Sigourney Weaver

Sigourney Weaver (born Susan Alexandra Weaver; October 8, 1949) is an American actress best known for her role as Ellen Ripley in the Alien film series, a role for which she has received worldwide recognition. She is also known for her roles in the Ghostbusters films, Gorillas in the Mist, The Ice Storm, Working Girl, Holes, and Avatar.

Weaver is also a three-time Academy Award nominee for her performances in Aliens (1986), Gorillas in the Mist (1988), and Working Girl (1988) winning Golden Globe Awards in the latter two films. She has been called 'The Sci-Fi Queen' by many on account of her many science fiction and fantasy films.

Early life
Weaver was born in Manhattan, New York City, the daughter of Elizabeth Inglis (née Desiree Mary Lucy Hawkins; 1913–2007), an English actress, and the NBC television executive and television pioneer Sylvester "Pat" Laflin Weaver (1908–2002). Her uncle, Doodles Weaver, was a comedian and actor. She began using the name "Sigourney Weaver" in 1963 after a minor character (Sigourney Howard) in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby.



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. Sigourney was reportedly 5′ 10½″ (179 cm) tall by the age of 14, but she only grew another inch during her teens to her adult height of 5′ 11½″ (182 cm). Weaver graduated from Stanford University, with a bachelor of arts degree in English in 1972, but she had already begun her involvement in acting, by living in Stanford's co-ed Beta Chi Community for the Performing Arts. Weaver earned her Master of Fine Arts degree at the Yale University School of Drama in 1974, where one of her appearances was in the chorus in a production of Stephen Sondheim's musical version of The Frogs, and another was as one of a mob of Roman soldiers alongside Meryl Streep in another production. Weaver later acted in original plays by her friend and classmate Christopher Durang. She later appeared in an "Off Broadway" production of Durang's comedy Beyond Therapy in 1981, which was directed by the up-and-coming director Jerry Zaks.

Film career
Weaver's first role was in Woody Allen's 1977 comedy Annie Hall playing a minor role opposite Allen. Weaver appeared two years later as Warrant Officer/Lieutenant Ellen Ripley in the blockbuster Alien movie franchise, a role she is best known for. 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. Ty Burr of The Boston Globe states, "One of the real pleasures of "Alien" is to watch the emergence of both Ellen Ripley as a character and Sigourney Weaver as a star." In the sequel Aliens directed by James Cameron critic Roger Ebert exclaims, "Weaver, who is onscreen almost all the time, comes through with a very strong, sympathetic performance: She's the thread that holds everything together." She was nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award in Aliens, one of the very few actresses honored for a role in a science fiction film. Weaver followed the success of Aliens appearing opposite Mel Gibson in The Year of Living Dangerously released to critical acclaim and as Dana Barrett in Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II.

By the end of the decade Weaver appeared in two of her most memorable and critically acclaimed performances in 1988 as Dian Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist. The same year she appeared opposite Harrison Ford in a supporting role as Katharine Parker in the film Working Girl. Weaver won Golden Globe awards for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress for her two roles that year. She received two Academy Award nominations in 1988, for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Working Girl and Best Actress for Gorillas in the Mist making her one of the few actors nominated for two acting awards in the same year. By the early 1990's Weaver appeared in several films including Ang Lee's The Ice Storm earning her another Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress and winning a BAFTA Award, followed by Dave opposite Kevin Kline and Frank Langella. She played the role of agoraphobic criminal psychologist Helen Hudson in the 1995 movie Copycat. Weaver also concentrated on smaller and supporting roles throughout the decade such as Jeffrey (1994), A Map of the World (1999) and Galaxy Quest (1999). In 2001 she appeared in the comedy Heartbreakers playing the lead role of a con artist alongside Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ray Liotta, Gene Hackman and Anne Bancroft.

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 2004, she appeared in M. Night Shyamalan's horror film The Village. In 2006, Weaver returned to Rwanda for the BBC special Gorillas Revisited.

In 2009, Weaver starred as Mary Griffith in her first made-for-TV movie, Prayers for Bobby, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award, Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award. She also guest starred in the TV show Eli Stone in the fall of 2008. Weaver also played the role of a news reporter in the 2008 American film Vantage Point. She reunited with Aliens director James Cameron for his 2009 film Avatar with Weaver playing a major part as Dr. Grace Augustine, leader of the AVTR (avatar) program on the film's fictional moon Pandora. The film has the distinction of being the highest grossing film of all time.

