Actor Sigourney Weaver is best known for her recurring role as Ellen Ripley, the scrambling, feisty, critter-battling astronaut of the Alien sci-fi movie series (1979-97). Weaver made her film debut in a small part in the Woody Allen comedy Annie Hall (1977), and the success of Alien just two years later vaulted her to leading lady status. Statuesque and aloof, Weaver gave steady dramatic performances in movies such as The Year of Living Dangerously (1982, co-starring Mel Gibson), Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey (1988) and The Ice Storm (1997), but she has also starred in several hit comedies, including Ghost Busters (1984, with Bill Murray), Working Girl (1988, with Harrison Ford) and the sci-fi spoof Galaxy Quest (1999). The Alien film series included Alien (1979), Aliens (1986, directed by James Cameron), Alien3 (1992) and Alien Resurrection (1997)... Her other films include Death and the Maiden (1994, with Ben Kingsley), Holes (2003), M. Night Shyamalan's The Village (2004), and Baby Mama (2008, with Tina Fey).
Weaver received Oscar nominations for the Alien sequel Aliens (best actress, 1987), Gorillas in the Mist (best actress, 1989) and Working Girl (best supporting actress, 1989); she was nominated for the latter two in the same year... Weaver is the daughter of former NBC President Sylvester "Pat" Weaver... Ripley's cat in Alien is named Jones... According to the IMDB, Weaver took the name Sigourney in 1963 "after the character 'Sigourney Howard' in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby."
Career Highlights: Aliens, The Ice Storm, Working Girl
First Major Screen Credit: Alien (1979)
Biography
Though she is a classically trained dramatic actress and has played a variety of roles, Sigourney Weaver is still best known for her portrayal of the steel-jawed, alien-butt-kicking space crusader Ellen Ripley from the four Alien movies. The formidably beautiful, 5'11'' actress was born Susan Weaver to NBC president Pat Weaver and actress Elizabeth Inglis. Her father had a passion for Roman history and originally wanted to name her Flavia, but after reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby at the age of 14, Weaver renamed herself Sigourney, after one of the book's minor characters.
After being schooled in her native New York City, Weaver attended Stanford University and then obtained her master's at the Yale School of Drama where, along with classmate Meryl Streep, she appeared in classical Greek plays. After earning her degree, Weaver was only able to find work in experimental plays produced well away from Broadway, as more conventional producers found her too tall to perform in mainstream works. After getting her first real break in the soap opera Somerset (1970-1976), she made her film debut with a bit part in Woody Allen's Annie Hall in 1977.
Weaver had her first major role in Madman which was released just prior to Alien in 1979. Though the role of Ripley was originally designed for Veronica Cartwright (who ultimately played the doomed Lambert), scouts for director Ridley Scott saw Weaver working off-Broadway and felt she would be perfect for the part. The actress' take on the character was laced with a subtlety that made her a new kind of female action hero: Intelligent, resourceful, and unconsciously sexy, Weaver's Ripley was a woman with the guts to master her fear in order to take on a terrifying unknown enemy. Alien proved to be one of the year's biggest hits and put Weaver on Hollywood's A-list, though she would not reprise her character for another seven years. In between, she worked to prove her versatility, playing solid dramatic roles in Eyewitness (1981) and The Year of Living Dangerously (1982), while letting a more playful side show as a cellist who channels a fearsome demon in Ghostbusters (1984).
In 1986, Aliens burst into the theater, even gorier and more rip-roaring than its predecessor. This time, Weaver focused more on the maternal side of her character, which only served to make her tougher than ever. Her unforgettable performance was honored with a Best Actress Oscar nomination, and was followed up by Weaver's similarly haunting portrayal of doomed naturalist/animal rights activist Diane Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist (1988). The role won Weaver her second Best Actress Oscar nomination, and that same year, she received yet another Oscar nomination -- this time for Best Supporting Actress -- for her deliciously poisonous portrayal of Melanie Griffith's boss in Working Girl.
After 1992's Alien 3, Weaver had her next big hit playing President Kevin Kline's lonely wife in the bittersweet romantic comedy Dave (1993). She then gave a gripping performance as a rape/torture victim who faces down the man who may or may not have been her tormentor in Roman Polanski's moody thriller Death and the Maiden (1994). During the latter half of the decade, Weaver appeared in Alien Resurrection -- perhaps the most poorly received installment of the series -- but increasingly surfaced in offbeat roles such as the coolly fragile Janey in Ang Lee's The Ice Storm and the psychotic, wicked Queen in the adult-oriented HBO production The Grimm Brothers' Snow White (both 1997). In 1999, she starred in the sci-fi spoof Galaxy Quest, making fun of her image as a sci-fi goddess while continuing to prove her remarkable versatility.
Weaver's first high-profile project of the new millenium saw her swindling Ray Liotta and Gene Hackman as a sexy con-woman teamed up with Jennifer Love Hewitt. Already into her fifties, Weaver proved she still possessed plenty of sex-appeal even alongside a substantially younger starlet like Hewitt. She played up her sultry side some more in the well-received 2002 indie-comedy Tadpole, but changed gears a bit in 2003, playing a villain in the family sleeper hit Holes.
