'Lincoln': 6 actors who won Oscars for portraying historical figures

'Lincoln' actor Daniel Day-Lewis is already a frontrunner for this year's Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of the sixteenth president. Here are a few other actors who took home a statuette when they portrayed real people.

6. Meryl Streep

Andrew Cooper/The Weinstein Company/AP

Streep captured her third Oscar in 2012, after winning in 1980 for "Kramer vs. Kramer" and in 1983 for "Sophie's Choice," for playing former prime minister Margaret Thatcher in the 2011 film "The Iron Lady." "Streep is, as always, pitch perfect. Much like her Julia Child in “Julie and Julia,” she goes way beyond impersonation... Even though the aging makeup is not wonderful, she manages to poke through the latex (or whatever it is) and show us a woman who is still, when she snaps to reality, a formidable force," Rainer wrote of her performance.

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