STAGE TUBE: Tracey Ullman Pays Tribute to Kennedy Center Honoree Meryl Streep

Artists, friends and peers of this year's five Kennedy Center honorees converged in Washington, D.C., on December 4 to present entertaining and heartfelt tributes at the 34th Annual Kennedy Center Honors, an entertainment special to be broadcast which was broadcast on CBS last night, December 27. For the ninth consecutive year, Caroline Kennedy served as host. Click below to watch   (or re-watch!) comedian Tracey Ullman honor stage and screen legend Meryl Streep!

The annual event recognizes recipients for their lifetime contributions to American culture through the performing arts in dance, music, theater, opera, motion pictures and television.

Performers and presenters included Emily Blunt, Matthew Broderick, Anna Christy, Glenn Close, Stephen Colbert, Ravi Coltrane, Bill Cosby, Robert De Niro, Jack DeJohnette, Billy Drummond, Elmo, Sutton Foster, Benny Golson, Jim Hall, Herbie Hancock, Roy Hargrove, Anne Hathaway, Jimmy Heath, Kevin Kline, John Lithgow, Joe Lovano, Rebecca Luker, Patti LuPone, Christian McBride, Audra McDonald, Jennifer Nettles, Mike Nichols, Kelli O'Hara, Laura Osnes, Sarah Jessica Parker, Lionel Richie, Smokey Robinson, Raphael Saadiq, James Taylor, Stanley Tucci, Tracey Ullman and John Williams.

Going into her fourth decade of acting, Streep has made more than 45 movies and has received 16 Academy Award nominations, winning two, and 25 Golden Globe nominations, winning seven, more nominations than any other actor in the history of either award. Her work has also earned her two Emmy Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Cannes Film Festival award, five New York Film Critics Circle Awards, five Grammy Award nominations, a BAFTA award, an and an Australian Film Institute Award. She was awarded the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award in 2004. 

Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with Julia. Both critical and commercial success came quickly with roles in The Deer Hunter and Kramer vs. Kramer , the latter giving Streep her first Oscar win. She later won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Sophie's Choice . On screen, she additionally starred in Adaptation, Out of Africa, Marvin's Room, Julia & Julia, The Devil Wears Prada, Angels In America TV mini-series and dozens more.  

On stage, she appeared in the 1976 Broadway double bill of Tennessee Williams' 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Arthur Miller's A Memory of Two Mondays. For the former, she received a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play. Her other early Broadway credits include Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard and the Bertolt Brecht-Kurt Weill musical Happy End, for which she was nominated for a Drama Desk Award. In July 2001, Streep returned to the stage after a twenty year hiatus in the Public Theater's revival of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull. In August and September 2006, she returned to the Public to star in thier production of Mother Courage and Her Children at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park.