Meryl Streep: those 16 Oscar nominations in full The Deer Hunter (1978) Meryl Streep received a Best Support Actress Oscar nomination for her breakthrough role in Michael Cimino's harrowing Vietnam epic. Unfazed by the Hollywood clout of her co-stars Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken and John Cazale (to whom she became engaged), she played the girlfriend of a Vietnam-bound steelworker with extraordinary self-assuredness. Picture: Rex