Tag: Meryl Streep

Kennedy Center Honors 2011

I have seen over half the movies Meryl Streep has made.

The Kennedy Center Honors took place on December 4, and as usual, it is being broadcast the Tuesday after Christmas, December 27 at 9 pm Eastern time on CBS-TV. I always watch it, because it’s always entertaining, no matter how well I know the honorees.

The inductees, as usual, represent a wide array of talent. Singer Barbara Cook I’ve seen perform on televised versions of her extensive Broadway career.

My knowledge of Sonny Rollins is primarily through the Modern Jazz Quartet, who I’ve heard perform, again primarily on TV.

I actually own a couple of albums of Yo-Yo Ma. As the description notes, he is the country’s “cellist-in-chief.” The last time I saw him play was on TV at the 9/11/2011 performance in New York City.

The early work of singer-songwriter Neil Diamond I really loved. Solitary Man has been covered by Chris Isaak and Johnny Cash, among many others; Kentucky Woman by Deep Purple [listen]; Red, Red Wine by UB40 [listen], and I’m a Believer by the Monkees [listen]. He also had hits with Cherry, Cherry [listen]; Cracklin’ Rosie; Holly, Holly; Sweet Caroline; I Am…I Said; Song Sung Blue; and my personal favorite, Thank the Lord for the Nighttime [listen]. I also own his 2005 album 12 Songs.

As for Meryl Streep, I saw her in Holocaust, the 1978 TV mini-series, and heard her on early episodes of The Simpsons. I’m looking forward to catching The Iron Lady, where she’ll play Margaret Thatcher since I have also seen over half the movies she’s made:
2009 It’s Complicated; Julie & Julia
2008 Doubt; Mamma Mia!
2006 The Devil Wears Prada; A Prairie Home Companion
2004 The Manchurian Candidate
2002 The Hours; Adaptation.
1999 Music of the Heart
1998 One True Thing
1996 Before and After
1995 The Bridges of Madison County
1994 The River Wild
1992 Death Becomes Her
1991 Defending Your Life
1990 Postcards from the Edge
1988 A Cry in the Dark
1986 Heartburn
1985 Out of Africa
1985 Plenty
1983 Silkwood
1982 Sophie’s Choice
1981 The French Lieutenant’s Woman
1979 Kramer vs. Kramer; The Seduction of Joe Tynan; Manhattan
1977 Julia

30-Day Challenge: Day 1 – Favorite Actor

Who would I pay to go to see in most anything they were in?


I took on this 30-day challenge because I thought it would be interesting. And, just as important, quick and easy. But I got stuck on the first question.

I assume “actor” is gender-neutral in this case.

Starting to parse the category, I began with theater actors. But I don’t really see stage actors that often, though in fact, this year’s Tony nominations feature a lot of familiar names from TV and movies.

Favorite television performer: I could pick actors I watched in more than one series: Bob Newhart (Bob Newhart Show, Newhart); James Garner (Maverick, The Rockford Files); Mary Tyler Moore (Dick van Dyke Show, MTM Show); Jimmy Smits (L.A. Law, NYPD Blue). There are others who qualify because of other functions, such as Alan Alda (writer/director). I might have to go with Betty White, game player extraordinaire, who’s been on TV longer than I’ve been alive, because not only did I record a new Saturday Night Live for the first time in forever, I might even check out her new series on TV Land called Hot in Cleveland.

Still, when I thought about it further, it was always the movies that defined the question in my mind, fairly or not. Which is to say: “Who would I pay to go to see in most anything they were in?” I recognized that the leading males in this category were Robert Redford, Paul Newman (a couple of times together), Dustin Hoffman, and Denzel Washington. It might be Philip Seymour Hoffman or Paul Giamatti down the line.

But there were two actresses for whom I saw a large majority of their films in a particular stretch.

One was Jane Fonda. I saw well over half of the movies she was in between 1969 (They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?) and 1985 (Agnes of God), even the truly dreadful Rollover (1981), filmed partly in Albany, NY.

The other is Meryl Streep, whose output between 1977 (Julia, starring Jane Fonda) and 2009 (the mediocre It’s Complicated) I’ve seen maybe 70% of.

Eventually, Laura Linney will likely be in this category.
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All pictures from LIFE magazine from the 1990s.

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