Meryl Streep: A Short Bio

Meryl Streep: A Short Bio

Born on June 22, 1949 in Summit, New Jersey Meryl Streep is said to be the greatest living actress in Hollywood today by the film fraternity and the viewers. Her birth name was Mary Louise Streep. Her father Harry Streep was an executive at a pharmaceutical company and mother Mary was a commercial artist. Her parents were unique while his father loved playing piano her mother was good at singing and she loved singing. Thus Meryl and her two younger siblings grew up listening to music. As obvious Meryl also dreamt of becoming an opera singer one day and she started taking singing lessons at the age of twelve to fulfill her dream. Meryl was raised in suburban Bernardsville where she attended Bernardsville High School. She was a cheerleader, homecoming queen and also acted in many school productions in her school where she graduated in 1967. She majored in Drama and English at Vassar College. After she graduated from Vassar College in 1971 she took admission in Yale University School of Drama in New Haven, Connecticut where she also appeared in about thirty theater productions and graduated in 1975. She studied costume design and playwriting at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.

Streep's professional stage debut was in the play "The Playboy of Seville" in 1971. Streep went to New York to launch her Broadway career. Her Broadway career took off with "Trelawney of the Wells" in 1975. Her critically acclaimed performance in Tennessee Williams' "+27 Wagons Full of Cotton" was also nominated for Tony Award.  Streep forayed into television and made her debut with Robert Markowitz's "The Deadliest Season" in 1977. The same year she also made her silver screen debut in "Julia". The next year proved to be even better for Streep as she won an Emmy award for her role in "Holocaust" in 1978 and also got married to sculptor Don Gummer on September 15, 1978. She also starred with Robert De Niro in Michael Cimino's "The Deer Hunter" in 1978. Although she played a miniscule role in the movie, her energy and acting prowess fetched her first of many Oscar nominations she got.

Streep's next movie was "Manhattan" in 1979 in which she portrayed the role of a ruthless lesbian and ex-wife of Woody Allen. She also starred in "Southern Mistress" the same year. But one of the best breaks in her life came with the movie "Kramer vs. Kramer" in 1979 where her blistering interpretation of the scarred and torn Joanne Kramer won her the Best Supporting Actress Award in 1980. She won many other awards for portraying the same role. Streep continued rising to the top with variety of roles specially her double role in the movie "The French Lieutenant' Woman" in 1981and her stellar performance in the holocaust movie "Sophie's Choice" in 1982 for which she won an Oscar for Best Actress. Many of her notable movies also include "Silkwood" and "Out of Africa" in 1985 winning her Oscar nomination again for best actress. With her powerful roles in the movies she did, she raised the quality of work so much so that expectations also became tremendously high. One of the reasons why the actress was not able to sustain well in the 1990's, the other reason being the genre of the movies didn't suit her style any more.

Of recently Streep starred in "Adaptation" and "The Hours" in 2002, the former also earned her an Oscar nomination again. Streep also won an Emmy in 2004 for a mini-series "Angels in America". The actress continues to do quality work in movies and television programs even to this day and gives viewers opportunity to witness a true talent and perfection which is very rare these days.

The Golden Age of Hollywood

According to many experts and people the golden era of Hollywood was during 1930's and 1940's when the industry was thriving. But many experts agree that although 30's brought in the commercial success but the actual golden age from artistic point of view began in 1920s itself when it drew talent from all over the world. Before this period Hollywood was just like any other film making locations but it was after First World War that it created a niche for itself in the world. The obvious reason was the magnitude of damage the European countries suffered in the World War and subsequent economic hardships faced by them thus affecting the film industry. Before the advent of Hollywood as a top destination Germany was the most popular destination known for its artistic excellence. America benefited from the fact that it suffered relatively less casualties and loss of property compared to European Nations. 

The popular names during the Golden Era were Clark Cable, Bette Davis, Charlie Chaplin, Bing Crosby, Spencer Tracy, Bob Hope, Ingrid, Judy Garland, Bergman, James Cagney, Jennifer Jones, Ronald Reagan, Elizabeth Taylor and Cary Gran, the list is endless. These actors became the house hold names throughout the country in 1930's and 1940's. The film industry during this era was so wealthy and powerful that studios like Paramount, MGM, Universal, 20th Century Fox and RKO kept adding more buildings to their studios. More than 7,000 films were released by these studios during the period of 1930's and 1940's. More than 75 million people flocked to see at least one film in a week during the peak years of Hollywood. 

Also during this era the nation saw threats due to Second World War. When soon this threat turned into reality the presidents of these studios took this as an opportunity to make films that would bond countrymen together during these tough and dreadful years. They made many patriotic movies involving actors like Betty Grable and Van Johnson. These movies in a way also helped the war efforts. Apart from the movies there were numerous short films and documentaries made. 

Some of the famous movies of the golden era include Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress directed by William Wyler, Howard Hawks directed movies Sergeant York, To Have and Have Not. The commonality among all the movies of golden era was that almost all the movies ended on a happy note and patriotic ardor, which was liked by the people also. The movies made during the 1940's are referred to as "film noir" which in the literary context means "dark films". The movies were mostly pessimistic with tough male protagonist who was also a cynic and female protagonist would be attractive woman leading the males to a disastrous situation. Few examples of the Film Noir are Stranger on the Third Floor directed by Boris Ingster, High Sierra directed by Raoul Walsh, Shadow of a Doubt directed by Alfred Hitchcock and The Maltese Falcon directed by John Huston. 

The comedies were also popular during that era, the main feature of the comedies were duos forming during this period. Some of the famous duos of actors were Bob Hope and Bing Crosby famous for their movie Road to Singapore, Abbott and Costello, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, and Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. The movies that portrayed the lives of the westerns during the era were also popular with the people some of the examples being Fort Apache and She wore a Yellow Ribbon. But by the time these movies were released the downfall of the Hollywood has already begun due to the effects of the war, depression and arrival of television only to be not able to recover again.