Streep took to the New York stage post-graduation with an aced performance in Joseph Papp’s prestigious Public Theater and in the New York Shakespeare Festival. With only one year of professional stage experience, she grabbed her first film gig, Julia, in 1977. The following year brought Meryl her first Academy Award nom as Best Supporting Actress for The Deer Hunter. Her brief engagement to Deer Hunter co-star John Cazale ended when his health and life gave way to bone cancer in March 1978.

Meryl managed to rebound and met current hubby, sculptor Dom Gummer, in September of the same year. For Streep, finding a mate who wasn’t in show business yet still “understands the compulsion to create things” was a rare blessing. Meryl told The Hollywood Reporter that the greatest facet to the longevity of her marriage has been being able to “have somebody as a partner who shares what you value in life.” And it became obvious almost instantly that family was going to be the top priority for the couple, when son Henry was born the following year.

Though she is a dedicated mother, Meryl’s acting itch was too strong to let her settle. Her career kicked into high gear as she ushered in the 80s with a slew of fab films including Woody Alan’s Manhattan, The Seduction of Joe Tynan, and Kramer vs. Kramer (she swiped her first Oscar statuette for the role!). Jeremy Irons, her co-star in The French Lieutenant’s Woman, recalled his first exposure to working with the actress: “I never thought of anyone else for the role. I thought we were lucky to get her, and she was extraordinary!”

After earning her second statue in 1982 and having her second child, daughter Mamie, in ’83, Streep found herself with a full plate. But for a true talent, too much is never enough. The rest of the 80s brought Streep stand-out roles in films like Falling in Love (opposite Robert De Niro), Plenty, and Out of Africa. Africa director Sydney Pollack has said she was “hands-down the choice” for the roll, joking with The Hollywood Reporter’s Wolf Schneider, “She tells the story that she wore this push-up bra, and that’s why I hired her. You have to trust me: It wasn’t the push-up bra!”

Streep’s flair for accents came when she was cast in the Australian drama A Cry in the Dark (in which she turned the line “The dingo ate my baby!” into a pop-culture catch-phrase). She followed up its success with several other serious roles, and also baby number three, Grace (in 1986). Meryl closed out the decade winning six People’s Choice Awards for Favorite Motion Picture Actress, and in 1990 was named People’s Choice “World Favorite.”

But Meryl still managed to maintain a balance, dubbing herself “an actress who goes home to her family when I’m finished working.” After daughter Louisa was born in 1991, she decided that if she was already established as a Serious Actress—why not try something funny? So she branched out into roles of a greater variety: She-Devil, Death Becomes Her, The Bridges of Madison County—and played an impressive four different roles in the HBO adaptation of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America. When she was claiming the Emmy for the role, the ever-modest Meryl announced, “There are some days when even I think I’m overrated … but not today!”

She tore through the 90s with the class and composure of a well-written novel, and continued to write her own stories of family and success. “You know how they say that people are wired for religion, or wired for this or that?” Meryl has said. “I think I was wired for family!”

Streep returned to the stage in 2001 for the first time in more than 20 years for the Public Theater’s revival of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull. The all-star cast (including Kevin Kline, Natalie Portman, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman) drew in audiences in droves.

Meryl is set to take the stage once again, from August 8 to September 3, in the Central Park performance of Brecht’s classic Mother Courage. Taking on the title role, Streep is sure to shine in this dramatic depiction of the Thirty Years’ War. Scoop is: Christopher Walken had been set to co-star, but, as Forbes reports, as of July 13, Walken’s out and Kevin Kline is in! A spokeswoman for the Public Theater says that Walken “withdrew from the production because of scheduling conflicts.” Either way, we still get the brilliant pairing of stars from Sophie’s Choice!

This return is coming hot off the heels of her other two summer successes, Prairie Home Companion (playing Lindsay Lohan’s ditzy mom) and Prada.

Prada’s film adaptation of Lauren Weisberger’s best-selling novel truly sells Streep as the Napoleon of the fashion world. Allowing her comedic talents to sparkle, the movie marks Meryl’s return to laughs, and allows her to do with it what she will.

The novel has the frosty fashion empress ruthlessly eat-ing up assistant Andy Sachs (played by Anne Hathaway—whom Streep calls “a delicious talent”). But Streep took a decidedly “softer” approach to the character. “I was interested in making a human being as contradictory and messy as we all are,” she has said. And she did just that, executing the roll with trademark perfection, and saved the movie’s lulls with her precision comedic timing.

Not since Sex and the City has clothing been so intricate in accomplishing a role. Streep was decked out daily in the finest of fashions and the most decadent of duds—from skinny stilettos to belts and bags, this movie was haute, haute, haute! Meryl confessed to Cinema Confidential that she is “a notorious pain in the butt for any costume designer.” According to her, “clothes are a kind of character; they’re more interesting in those terms.”

This eye on the international couture business looks through the lens of the chic fashion-mag world! Rumors swirled upon the book’s release that the devilish dame depicted in the novel was actually Vogue magazine’s Anna Wintour. The frigid fashionista has gained a reputation in the biz for breaking in her staff in the most gut-tightening of ways.

Joy Behar addressed some rumors on The View, and even went so far as to ask Streep if it were true that her and her co-stars will never be featured in Vogue magazine as a result of being in this movie. Streep replied, “Well I would never be featured in Vogue magazine anyway, because I’m too heavy!”

She went on to explain that “the book was definitely based on an assistant to Anna Wintour’s eye view of Anna’s day-to-day business thing.” But Meryl was careful to point out, “But our script is pretty different from the book. It veers off into different directions and it emphasizes different things.”

Making light of the situation, Streep said that her character is more or less her own creation: “It’s more fun for me to make up who I am!”

So Streep is sitting on top of her game once again. At the ripe age of 57, Meryl manages acting, parenting, and co-heading a busy household, with a delicate balance of grand-dame status and a down-to-earth demeanor. She is an ageless classic who refuses to quit.