She's not just another pretty face, but soon that face will be everywhere you look. Actress Meryl Streep is glad she's not very famous yet. She enjoys being able to walk around without getting noticed. But 1979 is going to be the year of Meryl Streep, and the 29-year-old actress will have to adjust. In the next year, Streep will be seen in four (count them) very visible film roles. As a Vietnam soldier's girl in "The Deer Hunter", her Oscar-caliber performance has already won her an award from The National Society of Film Critics. Coming soon are "The Senator" with Alan Alda, and Woody Allen's secret "Manhattan" project ("I don't even know if it's a comedy. I was only given six pages to read") in which she plays Woody's ex-wife. In "Kramer vs. Kramer", the New Jersey-born ex-cheerleader captured the coveted starring role opposite Dustin Hoffman. Not bad for one year.

The woman who has been called "phenomenal" by one director, "the major actress of her generation" by another, has been playing her theatrical dues since her college days at Vassar. Her jobs have included the best classical parts from Shakespeare to Tennessee Williams and the most challenging new roles on experimental and repertory stages around the country. Along the way she picked up an Emmy for her moving performance in the television serial "Holocaust". After finishing "Kramer" this past fall, Streep starred in a musical version of "Alice in Wonderland" and then went on to play a bitchy uptown lady in "Taken in Marriage", both at the Public Theater in New York.

Amazingly, Streep also found the time six months ago to take herself into marriage with Don Gummer, a New York sculptor. Now reaping the full pleasures of love and work, Meryl Streep won't let fame disrupt her life. "I'll move away and be a pain in the ass to everybody. But that hasn't happened yet."

© 1979 Look Magazine. No copyright infringment intended.