Meryl Streep to receive AFI lifetime award

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- The American Film Institute will honor actress Meryl Streep with its 32nd AFI Life Achievement Award, Sir Howard Stringer, xhair of the AFI Board of Trustees, announced Friday in Los Angeles.

Streep will receive the award -- one of the acting profession's highest honors -- at a gala tribute on June 10, 2004, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.

"I am honored to be selected by the AFI for the work I love doing," said Streep in a statement issued by the AFI. "The event is in June and that might give me enough time to compose a list of all the people I'm beholden to in my life and to whom I owe everything."

Stringer called Streep one of the great artists in the history of American film.

"Her talent, range and determination to master her craft bring out performances that sometimes border on the ethereal," he said. "In that sense, she is truly peerless."

Jon Avnet, who chairs the organization's board of directors, said Streep is "the ultimate film artist -- for her generation and for all generations."

Born Mary Louise Streep in Basking Ridge, N.J., Streep studied drama at Vassar and the Yale School of Drama. She appeared in numerous Broadway plays, and was nominated for a Tony for her performance in Tennessee Williams' "27 Wagons Full of Cotton."

She made her Hollywood debut in "Julia" (1977), and earned her first Academy Award nomination the following year for "The Deer Hunter." In 1979, she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in "Kramer Vs. Kramer."

Streep won the Best Actress Oscar in 1982 for "Sophie's Choice." Her nomination for last year's "Adaptation" was her 13th -- an Oscar record for a performer.

Streep is also an Emmy-winner, for her work in the 1978 miniseries "Holocaust."

Her other screen credits include "Silkwood," "Out of Africa," "The French Lieutenant's Woman," "Postcards from the Edge" and "The Bridges of Madison County."

Streep recently co-starred with Al Pacino, Emma Thompson and Mary-Louise Parker in HBO's adaptation of Tony Kushner's play "Angels in America," directed by Mike Nichols. She is currently in production on Jonathan Demme's remake of "The Manchurian Candidate" with Denzel Washington.

She joins a list of AFI recipients that includes Bette Davis, Kirk Douglas, Clint Eastwood, Tom Hanks, Alfred Hitchcock, Jack Lemmon, Jack Nicholson, Gregory Peck, Sidney Poitier, Steven Spielberg, James Stewart, Barbra Streisand and Elizabeth Taylor. Robert De Niro received the honor in 2002.

The presentation will be taped for broadcast in June 2004 over the USA Network.