A STAR IS BORN

CHAPTER ONE

ON HER JOURNEY TO FAME, MERYL STREEP WENT THROUGH A NUMBER OF DIFFERENT ROLES, INCLUDING HIGH-SCHOOL CHEERLEADER, OFF-BROADWAY INGÉNUE, AND DOTING LOVER

FROM NEW JERSEY TO ETERNITY

A SHY CHILD FROM THE SUBURBS WENT ON TO BECOME THE GREATEST LIVING ACTOR IN THE WORLD. HERE, SOME HIGHLIGHTS FROM MERYL STREEP S LEGENDARY LIFE

1949

Mary Louise Streep is born in Summit, Newjersey, onJune22. Hermotheris a commercial artist and an art editor; herfather is a pharmaceutical executive. "You're capable. You're so great," her mother encourages her. "You can do whatever you put your mind to."

1955

Begins demonstrating an interest in performance, filming a staged nativity scene with herfather's Super 8 camera and using her brothers as supporting actors.

1958

Uses her mother's makeup to draw wrinkles on her face while pretending to be her grandmother; develops a love for Broadway musicals, which her parents take the family to periodically. At one performance of Man of La Mancha, her mother recalled she seemed to be "shooting out sparks."

1961

Sings "O Holy Night" in French at a school recital, and begins taking opera lessons with legendary vocal coach Estelle Liebling in Manhattan.

1963

Joins her high-school cheerleading squad. She is also on the swim team. "My biggest decision every day used to be what clothes I should wearto school," she would remember. "It was ridiculous."

1966

Crowned homecoming queen but feels miscast. In fact, she will later admit her popular-girl persona in high school was an act: "I wanted to learn how to be appealing. So I studied the character I imagined I wanted to be, that of the generically pretty high-school girl."

1967

Enrolls at Vassarand studies theater.

1970

Spends one semester as an exchange student atthe practically all-male Dartmouth College.

1971

Makes her professional acting debut in an off-Broadway production of The Playboy of Seville. Graduates from Vassar. Joins the Green Mountain Guild, an acting company in Vermont.

1972

Enrolls in the M.F.A. program at the Yale School of Drama.

1975

Graduates from Yale, moves to New York, and begins performing with Joseph Popp's Public Theater, appearing in such hits as Trelawny of the "Wells," opposite John Lithgow.

1976^

Stars in Measure for Measure with John Cazale. The two fall in love and move into a Tribeca loft together.

1977

Appears in a Broadway production of Happy End. Her first film, Julia, arrives in theaters, starring legends Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave. Appears in herfirst television role, as the wife of a hockey player who accidentally kills another player, in The Deadliest Season.

1978

Cazale dies of cancer at age 42, while he and Streep are making The Deer Hunter. Six months later, she marries sculptor Don Gummer.

1979

Gives birth to a son, Henry Gummer.

1980

Wins first Academy Award, as best supporting actress for Kramer vs. Kramer. "Holy mackerel," she proclaims during her acceptance speech

1983

Gives birth to a daughter, Mamie Gummer. Wins second Academy Award, as best actress for Sophie's Choice. "Justtwo seconds ago," she said in her acceptance speech, "my mother and father went completely berserk."

1985

Moves from New York Salisbury, Connecticut.

1986

Gives birth to second daughter, Grace Gummer.

1989

Testifies to Congress about Alar, a chemical used to enhance the color and growth of apples.

1990

Delivers a keynote speech at the Screen Actors Guild women's conference, decries unequal pay and the lack of job opportunities. "The problem is, we get few roles, and what work we do get, we're paid much, much less," she says. Moves with family to a $3 million mansion in Brentwood, California.

1991

Gives birth to third daughter, Louisa Gummer. Leaves longtime agent Sam Cohn after losing the lead role in Remains of the Day, then being developed by Mike Nichols, something she said Cohn "should have protected me from."

1994

Helps the Charlie Foundation during its campaign to publicize ketogenic diets as a way to treat epileptic children

1997

Appears in television movie ... First Do No Harm, about a couple that successfully treats their epileptic son using a ketogenic diet.

2004

Receives Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute. Buys $8.95 million penthouse in lower Manhattan; Gwyneth Paltrow is a neighbor.

20D6

Earns biggest paycheck to date for playing Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada, a role forwhich she demanded an estimated $4 million, double what the studio had originally offered her.

2008

Her highest-grossing film yet, Mamma Mia!, brings in $609.8 million in global ticket sales.

2010

Donates $1 million to the National Women's History Museum, forwhich she served as national spokesperson.

2012

Speaks at the 2012 Women in the World Summit, hosted by Newsweek and The Daily Beast. She says, "It is not a simple job to be a role model. It is not just being endlessly compassionate, polite, and well groomed. It's equal parts being who you actually are and what people hope you will be. It's representing for all women our very best selves."

2012

Participates in "Draw the Line" campaign to defend women's reproductive rights. Donates $1 million to the Public Theater in honor of Joseph Papp and Nora Ephron.

2014

Calls Walt Disney anti-Semitic and a "gender bigot" while presenting Emma Thompson the best actress award at the National Board of Review gala, for the Disney-focused film Saving Mr. Banks.

2015

Funds a screenwriting lab for women over 40 called the Writers Lab, overseen by the New York Women in Film and Television and the filmmaker collective IRIS. It receives more than 3,500 applications.

2016

Speaks in support of Hillary Rodham Clinton at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. "What does it take to be the first female anything?" she asks. "It takes grit, and it takes grace." Spoofs Donald Trump at a benefit gala forthe Public Theater in New York's Central Park.

2017

Signs on to star in the JJ. Abrams-produced mini-series The Nix, earning $825,000 per episode, making her one of the highest-paid actors on television. Also set to begin shooting Mary Popp/ns Returns, co-starring Emily Blunt and Hamilton scribe Lin-Manuel Miranda, planned for theatrical release in 2018. □