A Look Back at Meryl Streep's Record-Setting 33 Golden Globe-Nominated Roles, from 1979 to Now (original) (raw)

Meryl Streep. Photo:

Universal/courtesy Everett Collection (2); 20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection

Everyone talks about Meryl Streep’s record-setting number of Academy Award nominations, but perhaps even more impressive is the number of Golden Globe Award nominations she’s received: 33, as of this year, with her latest nod for her role on Only Murders in the Building.

And on top of her 33 nominations for her specific roles, Streep took home the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2017 for "outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment" (previous recipients include Denzel Washington, Martin Scorsese, Robin Williams and Audrey Hepburn — to name a few).

In honor of Streep’s incredible feat — only Jack Lemmon has even come close, with 22 nominations (and a Cecil. B. DeMille Award of his own) — we’re looking back at the roles that got her the accolades.

1979: The Deer Hunter

NOMINATED

Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro in 'The Deer Hunter'.

Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection

Streep’s first Golden Globe nomination was also her first for the Academy Awards. Though she lost out on both prizes for her turn as the girlfriend of a fallen soldier in Vietnam, the role helped establish Streep as one to watch in the awards show game.

1980: Kramer vs. Kramer

WON

One to watch, no more: Streep catapulted to Golden Globe success when she snagged the best supporting actress in a drama trophy for Kramer vs. Kramer, in which she played a woman who leaves her husband and is in the throes of divorce. While the film won best picture that year, there was lots of drama behind the scenes between the lead actors.

1982: The French Lieutenant’s Woman

WON

Little did she know in ’80, but Kramer vs. Kramer was the start of a Golden Globe-winning streak for Streep. She won best actress in a leading role for The French Lieutenant’s Woman two years later.

1983: Sophie’s Choice

WON

The next year brought Streep her third Golden Globe win (though she missed the ceremony), her second Oscar and perhaps her most iconic role as Sophie, who must choose which of her children will be killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

1984: Silkwood

NOMINATED

Though ’84 ended Streep’s winning streak, the nominations kept coming. In Silkwood, she played real-life whistleblower and activist Karen Silkwood.

1986: Out of Africa

NOMINATED

Robert Redford and Meryl Streep in 'Out of Africa'.

Universal/Kobal/Shutterstock

The film adaptation of Baroness Karen von Blixen’s memoir about her life in Kenya was the vehicle for Streep’s sixth nomination; she starred opposite Robert Redford.

1988: Ironweed

NOMINATED

Playing the lover of Jack Nicholson’s character, an unhoused man who abandons his family, Streep nabbed another actress in a leading role nomination in 1988.

1989: A Cry in the Dark

NOMINATED

For her seventh and final nomination of the 1980s, Streep played the wife of a Seventh-day Adventist pastor who is charged with the murder of her infant daughter — based on the true story of Lindy Chamberlain.

1990: She-Devil

NOMINATED

Streep doesn’t do comedy often, especially in the ’80s, but she was picture-perfect as the antagonist to Roseanne Barr’s crazed woman scorned (and on a mission for revenge).

1991: Postcards from the Edge

NOMINATED

Based on a semi-autobiographical novel by fellow Hollywood icon Carrie Fisher, Streep tackled the part of an actress with an even-more-famous mother (inspired by Fisher’s own mother, Debbie Reynolds, played in the film by Shirley MacLaine), who is struggling with addiction.

1993: Death Becomes Her

NOMINATED

Meryl Streep in 'Death Becomes Her'.

Mary Evans/Ronald Grant/Everett Collection

You can’t stop Streep: She picked up her 11th nomination in ’93 for the musical-comedy-horror hybrid_._

1995: The River Wild

NOMINATED

Even in an action-packed flick, Streep scored. For this rafting adventure gone south, she earned a leading actress nomination.

1996: The Bridges of Madison County

NOMINATED

Yet another nomination came in ’96, with The Bridges of Madison County, in which she played an Iowa woman who has an affair with a National Geographic photographer.

1997: Marvin’s Room

NOMINATED

At this point, Streep could expect Golden Globe nominations for practically every year she worked. In ’97, she earned a nomination for Marvin’s Room, in which she starred in alongside Diane Keaton and Leonardo DiCaprio.

1998: …First Do No Harm

NOMINATED

Streep doesn’t do TV often, but when she does, she (obviously) nails it. In this made-for-TV movie, Streep played a mother who battles her son’s doctor for the chance to try experimental treatments to help his epilepsy.

1999: One True Thing

NOMINATED

Renee Zellweger and Meryl Streep in 'One True Thing'.

Universal/courtesy Everett/Everett Collection

Her fourth nomination in a row! In this familial drama, Renée Zellweger played Streep’s daughter as the two work on their relationship while Streep’s character grapples with cancer.

