Born June 22, 1949 in Summit, NJ, Streep’s interest in acting began while she attended Bernards High School, prior to which she had taken operatic voice lessons. Beginning with Daisy Mae in Lil’ Abner, Streep appeared in several school productions, but also found time to be a good student, a cheerleader, and the Homecoming Queen. Upon graduation, she studied drama at Vassar, Dartmouth, and Yale, where she appeared in between 30 and 40 productions with the Yale Repertory Theater.
Like her longtime acting cohort Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep is known for her ability to disappear inside her characters, transforming herself physically to meet the demands of her roles. A luminous blonde with nearly translucent pale skin, intelligent blue eyes, and a lovely facial bone structure, Streep possesses a fragile, fleeting beauty that allows her to be as earthy and plain as she can be glamorous and radiant.
With her education finished, Streep headed for the New York stage where she launched her career off-Broadway. She then spent time on Broadway in shows such as Tennessee Williams’ 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, for which she was Tony nominated, before making her television debut in Robert Markowitz’s The Deadliest Season (1977). That year she also made her feature film bow in Fred Zinnmann’s Julia (1977), playing Anna Marie opposite heavyweights Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, and Hal Holbrook. The following year, Streep earned an Emmy for her performance in Marvin J. Chomsky’s miniseries Holocaust. She first worked with DeNiro in Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter (1978). Though her role was small, she played it with an energetic sensitivity that earned her the first of many Oscar nominations. She was next seen as Woody Allen’s ruthless lesbian ex-wife in his classic comedy Manhattan (1979), and became better known following her turn as the conflicted Joanna Kramer opposite Dustin Hoffman in the tear-jerking divorce saga Kramer Vs. Kramer (1979).