Polish-American accent (she has the first accent I've ever wanted to hug), and she plays the flashbacks in subtitled German and Polish. There is hardly an emotion that Streep doesn't touch in this movie, and yet we're never aware of her straining. This is one of the most astonishing and yet one of the most unaffected and natural performances I can imagine."
- Roger Ebert
Silkwood
- "Streep is outstanding as real-life Karen Silkwood"
- Leonard Maltin
- "Silkwood is played by Meryl Streep, in another of her great performances, and there's a tiny detail in the first moments of the movie that reveals how completely Streep has thought through the role. Silkwood walks into the factory, punches her time card, automatically looks at her own wristwatch, and then shakes her wrist: It's a self-winding watch, I guess. That little shake of the wrist is an actor's choice. There are a lot of them in this movie, all almost as invisible as the first one; little by little, Streep and her coactors build characters so convincing that we become witnesses instead of merely viewers."
- Roger Ebert
Plenty
- "The movie stars Meryl Streep as Susan and it is a performance of great subtlety; it is hard to play an unbalanced, neurotic, self-destructive woman, and do it with such gentleness and charm"
- Roger Ebert
Ironweed
- "The salvation is Nicholson and Streep, whose rich performances are a privilege to watch."
- Leonard Maltin.
- "The only moments of reprieve from all the sombre artistry come when Streep sings "He's Me Pal" in the all-out, sentimental-Irish manner of a balladeer of a decade or two earlier; it's a spectacular re-creation of the old technique for "selling a song."
- Pauline Kael
- "This may be Streep's finest hour. Her
complete descend into the part is riveting" - Mick Martin &
Marsha Porter
The Bridges of Madison County
- "Streep and Eastwood weave a spell, and it is based on that particular knowledge of love and self that comes with middle age."
QUOTES
"You can't get spoiled if you do
your own ironing."
On whether Madonna should play Eva Peron in the
film version of Evita instead of her:
"I can sing better than she can. If Madonna gets it, I'll rip
her throat out!"
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