Weaver 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. Ivan Reitman has confirmed that Weaver will reprise her role as Dana Barrett in the rumored third Ghostbusters movie due for release in 2012.

Weaver has hosted two episodes of the long-running NBC sketch show Saturday Night Live: once on the 12th season premiere in 1986, and again, on a season 35 episode in January, 2010. Weaver has now broken Madeline Kahn's record for longest gap between hosting appearances on SNL. Kahn had an 18-year gap between her second appearance in 1977 and her third and final appearance in 1995; Weaver, on the other hand, has a 24-year gap between her first appearance in 1986 and her second and most recent appearance in 2010. In March 2010, she was cast for the lead role as Queen of the Vampire in Amy Heckerling's Vamps. In May 2010, there were reports that Weaver had been cast for the lead role Margaret Matheson in the Spanish thriller film Red Lights, but there has been no confirmation or further news of this.

Personal life
Weaver was previously engaged to reporter Aaron Latham in 1967. She has been married to the filmmaker Jim Simpson since October 1, 1984. They are the parents of one daughter, Charlotte Simpson, who was born on 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. Weaver is an environmentalist. 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. 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. Close friends and relatives often use the nickname "Gourney" when speaking to her. Occasionally, that name is changed to "Gourney Gorn."

Stage credits

 * Better Dead Than Sorry (1971, Yale Cabaret) as Jenny
 * Story Theatre (1972, Williamstown Theatre Festival)
 * Sarah B. Divine! (1972, Williamstown Theatre Festival) as Anita, the Eternal Maid
 * The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (1972, Williamstown Theatre Festival) as Dockdaisy
 * The Rat Trap (1972, Williamstown Theatre Festival) as Cynthia Muldoon
 * Once in a Lifetime (1972, Williamstown Theatre Festival) as Florabel Leigh
 * The Elephant Calf (1972, Williamstown Theatre Festival)
 * The Tempest (1973, Yale Repertory Theatre)
 * Watergate Classics (1973-4, Yale Repertory Theatre)
 * Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (1974, Yale University Theatre)
 * The Nature and Purpose of the Universe (1974, Direct Theatre) as Eleanor (workshop production)
 * The Frogs (1974, Yale Repertory Theatre) as member of the Chorus
 * The Constant Wife (1975, Shubert Theatre, understudy) as Marie-Louise Durham
 * Titanic (1976, Direct Theatre) as Lidia/Annabella/Harriet
 * Das Lusitania Songspiel (1976, Van Dam Theatre)
 * Gemini (1976, Playwright's Horizons) as Judith Hastings
 * Marco Polo Sings a Solo (1977, Public/Newman Theatre) as Freydis
 * Conjuring an Event (1978, American Place Theatre) as Annabella
 * A Flea in Her Ear (1978, Hartford Stage)
 * New Jerusalem (1979, Public Theater)
 * Das Lusitania Songspiel (new version) (1980, Westside Theatre). Also co-authored the play with Christopher Durang. Nominated for Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical.
 * Lone Star (1980) as Elizabeth
 * Beyond Therapy (1981, Phoenix Theatre) as Prudence
 * As You Like It (1981, Dallas Festival of Shakespeare) as Rosalind
 * Animal Kingdom (1982, Berkshire Festival) as Cecelia Henry
 * Old Times (1983, Williamstown Theatre Festival) as Anna
 * Hurlyburly (1984-5, Ethel Barrymore Theatre) as Darlene. Nominated for Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play.
 * A Streetcar Named Desire (1986, Williamstown Theatre Festival) as Stella Kowalski
 * The Merchant of Venice (1986-7, Classic Stage Company) as Portia
 * The Show-Off (1988, Williamstown Theatre Festival) as Clara
 * Sex and Longing (1996, Nederlander Theatre) as Lulu
 * The Guys (2001-2, The Flea Theater) as Joan
 * The Mercy Seat (2002, Acorn Theatre) as Abby Prescott
 * Mrs Farnsworth (2004, The Flea Theater) as Marjorie Farnsworth
 * Crazy Mary (2007, Playwright's Horizons) as Lydia
 * Love Letters (2007, The Flea Theater, single benefit performance) as Melissa Gardner
 * Love Letters (2008, The Detroit Film Theatre, single benefit performance) as Melissa Gardner