Actress. Born Mary Louise Streep, on June 22, 1949, in Summit, New Jersey, to a pharmaceutical-company executive and a commercial artist. She grew up in the affluent New Jersey towns of Bernardsville and Basking Ridge. Her first “acting” experience came when, finding herself an awkward teenager, Meryl dyed her hair blonde, traded her glasses for contacts, and overnight became a cheerleader and her high school homecoming queen. She began acting in plays at Bernardsville High School and continued at the all-female Vassar College. She then won a three-year scholarship to the Yale School of Drama, from which she graduated in 1975. Streep moved to New York City in 1975 and soon began working with Joseph Papp’s Public Theatre. Her stunning performance in Arthur Miller’s A Memory of Two Mondays earned her a Tony Award Nomination in 1976. Moving quickly into Hollywood’s open arms, Streep made her film debut in 1977’s Julia, playing a small but moving role alongside Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave. Her role in 1978’s horrifying Vietnam film, The Deer Hunter, playing the wife of an American soldier, established her as one of the most promising young actresses of her generation. The role brought her an Oscar nomination (the first of 11 nominations in her career). Although Streep seemed to live a dreamlife of brilliant successes, she was simultaneously tending to her terminally ill fiancé, John Cazale (of The Godfather and The Deer Hunter), during the last nine months of his life. He died of bone cancer in March of 1978. During this difficult time, Streep worked in the NBC series, Holocaust--an emotionally draining saga for which she won an Emmy award. In 1979, she portrayed a woman who leaves her husband and son in Kramer vs. Kramer. Streep rewrote a few of her character’s lines to strengthen the unsympathetic role and won her first Oscar. Streep would continue to go to great lengths to identify with her characters; she would eventually learn to navigate rapids, play the violin, and perform traditional Irish dance in order to deepen her understanding of her characters’ desires and passions. Her uncanny knack for the linguistic nuances of a role further strengthened her portrayals. The wrenching Holocaust story, Sophie’s Choice, based on a 1979 novel by William Styron, brought Streep to another level of fame, recognition, and respect in 1982.