Which film roles did Meryl Streep win her Oscars for?
When the nominees for ‘Best Actress’ are announced before the Oscars, it must feel pretty intimidating to look down at the list and see your name next to Meryl Streep’s. The actor has been nominated for acting Academy Awards more times than anybody else, with a staggering 21 nominations in total.
Streep is tied on three wins with Frances McDormand and Ingrid Bergman, while the fourth statuette that would put her level with all-time record-holder Katharine Hepburn still alludes her. Perhaps two-time winner Emma Stone stands a chance of drawing level with Streep in the coming years too. But that wouldn’t detract from her staggering achievement, something which only McDormand has equalled since the Golden Age of Hollywood stardom to this point.
The three Academy awards won by Streep stretched across a span of 32 years, although she initially went on a run of four nominations and two wins in five years at the beginning of her film career. It was her partner at the time John Cazale and their friend Robert De Niro who helped get her the part for the movie that earned her the first nomination she received. But the plaudits she garnered for her performance as Linda in The Deer Hunter were all of her own making, and set her up for the glittering career she’d go on to enjoy.
The project was her very first lead role in Hollywood that would result in her first Oscar triumph. Streep was 29 years old when she was cast in the role, after it had been turned down by Jane Fonda, Faye Dunaway, Ali McGraw and Kate Jackson. Yet she looked every bit the first and only choice to play struggling mother Joanna Kramer in the divorce drama Kramer vs. Kramer, opposite Dustin Hoffman.
And what about the other two wins?
Just three years after her first Academy award, Streep won again for the harrowing Holocaust survivor’s story Sophie’s Choice. While the story wasn’t based on historical fact, instead using William Styron’s controversial novel of the same name as its source material, the authenticity of Streep’s performance made the narrative feel painfully real.
Her third Oscar-winning movie did have a biographical basis, however. Phyllida Lloyd’s 2011 Margaret Thatcher biopic The Iron Lady saw Streep play the longest-serving post-war British prime minister with remarkable accuracy. Still, her characterisation of Thatcher suffered from a relatively superficial script which those behind the camera failed to elevate beyond Streep’s own individual efforts. Arguably Gillian Anderson’s portrayal of Thatcher in the more recent Netflix series The Crown was more deserving of the praise it received.
Nevertheless, these are just three of the dozen performances for which Meryl Streep could easily have won an Academy award. It’s often the case that the most deserving work goes unnoticed, while other less praiseworthy feats reap the rewards. Overall, Streep’s three Oscars are a fitting reflection of the many hours of outstanding acting she’s delivered to the big screen.