Weaver has been married to stage director Jim Simpson since 1984. When not appearing in films, she continues to be active in theater. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Sigourney Alexandra Weaver (born October 8, 1949) is an Americanactress. She is best known for her roles as Lieutenant Ellen Ripley in the Alien film series and as Dana Barrett in the Ghostbusters movies. Weaver is also a three-time Academy Award nominee for her performances in Aliens, Gorillas in the Mist and Working Girl. She is one of the very few actresses who has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in a science fiction movie (Aliens).
Weaver was born Susan Alexandra Weaver in New York City, the daughter of Elizabeth Inglis (née Desiree Mary Lucy Hawkins) (d. 2007), an English former actress, and the NBC television executive Sylvester "Pat" Laflin Weaver (d. 2002), an American of Scottish, Ulster Irish and early New England ancestry.[1][2][3][4] Her uncle, Doodles Weaver, was a comedian and actor. She began using the name "Sigourney Weaver" in 1963, aged fourteen, after a minor character (Sigourney Howard) in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby.[5][6]
Weaver attended the Ethel Walker School, a prep school in Simsbury, Connecticut where she was made fun of all the time for being a "nerd" and for her height. She also attended The Chapin School She was reportedly 5'10" by age 13, but only grew another inch to her adult height of 5'11". She graduated from Stanford University (BA, English, 1972).[7] She earned an MFA (1974) at Yale School of Drama,[8] where she appeared in the chorus of a production of Stephen Sondheim's The Frogs and as one of a mob of Roman soldiers in another production[9] as well as, later, in original plays by friend and classmate Christopher Durang. She later appeared in the 1981 Off Broadway production of his comedy Beyond Therapy directed by then up-and-coming director Jerry Zaks. She is fluent in French and in German.
Film career
Although Weaver has played a number of critically acclaimed roles in movies such as Gorillas in the Mist, The Ice Storm, Dave, and The Year of Living Dangerously, she is best known for her appearances as Warrant Officer/Lieutenant Ellen Ripley in the blockbuster Alien movie franchise. She first appeared as Ripley in Ridley Scott's 1979 film Alien. She reprised the role in three sequels, Aliens, Alien 3, and Alien Resurrection. She was nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award for portraying Ripley in Aliens. She also starred in two films in 1988, receiving Academy Award nominations for her roles as Katherine Parker in Working Girl and as naturalist Dian Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist. She lost out to Geena Davis and Jodie Foster respectively, although she received Golden Globes for both roles.
In 1997, Weaver won the BAFTA Award for her supporting role in Ang Lee's The Ice Storm. In 2003, she was voted 20th in Channel 4's countdown of the 100 greatest movie stars of all time. She was one of only two women in the top 20 (the other was Audrey Hepburn). That year, she also played The Warden in the movie Holes. In 2006, Weaver returned to Rwanda for the BBC special Gorillas Revisited.
Weaver also has done voice work in television and film. She had a guest role in the Futurama episode "Love and Rocket" in February 2002, playing the female Planet Express Ship. In 2006, she was the narrator for the American version of the Emmy Award-winning series Planet Earth. Also in 2006, Weaver narrated "A Matter of Degrees". A short film that plays daily at The Natural History Museum of the Adirondacks (The Wild Center) in Tupper Lake, New York. In 2008, Weaver was featured as the voice of the ship's computer in the Pixar and Disney release, WALL•E. She also voiced a narrating role in another computer-animated film, 2008's The Tale of Despereaux, based on the novel by Kate DiCamillo. Weaver has also expressed interest in starring in a fifth Alien film. Pre-production details for the film are expected to start soon. Ivan Reitman has confirmed that Weaver will reprise her role as Dana Barrett in the planned 3rd Ghostbusters movie due for release in 2012.
In addition to her Academy Award nomination for Aliens, Weaver has received two other nominations in her career, both in 1988. This makes Weaver one of only eleven actors and actresses to have received two Academy Award nominations in the same year. Weaver received a Best Actress nomination for her role as gorilla conservationist Dian Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist and a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her role as Katharine Parker in Working Girl, opposite Harrison Ford and Melanie Griffith. She won neither award but was awarded a Golden Globe for each role.
Personal life
Weaver has been married to filmmaker Jim Simpson since October 1, 1984. They have one daughter Charlotte Simpson, who was born April 13, 1990.
After making Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey, she became a supporter of The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund and is now the DFGFI's honorary chairperson.[11] Weaver is an environmentalist.[12] In October 2006 she drew international attention through a news conference at the start of a United Nations General Assembly policy deliberation. She outlined the widespread threat to ocean habitats posed by deep-sea trawling, an industrial method for harvesting fish. She also narrated the American version of the BBC/Discovery Channel show Planet Earth.[13][14] On April 8, 2008, she hosted the annual gala of the Trickle Up Program, a non-profit organization focusing on those in extreme poverty, mainly women and the disabled, in the Rainbow Room.[15]
