Meryl Streep: Oscar Wins and Nominations

The very versatile Meryl Streep has been nominated for Best Actress so many times that sometimes you think she won more Oscars than she really did. Here are the two Best Actress Oscars she really won: The Iron Lady (2011) and despite many many trips to the awards show in between, she made her first Best Actress trip to the stage for 1982’s Sophie’s Choice.

Streep also won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in Kramer vs. Kramer (1979). There was no female lead actress in the film. We have no idea why but if anyone asked, we’d say you can only be a supporting actress in a Dustin Hoffman movie. (It happened to Jessica Lange, too) . Brian Rowe says in his review of the movie that, at the time, Streep was not a big name and Kate Jackson (of Charlie’s Angels) was originally chosen to play Joanna Kramer. Rowe says the role “catapulted Meryl into the most incredibly diverse and exciting career any actress has ever had.”

Here are the films that Streep was nominated for Best Actress, but did not win (showing who did):

2013: August: Osage County — Winner: Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine
2009: Julie & Julia  — Winner: Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side
2008: Doubt —  Winner: Kate Winslet in The Reader
2006: The Devil Wears Prada —  Winner: Helen Mirren in The Queen
1999: Music of the Heart — Winner: Hilary Swank in Boys Don’t Cry
1998: One True Thing — Winner: Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love
1995: The Bridges of Madison County — Winner: Susan Sarandon in Dead Man Walking
1990: Postcards from the Edge — Winner: Kathy Bates in Misery
1988: A Cry in the Dark (orig. title: Evil Angels) — Winner: Jodie Foster in The Accused
1987: Ironweed — Winner: Cher in Moonstruck
1985: Out of Africa — Winner: Geraldine Page in The Trip to Bountiful
1983: Silkwood –Winner: Shirley MacLaine in Terms of Endearment
1981: The French Lieutenant’s Woman — Winner: Katharine Hepburn in On Golden Pond

Here are her Best Supporting Actress nominations and who won that year.

2002: Adaptation – Winner: Catherine Zeta-Jones in Chicago
1978: The Deer Hunter – Winner: Maggie Smith in California Suite

More actresses who have won both Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress:

• Ingrid Bergman — Gaslight (1944), Anastasia (1956).
  Supporting: Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
• Cate Blanchett — Blue Jasmine (2013);
  Supporting: The Aviator (2004)
• Helen Hayes — The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931).
  Supporting: Airport (1970)
• Jessica Lange Blue Sky (1994).
  Supporting: Tootsie (1982)
• Maggie Smith The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969);
  Supporting: California Suite (1978).