The American actress Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep, b. Summit, N.J., June 22,
1949, is a versatile performer who has won acclaim in stage, film, and
television productions. Streep earned a master of fine arts at Yale
University, where she appeared at the Yale Repertory Theatre, and since
1975 has appeared in New York Shakespeare Festival productions. Other
stage roles include a highly acclaimed performance on Broadway in the
Tennessee Williams play 27 Wagons Full of Cotton (1976). Among her
television credits is the miniseries "Holocaust" (1978), for which she won
an Emmy Award. Streep made her film debut in Julia (1977) and appeared
next in the award-winning movie The Deer Hunter (1978), Manhattan (1979),
The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981),
and Still of the Night (1982). She has won two Academy Awards, one as best
supporting actress for her performance in Kramer vs. Kramer (1980) and
another as best actress for her portrayal of the tragic heroine in Sophie's
Choice (1982), based on the William Styron novel. Streep played the title
role in Silkwood (1983), which was based on the true story of Karen
Silkwood whose attempted expose' of the dangers of a plutonium plant was
ended by her mysterious death. In 1984 she co-starred with Robert De Niro
in Falling In Love, followed by two films in 1985; Plenty and Out of
Africa, a film based on the memoirs of Danish writer Karen Blixen, who
assumed the pen name Isak Dinesen.