53 Reasons Why Meryl Streep Is The Best

Happy 63rd Birthday to one of the finest people on the planet.

1. The millions she gives away

Via: forbes.com

2. Her activism

What first drew you to environmental health issues?

Humans are very self-interested. I became interested in all these things when I was consciously feeding a baby and had a sense that everything you do is going to have an outcome further down the road. So I was very conscious to try to do the right thing and do well by our kids. Being naturally sort of slovenly, I had to sit up and pay attention, because I really think about my work most of the time. When kids came into the picture, everything I read made me think “Yes, you are right, You are right.” Everything we now know about the developing brain and young children reminds us that the first things, even in utero, that you introduce into their little fragile developing systems bear an outcome later on.

Via: onearth.org

3. Her demand for more female roles in Hollywood

As you can see, their problems were significant because they cost a fraction of what the big tent-pole failures cost … Let’s talk about The Iron Lady. It cost $14m to make it and brought in $114m. Pure profit! So why? Why? Don’t they want the money?

Via: guardian.co.uk

4. Her logical sensibility

Via: perezhilton.com

5. When she introduced Hillary Clinton at the Women in the World Summit

I find a lot of similarities: We’re roughly the same age, we both have two brothers — mine are annoying — we both grew up in middle-class homes with spirited, big-hearted mothers who encouraged us to do something valuable and interesting with our lives. We both went from public high schools to distinguished women’s colleges. …We both went on to graduate school at Yale, which is where the two paths diverged in the wood.

Where Hillary aimed her life and where it landed was evident very early on. While I was a cheerleader, she was the president of the student government. Where I was the lead in all three musicals, people who know her tell me she should never be encouraged to sing. Regardless, she has turned out to be the voice of her generation. I’m an actress, and she is the real deal.

…

This is what you get when you play a world leader. But if you want a real world leader, and you’re really, really lucky, this is what you get.

Watch

6. How she greets everyone with a kiss, like here

Via: vulture.com

7. And here

Via: vulture.com

8. And here

Via: vulture.com

9. And here

Via: vulture.com

10. This moment she shared with Jean Dujardin

Via: gofugyourself.com

11. And this one with Shirley MacLaine

Via: arabia.msn.com

12. Her love for Viola Davis

Via: theedgeoftheframe.com

13. When she unveiled the ‘Iron Lady’

Via: huffingtonpost.com

14. The way she holds this cat

Via: theaceblackblog.com

15. Her hair in A Cry In The Dark

Via: bluecarrotshop.blogspot.com

16. Her moustache

Via: whitneyjefferson

17. Her famous walk

Via: migueloz

18. Her beautiful family

Via: zimbio.com

19. And the fact that Mamie shares her mother’s talents

Watch her in The Good Wife.

Via: thirdage.com

20. This amazing high school portrait

Via: amygrindhouse.com

21. And this one

Via: hollywood.com

22. Her sex appeal

Via: theaceblackblog.com

23. Her ageless beauty

Via: blameitonthevoices.com

24. This truth uttered by Liz Lemon

Via: awkwardlifeisawesome.tumblr.com

25. This amazing photo taken by Annie Leibovitz

Via: pbs.org

26. This portrait shot by Martin Schoeller

Via: latkovic.wordpress.com

27. And this beautiful shot

Via: listal.com

28. When she became Vogue’s oldest cover girl at 62

Via: whosdatedwho.com

29. And the photo spread in that issue

Via: vogue.tumblr.com

30. Her ability to look fabulous on a placard

Via: hollywoodreporter.com

31. Her amazing talent

Via: listal.com

32. Her time on stage

Via: broadway.com

33. Her chameleon-like abilities on the big screen

Via: allmoviephoto.com

34. Her first role in a feature film

Julia (1977)

Via: flickr.com

35. Her first leading role

The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981)

Via: cinemagia.ro

36. Her first oscar win for Kramer vs. Kramer

Via: oscars.org

37. The heartbreaking choice she made as Sophie

Video available at: http://youtube.com/watch?v=DZ9bht5H2p4.

38. And how beautiful she looked in it that movie

Via: bohemea.tumblr.com

39. Her first degree with Kevin Bacon

Via: theaceblackblog.com

40. That time she bought the flowers herself

Via: gracillius.tumblr.com

41. Her cameo in Stuck On You

Via: bluecarrotshop.blogspot.com

42. When she danced like a queen

43. When she taught us how to cook

Via: sarutaridecinema.ro

44. This reaction shot

Via: plaidagenda.tumblr.com

45. Her reaction to winning Best Actress at the 2012 Golden Globes

Via: mattcherette

46. The acceptance speech that followed

Video available at: http://youtube.com/watch?v=TuZ_jv2E4lY.

Only Meryl sounds classy while cursing.

47. Her acceptance speech at the 2007 Golden Globes

Video available at: http://youtube.com/watch?v=-Y67eAkI2xA.

48. Everyone’s tribute to her at the 34th Annual Kennedy Center Honors

Video available at: http://youtube.com/watch?v=UnEfIHrGNxg.

Tracy Ullman introduces the 15-minute long segment, which also features a speech from Robert De Niro. Or you can skip to 8:34 for Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci and Kevin Kline, oh yeah, and Anne Hathaway doing the splits.

49. Her surprisingly good singing voice

Video available at: http://youtube.com/watch?v=NLpfFJmAnns.

50. Also heard in A Prairie Home Companion

Video available at: http://youtube.com/watch?v=7IRuFI4Soi0.

51. This text from Hillary

Via: thehollywoodgossip.com

52. Meryl Streep memes

Via: thebigster.com

53. Cam sums it up nicely

Video available at: http://youtube.com/watch?v=XjTCOivQGD0.