Meryl Streep on screen and stage Deer Hunter" (1978) proved to be a breakthrough for Streep and she received her first Academy Award nomination for it. She won the award the following year for playing a troubled wife in the top-grossing drama "Kramer vs. Kramer" (1979). Also in 1978, Streep played a German married to a Jew in Nazi Germany in the television miniseries "Holocaust", which earned her the Emmy Award for Best Actress. Streep established herself as a leading Hollywood actress in the 1980s. She played dual roles in the period drama "The French Lieutenant's Woman" (1981), and starred as a Polish Holocaust survivor in
Meryl Streep Play. Streep's other Broadway credits include Anton Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard" and the Bertolt Brecht-Kurt Weill musical "Happy End", in which she had originally appeared off-Broadway at the Chelsea Theater Center. She received Drama Desk Award nominations for both productions. Streep's first feature film role came opposite Jane Fonda in the 1977 film "Julia", in which she had a small role during a flashback sequence. Most of her scenes were edited out, but the brief time on screen horrified the actress: However, Streep cites Fonda as having a lasting influence on her as an actress, and has credited her as