Transformation

Talk about a talent for transformation. With a record-setting 13 Oscar nods—the most recent for the aptly named Adaptation—two wins and 30-plus feature-film credits, Meryl Streep is equally compelling in a heartfelt drama or an offbeat comedy. And cinema's clever chameleon won an Emmy for her multicharacter role as an angel, a rabbi, a Mormon mother and a ghost in Angels in America. But while Streep's mature and meticulous acting approach has surely strengthened her star status, her knack for accents is what we most adore: Australian (A Cry in the Dark), Oklahoman (Silkwood) and Italian (The Bridges of Madison County), to name a few. In front of the camera Streep's fashion range has stretched from safari chic in Out of Africa to Tinseltown trendy in Postcards from the Edge. And for the 2004 fantastical comedy Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Streep played an ultra-phobic and inept guardian to three orphaned siblings. Our imagination is already running wild!

1980: Meryl Streep, on her meteoric rise to stardom, looks every part the beautiful young ingenue.