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EXTENSIVE BIOGRAPHY | CHAPTER 01 | THE EARLY YEARS

The lives of many movie stars are often based on biographical backgrounds and relatives in the film or theatre bussiness, grandparents that marked the history of theatre, or parents that have lent a

generation of filmmaking. What they learn in their early years from their parents' profession is the life of being famous and the techniques they use for their roles. Vanessa Redgrave was born into the world of acting, so were Elizabeth Taylor and Katharine Hepburn. Meryl Streep, another icon of filmmaking today, wasn't born into stardom. What made her the celebrated actress she is today, was her passion to act. Born Mary Louise Streep, on June 22, 1949, in Summit, New Jersey, to pharmaceutical company executive Harry Streep and commercial artist Mary Streep. Meryl describes herself as "at seven, I looked like a forty-year-old. I

Early shots with her mother and brother Harry and in great school

acted like one, too. The kids thought I was one of their teachers." Her devoted parents were able to move to Basking Ridge and then Bernardsville, a wealthier nearby community in central New Yersey. Teaching their children with arts and literature from an early age on, Meryl grew up with two younger brothers, Harry III (whom she nicknamed Third because of the Roman numberal after his name), and Dana. Meryl remembers herself as a child with unflinching honesty: "I was an ugly little kid with a big mouth, an obnoxious show-off." Even so, she got her first applause by age twelve when she sang "O Holy Night" in French in her school's Christmas concert. She was so good, in fact, that she stun-

ned her family and classmates and resulted singing lessons with the internationally renowned coach Estelle Liebling, who was Meryl's first encounter with a true artist. Once a week for several years, Meryl was driven to Liebling's Upper East Side resident to take her lessons, the woman who trained the hour before Meryl was Beverly Sills, an admired opera singer in the 1960s and 1970s. Eventually, Meryl quit her lessons when she became "more interested in boys and in being a cheerleader."

Meryl (second from right) in her "make-over" as a cheerleader in Bernardsville

Cheerleading turned out to be Meryl Streep's first role. At age fourteen she took off her corrective lenses, refused to wear dental braces and dyed her hair blonde. "This was my make-over, I played the blonde homecoming queen for several years," Meryl recalled. During football's off-seasons, Meryl sang in the chorus, worked on the school newspaper and yearbook and eventually became the homecoming queen of her graduation year. Recalling this period of her life, Meryl says "I was a nice girl, pretty, athletic, and I'd read maybe seven books in four years of high school... had a great vocabulary, and no understanding whatsoever of mathematics or science. I had a way of imitating people's speech that got me an A.P. (advance placement) in French without really knowing any grammar. I was not what

you would call a natural scholar." Between honors in French and English Lit, the swim team, the drama club and cheerleading practice, she arrived at school each day "a Seventeen Magazine knockout," as she herself recalls with sardonic accuracy.

She began acting in plays at her highschool in Bernardsville, including the lead performances in "Li'l Abner" and "Oklahoma", before she began studying at the allfemale Vassar College. Although it only was her second choice as a college, Vassar changed her life. "On entering," she says, "if

Leaving High School: Meryl was crowned Homecoming Queen.

you had asked me what feminism was. I would've thought it had something to do with having nice nails and clean hair. I felt absolutely great in that atmosphere. Suddenly, I felt accepted by the entire other half of the human race. From the time I entered college, I never felt the need to compete with anyone. At Vassar, it was a commonplace to give your best shot, so that became a habit. I learned to believe in myself and aquired a genuine sense of identity." Graduating from Vassar in 1972, Meryl won a three-year scholarship to Vassar's brother-school, the Yale School of Drama, from which she graduated in 1975. after performing Helena in "A Midsummer's Night Dream", the high-strung Bertha in Strindberg's "The Father", Hallelujah Lil in "Happy End" by Bertholt Brecht. With each role the tension grew...