Meryl Streep

Meryl Streep has been nominated for twenty-one Academy Awards, more than any other actor in history, and she has won three. She is famous above all for disappearing into other people: a Polish Holocaust survivor in Sophie's Choice, for which she learned to speak Polish and German; Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady; Julia Child in Julie & Julia. Her command of accents has become something of a legend.

She was born Mary Louise Streep on June 22, 1949, in Summit, New Jersey, at 8:05 a.m., per her birth certificate. Her Sun had just crossed into Cancer, joined almost exactly by Uranus, and with Mercury and Mars in Gemini, all in the eleventh house. Gemini is the sign of mimicry, language and imitation. Mercury and Mars in Gemini describe a gift for voices and rapid mental agility, and few signatures could better suit the most celebrated mimic in film.

The close union of the Sun and Uranus suggests originality and a refusal to repeat herself. Streep has rarely played the same kind of character twice, moving between comedy, tragedy and musicals, from Kramer vs. Kramer to Mamma Mia! and The Devil Wears Prada.

Leo is her rising sign, and Pluto in Leo sits in the first house. Leo rising gives presence and command, and Pluto adds intensity and the power to transform. Her Moon is in Taurus in the tenth house, describing a public career that is steady, durable and built to last. Few actors have sustained a career at the top for nearly fifty years.

As a teenager she trained as an opera singer. She studied at Vassar College and at the Yale School of Drama, then worked on the New York stage, where she met the actor John Cazale. When Cazale was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, she cared for him until his death in 1978, while they were both filming The Deer Hunter, which brought her first Oscar nomination.

Venus in Cancer falls in her twelfth house, traditionally read as private devotion and love kept out of public view. Months after Cazale's death, she married the sculptor Don Gummer, and they had four children. Streep has been notably private about her family life.

Saturn in Virgo lies in her second house of resources and values, describing a careful, disciplined approach to her career and her craft. She won Academy Awards for Kramer vs. Kramer, Sophie's Choice and The Iron Lady.

Neptune in Libra, in her third house of communication, suggests an idealistic voice. In 2017, accepting the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes, she gave a widely discussed speech criticizing Donald Trump, and in 2014 President Obama awarded her the nation's highest civilian honor.

The Gemini planets gave her the voices; the Sun beside Uranus made sure she never used the same one twice.