In high school, Streep was a cheerleader and homecoming queen.  She later studied drama at some of the nation's best universities: Vassar, Dartmouth, and Yale.  She had already performed on Broadway and been nominated for a Tony when she made her feature film debut in 1977's "Julia", where she shared the screen with Vanessa Redgrave and Jane Fonda.  1978 brought "The Deer Hunter" (and her first Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations) and the TV-miniseries "Holocaust" (for which she won an Emmy).  She won her first Academy and Golden Globe awards (for Best Supporting Actress) the next year, for "Kramer vs. Kramer"; she also starred in Woody Allen's "Manhattan".  Next came 1981's "The French Lieutenant's Woman", which brought another Academy Award nomination, as well as Best Actress awards at the British Academy Awards and the Golden Globes.  The next year, she won several Best Actress awards (including the Oscar and the Golden Globe) for the heartbreaking "Sophie's Choice", which also demonstrated her unrivaled mastery of foreign accents.  In later years, she would receive Oscar nominations for "Silkwood" (1983), "Out Of Africa" (1985), "Ironweed" (1987), "A Cry In The Dark" (1988), "Postcards from the Edge" (1990), "The Bridges of Madison County" (1995), "One True Thing" (1998), "Music of the Heart" (1999), and "Adaptation" (2002).  As of this writing (July, 2004), she has also received an astonishing 11 more Golden Globe nominations.

   In my opinion, being nominated for an Oscar or a Golden Globe should be just as prestigious as winning one.  After all, the choice of a winner is bound to be subjective and imperfect.  The way I see it, if you're nominated, that is an acknowledgment that you've done everything you could possibly have been asked to do with a role.  Meryl Streep's unbelievable string of nominations is evidence to me that she has been the premier English-speaking actress of the last 25 years.