Now five decades into her career, Meryl Streep has more than cemented her status as one of the greatest Hollywood actresses ever. The three-time Oscar winner has more total Academy Award nominations (21) than any other actor in history, her resume stacked with one iconic performance after another. There’s a Meryl for every mood, really, whether you prefer your Streep spiky (as in The Devil Wears Prada—and, it would appear, its forthcoming sequel), buoyant and carefree (Florence Foster Jenkins; Mamma Mia!), understated and vulnerable (The Hours; The Bridges of Madison County), or glamorously wacky (Julie and Julia; Death Becomes Her).
Here, we’ve dug through the archives to assemble a photographic tribute to a singular performer—and Vogue’s May 2026 cover star. And so, without further ado, here are 23 striking vintage pictures of the great Meryl Streep.
Read Vogue’s May 2026 cover story, featuring Meryl Streep and Anna Wintour, here.
Photo: ©20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection1/23Making her film debut in Fred Zinnemann’s Julia )1977), starring Vanessa Redgrave and Jane Fonda.
- Photo: Getty Images2/23
A penitent Streep as Inga Helms Weiss on the set of the 1978 miniseries Holocaust.
Photo: Getty Images3/23Rehearsing for Shakespeare in the Park’s 1978 production of The Taming of the Shrew, which she starred in with Raul Julia.
- Archive Photos/Getty Images4/23
With Robert DeNiro in The Deer Hunter (1978), for which Streep earned her first Oscar nomination, for best supporting actress.
- Ron Galella/Getty Images5/23
With her mother, Mary, at the New York premiere of The Seduction of Joe Tynan in 1979.
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Whisking her baby son Henry—Streep’s eldest child with Don Gummer—through John F. Kennedy Airport in 1980.
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Posing with her Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) co-stars Dustin Hoffman and Justin Henry in London. The film earned Streep her first Academy Award, for best supporting actress.
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Backstage at the Public Theater during her run in Alice in Concert, c. 1980.
- Photo: Getty Images9/23
With Jeremy Irons, her co-star in The French Lieutenant’s Woman, c. 1981.
Photo: Getty Images10/23Streep and Diane Keaton at a benefit in support of nuclear disarmament in 1982.
Photo: Getty Images11/23With Kevin Kline and Peter MacNichol on the New York set of Sophie’s Choice.
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Streep at the 55th Annual Academy Awards, where she won her second Oscar, for Sophie’s Choice (1982).
- Photo: Getty Images13/23
Doing press for 1983’s Silkwood in Los Angeles.
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Again with Robert DeNiro, now filming the romantic drama Falling in Love, c. 1984.
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With Robert Redford on the set of Sydney Pollack’s Out of Africa (1985).
Photo: Getty Images16/23At the Governor’s Ball after the 1989 Academy Awards, where Streep was nominated for her performance in A Cry in the Dark.
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection17/23With Ed Begley in 1989’s She-Devil.
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Streep and Shirley MacLaine on the set of Postcards From the Edge (1990), based on Carrie Fisher’s semi-autobiographical novel of the same name.
Photo: ©Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection19/23In the 1994 thriller The River Wild.
Photo: Getty Images20/23Streep with Clint Eastwood on the set of his 1995 film The Bridges of Madison County.
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With Mike Nichols and Carly Simon at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s gala tribute to Nichols in 1999.
Photo: Getty Images22/23Streep wielding a bouquet of flowers while shooting The Hours (2002) in New York in 2001.
Photo: ©Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection23/23Recumbent in Spike Jonze’s Adaptation (2002).
