Meryl Streep

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Meryl Streep : biography

22 June 1949 –

Meryl Streep’s personal life was happy, but it can’t be said about her characters’ life, whose images she represented in cinema. In a film “Manhattan”, appeared in 1979, Meryl played a woman, who broke up with her husband because of a friend. In this year another film about an unsuccessful marriage appeared – “Kramer vs Kramer”, in which Joanna, Meryl’s character, left her husband and a little son. The actress got her first “Oscar” for this role and her first “Golden Globe”, not very big honorarium and recollections about the fact that she was always quarreling with her partner on the shooting area Dustin Hoffmann. But, to her own surprise, she can’t tell the reasons of these quarrels…

The next film with Meryl Streep – “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” – became a bright event in the cinema’s world in 1981. In this work of Karel Reisz the actress played two roles – Anna and Sarah, managed to represent two absolutely opposite women. Meryl was also nominated for “Oscar” and got “Golden Globe”, but there were other even more outstanding roles, waiting her in future. The actress had to persuade a director Alan J.Pakula, who started to make a film “Sophie’s Choice”, that she did for this role better than others. Fortunately, Pakula agreed with her, and for this film about a tragedy of a woman, who got in a concentration camp with her children, Meryl Streep got the second “Oscar” in 1982 and the third statuette of “Golden Globe”.

Of course, not all roles of Meryl Streep were tragic. In 1984 she played with Robert De Niro in a touching Christmas film “Falling in Love”. A famous film “Out of Africa” of Sydney Pollack, appeared in 1985, was also devoted to great love. And a year later the actress again created an image of a woman, unsuccessful in marriage – in a film “Heartburn”. Her partner in this film was Jack Nicholson, who called Meryl “an ideal actress”. Meryl played with Nicholson in a film “Ironweed” (1987), and was also nominated for “Oscar”. A year later Mery Streep got an award on the cinema festival in Cannes for a main role on Fred Schepisi’s film “A Cry in the Dark”.

Meryl Streep’s desire to play different types was realized in three next films. In 1990 a film “Postcards from the Edge” appeared – Meryl managed to combine dramatic effect and slight irony in the image of Suzanne Vale. Though, this time another actress got “Oscar”. With great pleasure Meryl Streep played in a film “Death Becomes Her” – a fantastic comedy of Robert Zemeckis. The actress’ partners in this film about the elixir of immortality were Bruce Willis and Goldie Hawn. And in a film “The House of the Spirits” of 1993 she got a dramatic role of Clara – with Antonio Banderas, Jeremy Irons and Winona Ryder. Meryl brilliantly played a serious family saga in revolutionary Chile.

A film “The Bridges of Madison County”, made on the novel of Robert Woller, got an acknowledgement of the American cinema academy in 1995. Clint Eastwood invited Meryl to this film, because he considers her to be the greatest actress in the world. But Meryl Streep’s nomination for “Oscar” didn’t end with a victory this time. And next roles were the same – in a dramatic film “One True Thing”, made in 1998 by Carl Franklin, and in a film “Music of the heart” of 1999. Incidentally, in order to play in “Music of the Heart”, in which Meryl played a poor music teacher, she had to learn to play the violin.

In 2001 Meryl Streep had a short break between shootings, and to her great pleasure, returned in “Delacorte”, a New York theatre, which she had left twenty years ago. A director Mike Nichols made Chekhov’s “Seagull”, and Meryl played Irina Arkadina there. The press said about this role, that the actress painted “a portrait of tender understanding and comic cruelty”. A year later Meryl Streep got her forth “Golden Globe” – for a role of a journalist in a film “Adaptation” of Spike Jonze. According to the words of the actress, “Adaptation” script was one of the most interesting in her work, and critics said that Meryl had never played so openly and sensually. A drama “The Hours”, made by Steven Daldry, was also noticeable – the film got huge amount of awards, and Meryl got “The Silver Bear” on the cinema festival in Berlin in 2003, sharing this award with her partners Julia Moor and Nicole Kidman.