2000: Music of the Heart

NOMINATED

Streep doesn’t do anything half-heartedly. So when she played violinist Roberta Guaspari in Music of the Heart, she studied the violin for months, even learning to play one of Bach’s concertos for the role.

2003: Adaptation

WON

In Adaptation, inspired by New Yorker writer Susan Orlean’s article and book The Orchid Thief, Streep played Orlean (but the real-life writer would find little in the movie that resembled the events of her own life). Streep took home the supporting prize for this role.

2003: The Hours

NOMINATED

That same year, she was also nominated for her role in The Hours, but lost out to costar Nicole Kidman.

2004: Angels in America

WON

Her second television win came in 2004, for Angels in America, in which she played four different parts, including a male rabbi. Sadly, she only got one trophy for this win.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

2005_: The Manchurian Candidate_

NOMINATED

The remake of the 1962 film saw Streep as a U.S. Senator whose son is running for vice president.

2007: The Devil Wears Prada

WIN

Meryl Streep.

Moviestore/Shutterstock

Streep was chilly perfection as the ice-cold fashion magazine editor Miranda Priestly, famously inspired by _Vogue_‘s editor Anna Wintour, and snagged the prize for lead actress in a comedy or musical.

2009: Doubt

NOMINATED

As a super-strict nun in Doubt, Streep was utterly convinced of a priest’s sexual misconduct with a boy in their parish. The film also featured Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams and Viola Davis, who were all nominated for their roles.

2009: Mamma Mia!

NOMINATED

And for her other nominated performance of the year, Streep stepped into a completely different character in Mamma Mia! as a fun-loving mom preparing to send her daughter down the aisle while dancing to ABBA songs.

2010: Julie & Julia

WON

Streep snagged two of the five nominations for actress in a comedy or musical in ’10, for Julie & Julia and It’s Complicated. In the first, she took home the prize for her portrayal of iconic chef Julia Child (and absolutely nailed her one-of-a-kind voice).

2010: It’s Complicated

NOMINATED

And while she beat herself in the category, the second role saw Streep as a modern woman (with an amazing kitchen, thank you Nancy Meyers) going through a complicated almost-reunion with her ex, Alec Baldwin.

2012: The Iron Lady

WON

Meryl Streep.

Paul Drinkwater/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

Awards shows love when actors and actresses play real people (bonus points if they’re still alive!), and Streep’s take on Britain’s first female prime minister was so unforgettable, it won her her first Oscar since 1983, too.

2013: Hope Springs

NOMINATED

Hope Springs wasn’t an awards bait kind of movie, but with Streep in it, even the Globes couldn’t ignore it. She played a woman in the midst of a week of intense marriage counseling with her husband, played by Tommy Lee Jones.

2014: August: Osage County

NOMINATED

When you need an over-the-top matriarch in your movie, you call Streep. She played just that (with a whole lot of dysfunction) in the starry film adaption of the Broadway play.

2015: Into the Woods

NOMINATED

As the witch in Stephen Sondheim’s fairy tale with a twist, Streep nabbed a supporting actress nomination.

2017: Florence Foster Jenkins

NOMINATED

Her next nomination came for her role as Florence Foster Jenkins, in which she played a wealthy woman with big dreams of singing, but without the perfect pitch (or any pitch, really) to do so.

2017: The Cecil B. DeMille Award

WON

Meryl Streep.

Michael Buckner/Variety/Penske Media via Getty

Streep was presented with the special award by her Doubt costar, Viola Davis, and with her statue in hand, used her time on stage to point out that that Hollywood is "just a bunch of people from other places" before calling out then-president-elect Donald Trump — though never mentioning him by name.

2018: The Post

NOMINATED

In this drama, Streep led an all-star cast as Katharine Graham, the first female publisher of a major American newspaper, The Washington Post.

2020: Big Little Lies

NOMINATED

As the overly curious mother of deceased abusive husband Perry Wright (Alexander Skarsgard), Streep stirred up trouble with the women of Monterey, California, eventually taking daughter-in-law Celeste (Nicole Kidman) to court over custody of her grandsons.

2024: Only Murders in the Building

NOMINATED

Streep's most recent nomination was the result of her role on Hulu's Only Murders in the Building as actress and murder suspect Loretta Durkin, whose apartment was sprinkled with Easter eggs from Streep's real-life roles of the past — courtesy of the show's clever production designer, Rich Murray.

Will she win again this year? See PEOPLE's full coverage of the 81st annual Golden Globes as they're broadcasting live from The Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles on CBS and Paramount+ on Sunday, Jan. 7, from 8 to 11 p.m. ET.