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 role in which Streep became "arguably the first middle-aged actress to be taken seriously by Hollywood as a romantic heroine". Streep played the estranged sister of Bessie (Diane Keaton), a woman battling leukemia, in "Marvin's Room" (1996), an adaptation of the play by Scott McPherson. Streep recommended Keaton for the role. The film also featured Leonardo DiCaprio as the rebellious son of Streep's character. Roger Ebert stated that, "Streep and Keaton, in their different styles, find ways to make Lee and Bessie into much more than the expression of their problems." The film was well received, and Streep earned another