Meryl Streep

An actress so beloved by The Academy, they might as well remodel the trophy in her image. Meryl Streep has received more Oscar nominations in the acting categories that any other performer in history, with a staggering total of 21 nominations between 1979 and 2018.

After a few years cutting her teeth as a New York stage actress, and an infamous failed audition for the 1976 remake of King Kong, Streep’s first big screen appearance came in the 1977 drama Julia. She scored her first Oscar nomination two years later for her supporting role as Robert DeNiro’s girlfriend in The Deer Hunter.

Her first win also came in the Supporting category, playing a troubled mother in the 1979 divorce drama Kramer vs Kramer. After that victory, a challenging double role in The French Lieutenant’s Woman saw her promoted to Leading Actress for her third nomination, and a second Oscar win followed in 1983 for her staggering turn as a holocaust survivor in Sophie’s Choice, still considered by many to be the greatest performance of her career.

After that, the nominations racked up through the 1980s for classy prestige pictures such as Silkwood, Out of Africa, Ironweed and A Cry In The Dark. Her roles took a lighter turn in the 1990s, with her first nomination for a broadly comedic performance coming in 1991 for playing a lightly fictionalised version of her good friend Carrie Fisher in Postcards From the Edge. Her iconic turn in the 1992 comedy Death Becomes Her was, criminally, not Oscar nominated.

Her next nomination came in 1996 for The Bridges of Madison County, a massive box office hit in which she was directed by co-star Clint Eastwood. She increased her tally further with back-to-back noms in 1999 and 2000 for One True Thing and Music Of The Heart, though neither are considered to be among her most memorable roles.

In 2003, she was back in the Supporting category for the first time in two decades, playing author Susan Orlean in Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman’s acclaimed comedy Adaptation. This was considered a minor comeback for Streep, and four years later she cemented it with her unforgettable portrayal of Vogue editor Miranda Priestley in The Devil Wears Prada, a huge critical and commercial smash that gave her yet another Leading Actress nomination, and one which many fans believe she should have won.

Ultimately, the 2007 award went to Helen Mirren for The Queen, but by this point a third win for Meryl was widely considered to be a case of not ‘if’ but ‘when’. She came close in 2009 playing a morally compromised nun in Doubt, and showed up again in 2010 for the frothy comedy Julie and Julia. Finally in 2012, victory came for playing Margaret Thatcher in Phyllida Lloyd’s The Iron Lady. Time hasn’t been particularly kind to this victory, but few would begrudge Meryl a long overdue third trophy.

Streep remained busy through the 2010s with nominations for August Osage County (2014) Into The Woods (2015) Florence Foster Jenkis (2017) and The Post (2018). The latter was her final nomination to date.