Meryl Streep: Virtuoso performer

Meryl Streep at the Oscars in 1983, where she won for "Sophie's Choice".

Source: https://www.imdb.com/fr-ca/title/tt0353135/mediaviewer/rm140810241/

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Meryl Streep is still going strong, appearing last week to help present the Grammy for record of the year, joking about how it really is a single and not a record.

She is the queen of the Oscars, with a record 21 nominations and three wins.

Much of that success started in the 1980s.

The years before
Meryl Streep’s career and run of success actually began in the 1970s. On television she appeared in a TV movie and a couple episodes of “Great Performances”, before landing a major role in the four-part miniseries “Holocaust”. It raised a lot of awareness of that dark, dark chapter of 20th Century history. The role won Streep an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Television Movie.

Virtually at the same time, she started making her mark in major motion pictures. Her first role was in ”Julia” in 1977, a story about a woman who fought against the Nazis prior to the Second World War.

A year later, in 1978, she received her first Oscar nomination, this one for Best Supporting Actress for “The Deer Hunter”, a story about three Vietnam War veterans.

The next year, 1979, was a very busy one for Streep with three movies, including a role that won Streep her first Oscar. It started with the Woody Allen movie “Manhattan”, followed by “The Seduction of Joe Tynan” where Streep appeared opposite Alan Alda, taking a break from his work as “Hawkeye” Pierce on “M*A*S*H”.

She wrapped up the year, and the decade, winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for “Kramer vs. Kramer”. She plays opposite Dustin Hoffman as parents getting a divorce, the effect it has on their son, and how they get along after the divorce. Hoffman also won an Oscar, his for Best Actor.

As the 1980s dawned, Meryl Streep had earned two Oscar nominations in the previous three years, winning once.

The future looked bright.

Dawn of the decade
The 1980s was a productive and prolific period for Meryl Streep. It opened with “The French Lieutenant’s Woman”, a British romance drama that earned Streep an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.

She started 1982 with a thriller called “Still of the Night” opposite Roy Scheider.

That same year, Streep had another epic performance in “Sophie’s Choice”, where she played a Polish immigrant who moves to America harbouring a dark secret. Her performance earned her the Oscar for Best Actress.

The hits just kept on coming in 1983. This time Streep played labour activist and whistle blower Karen Silkwood opposite Cher and Kurt Russell in “Silkwood”. Streep was again nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress.

In 1984, Streep appeared with Robert DeNiro in the romantic drama “Falling in Love”. I recall the movie billed as starring two Academy Award winners for Best Actor and Actress. That didn’t help because I recall the movie being panned and not doing well at the box office.

Streep began 1985 with “Plenty”, a drama about a woman who fought with the French Resistance in the Second World War and what happened after.

Later that year, she starred opposite Robert Redford in “Out of Africa”, an adventure romance set in Africa, that garnered Streep another Oscar nomination for Best Actress.

In 1986, Streep starred opposite Jack Nicolson in “Heartburn”, an account of the marriage between writer Nora Ephron and journalist Carl Bernstein. It was written by Ephron based on her novel also called “Heartburn”.

The next year, 1987, Streep again starred opposite Nicholson, this time in “Ironweed”. They play a homeless couple in the years following the Great Depression. He is an alcoholic while she is terminally ill. The role earned Streep another Oscar nomination for Best Actress.

Streep closed out the decade appearing in “A Cry in the Dark” in 1988 an Australian film, based on a true story, about a couple wrongfully convicted of killing their nine-week-old baby. She also appeared in “She-Devil” in 1989, about woman who exacts revenge on her husband after he leaves her for another woman.

It was a productive, successful decade for Meryl Streep.

She would continue to build on that success.

The years after
She continued to act and turn in award-worthy performance starting with “Postcards from the Edge” in 1990, where she was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress.

There was “Defending Your Life” in 1991; “Death Becomes Her” in 1992; “The House of the Spirits” in 1993; “The River Wild” in 1994; and the “The Bridges of Madison County” in 1995, for which she was nominated for another Oscar for Best Actress.

“Before and After” came in 1996; then “One True Thing” in 1998 and “Music of the Heart“ in 1999, which both earned her Oscar nominations.

She appeared in “A.I. Artificial Intelligence” in 2001; was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 2002 for “Adaptation”; appeared in “The Hours” in 2002; “The Manchurian Candidate” and “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Incidents” both in 2004; “Prime” in 2005; “A Prairie Home Companion” in 2006; and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in 2006 as well for “The Devil Wears Prada”.

She was in “Dark Matter”; “Evening”; “Rendition”; and “Lions for Lambs” all in 2007; then in 2008 was in “Mamma Mia!”

Later in 2008 Streep was in “Doubt”, which earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress; and earned another nomination after her role in “Julie & Julia” in 2009. She also appeared in “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and “It’s Complicated” in 2009; and “Higglety Pigglety Pop! Or There Must be More to Life” in 2010.

In 2011, Streep won her third Oscar, and second Best Actress Oscar for her role as Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady”.

She was also nominated for the Oscar for Best Actress in “August: Osage County”, released in 2013; Best Supporting Actress for “Into the Woods”, released in 2014; and Best Actress for “Florence Foster Jenkins” released in 2016, and “The Post”, released in 2017.

Streep has also appeared in dozens of other movies, and continues acting to this day.

Parting thoughts
There is something odd. Meryl Streep is one of the most decorated actors of the past 45 years, and her movies are everywhere.

Yet, I have not seen one of her movies from the 1980s, and maybe three or four overall with “Postcards from the Edge”, “Defending Your Life”, and “The Bridges of Madison County”.

It is nothing intentional, but many of them were never replayed in reruns, or appeared on television often, like so many other movies.

I really liked what I have seen, but if Meryl Streep is one of the best actors of the last 45 years – I’ll have to take your word for it.

I guess I’ll have to change that.