Meryl Streep and the Oscars, 1977-1990

For only her second screen role (after 1977's "Julia"), Streep earned her first Academy Award nomination for her work in Michael Cimino's Vietnam War drama "The Deer Hunter." Streep has said that she took the role primarily to be close to her fiance John Cazale, who also starred in the film and had been diagnosed with bone cancer just before shooting began. He died before the film was complete (though he finished his scenes), and in what was clearly a bittersweet afterthought, Streep ended up being nominated in the supporting actress category. She'd lose to Maggie Smith ( watch Brooke Shields and George Burns announce her loss here), but it kicked off Meryl's road to becoming the most nominated actress in Oscar history.

A year after her "Deer Hunter" nomination, Streep would win her first Oscar (not to mention a Golden Globe, LA Film Critics Award, National Board of Review Award, National Society of Film Critics Award and a New York Film Critics Award) for Robert Benton's divorce drama "Kramer vs. Kramer." This would also mark the second consecutive year Streep starred in the winner of best picture. You can watch her typically classy speech here.

Streep's streak continued with a third nomination for Karel Reisz's Harold Pinter adaptation "The French Lieutenant's Woman," this time in the best actress category (where all but one of her remaining nominations would come from). Streep would lose to Katherine Hepburn at the Oscars (though she won at both the BAFTAs and Golden Globes). Hepburn remains the all-time Oscar win champ with 4 statuettes... A record a win for "The Iron Lady" would bring Streep one step closer to tying.

As Polish Holocaust survivor Sophie - who tragically had to choose between her two children at Auschwitz - Streep won essentially every award out there, including her first and only Oscar for best actress. Watch Sylvester Stallone present her with trophy here, which memorably includes Meryl dropping her speech on the way to the stage.

Streep nabbed her fifth nomination in just six years for "Silkwood" - her first of four collaborations with Mike Nichols. Streep played opposite Cher and Kurt Russell in the film, which depicted the true-life story of Karen Silkwood, a woman who died in a suspicious car accident while investigating alleged wrongdoing at the Kerr-McGee plutonium plant where she worked. Streep lost the Oscar to Shirley MacLaine, who oddly enough would play her mother in another Mike Nichols film that earned Streep a nomination, "Postcards From The Edge."

Surprisingly the last time Streep has starred in a best picture Oscar winner, Sydney Pollack's "Out of Africa" earned Streep her sixth nomination. In the film, Streep played yet another real-life person in Karen Blixen (roughly half her nominations would end up coming from such roles), who wrote a memoir about her experiences living in Africa in the early 20th century.

Opposite Jack Nicholson, Streep played half of a homeless, alcoholic couple during the Great Depression in Héctor Babenco's "Ironweed." It earned her a seventh nomination, and a fifth loss -- this time to her "Silkwood" co-star Cher. Streep would jump to a standing ovation when Cher's named was called, and Cher would end off her speech by thanking Streep.

A role that acted as a greatest-hits of Streep's Oscar bait (accent, dead child, real-life person torn from headlines), her performance as an Australian woman accused of killing her child in "A Cry in the Dark" brought Meryl her first ever best actress prize at the Cannes Film Festival. She'd get an Oscar nomination as well, but lost to Jodie Foster's work in "The Accused."

For her portrayal of a character loosely based on Carrie Fisher, Streep got her second nomination care of a Mike Nichols film with "Postcards From The Edge." As Suzanne Vale, Streep played a recovering drug addict trying to pick up the pieces of her career. It memorably included Streep singing the Oscar-nominated song "I'm Checking Out".