Which actress left an Oscar Award for Best Supporting Actress in the restroom after giving a thank you speech?

Meryl Streep (b. 1949), an American actress cited in the media as the "best actress of her generation", is astutely known for her versatility and accent adaptation. Nominated for a record 21 Academy Awards, she has won three. Streep has also received 31 Golden Globe nominations, winning 8 — more nominations and competitive wins than any other performer. It was Streep who famously left her Oscar Award in the ladies' room after giving a thank you speech.

In the drama film "Kramer vs. Kramer" (1979), Streep was cast opposite Dustin Hoffman as an unhappily married woman who abandons her husband and child. The film's script focused on a woman who faced a marriage breakdown and child custody battles. In preparing for her part, Streep spoke to her own mother about her life as a wife with a career, and frequented an Upper East Side New York City neighborhood in which the film was set, watching the interactions between parents and children.

The director Robert Benton allowed Streep to write her own dialogue in two key scenes, despite some objection from Hoffman, who "hated her guts" at first. Hoffman and producer Stanley R. Jaffe later spoke of Streep's tirelessness efforts. Hoffman commented: "She's extraordinarily hard-working, to the extent that she's obsessive. I think that she thinks about nothing else, but what she's doing." The film was said to display Streep's "own emotional intensity". She won the Golden Globe Award and the Oscar Award for Best Supporting Actress.