Meryl Streep arrives for the 84th Academy Awards held at the formerly-known-as Kodak Theater in Hollywood, CA February 26, 2012. Streep was a Best Actress nominee this year for Phyllida Lloyd’s The Iron Lady, in which she plays former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. That was her seventeenth Oscar nod — and her first win since Sophie’s Choice in early 1983. (Heather Ikei / ©A.M.P.A.S.)
Meryl Streep’s competitors for the Best Actress Oscar were Viola Davis for Tate Taylor’s The Help, Michelle Williams (as Marilyn Monroe) for Simon Curtis‘ My Week with Marilyn, Rooney Mara for David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and Glenn Close for Rodrigo García’s Albert Nobbs.
Streep has been nominated for a record 17 Academy Awards. Her previous nominations include those for Karel Reisz’s The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981), with Jeremy Irons; Mike Nichols‘ Silkwood (1983), with Kurt Russell and Cher; Hector Babenco’s Ironweed (1987), with Jack Nicholson; Nichols’ Postcards from the Edge (1990), in which she plays a fictionalized version of Star Wars‘ Carrie Fisher, with Shirley MacLaine as a fictionalized version of Singin’ in the Rain’s Debbie Reynolds; and, as a fictionalized version of Vogue’s Anna Wintour, David Frankel’s The Devil Wears Prada, opposite Anne Hathaway as a fictionalized version of Wintour’s former assistant Lauren Weisberger.
Streep’s previous two Oscars were as Best Supporting Actress for Robert Benton’s Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), opposite Dustin Hoffman and Justin Henry, and as Best Actress for Alan J. Pakula’s Sophie’s Choice (1982), opposite Kevin Kline and Peter MacNicol.
Kudos, Ms Streep, for this Oscar! You do not ACT, you BECOME. It has been thriiling to watch your work over the years but this role was phenominal, unbelieveable artistry. Thank you for what you have given to us. You enrich the quality of life and the arts. ……Emma, a discerning gram from Maine.