Sigourney Weaver extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Sigourney Weaver
Sigourney Weaver at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival
Born	Susan Alexandra Weaver October 8, 1949 (1949-10-08) (age 60) Manhattan, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1976–present
Spouse(s)	Jim Simpson (1984–present)

Susan Alexandra "Sigourney" Weaver (born October 8, 1949) is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Warrant Officer (later Lieutenant) Ellen Ripley in Ridley Scott's Alien (1979), James Cameron's Aliens (1986) and in the rest of the Alien film series, as Dana Barrett in the Ghostbusters films, as Jill Bryant in The Year of Living Dangerously (1983), as Helen Hudson in Copycat (1995), as Max Conners in Heartbreakers (2001), as Warden Walker in Holes (2003), and as Dr. Grace Augustine in Avatar (2009), the highest-grossing film in history.

Weaver is also a three-time Academy Award nominee for her performances in Aliens (1986), Gorillas in the Mist (1988), and Working Girl (1988).

Contents 1 Early life 2 Film career 3 Awards 4 Personal life 5 Filmography 6 Selected stage credits 7 References 8 External links

Early life

Weaver was born Susan Alexandra Weaver in New York City, the daughter of Elizabeth Inglis (née Desiree Mary Lucy Hawkins; 1913–2007), an English actress, and the NBC television executive Sylvester "Pat" Laflin Weaver (1908–2002), an American of Scottish, Ulster Irish, and early New England ancestry.¹²³⁴ 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.⁵⁶

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″ tall by the age of 14, but she only grew another inch during her teens to her adult height of 5′ 11½″. 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.⁷ Weaver earned her Master of Fine Arts degree at the Yale University School of Drama in 1974,⁸ where one of her appearances was in the chorus in a production of Stephen Sondheim's play, The Frogs, and another was as one of a mob of Roman soldiers in another production.⁹ 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

Although Weaver has played a number of critically acclaimed roles in movies such as Annie Hall, 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, one of the very few actresses so honored for a role in a science fiction movie. 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.

Weaver also appeared in Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II as Dana Barrett. She played the role of agoraphobic criminal psychologist Helen Hudson in the 1995 movie Copycat, and went on to become one of the most highly paid actresses of the 1990s. In addition to her trademark role as Ripley, Weaver has recently concentrated on smaller roles such as 1999's A Map of the World and 2006's Snow Cake. She has also appeared in comedic roles, such as Jeffrey (1994), Galaxy Quest (1999), and Heartbreakers (2001), in which she starred with Jennifer Love Hewitt.

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.

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. She also guest starred in the TV show Eli Stone in the fall of 2008.¹⁰

2009 was also the year in which James Cameron's Avatar premiered with Sigourney playing a major part as Dr. Grace Augustine, leader of the Avatar program on the films fictional moon Pandora.

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 Barrett¹¹ in the rumored third Ghostbusters movie due for release in 2012.¹²

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.

Awards

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 was previously engaged to reporter Aaron Latham in 1967.¹³ 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.¹⁴ Weaver is an environmentalist.¹⁵ 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.¹⁶¹⁷ 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.¹⁸

Weaver has donated $5,800 to various Democratic politicians, including Senators Ted Kennedy and Barbara Boxer. She supported President Barack Obama's 2008 Presidential campaign.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1977	Annie Hall	Alvy's Date Outside Theater
1978	Madman	Not Specified
1979	Alien	Ellen Ripley	Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer Nominated – Saturn Award for Best Actress
1981	Eyewitness	Tony Sokolow	Crew Members & TV Equipment From WNYW(Then known as WNEW)Appeared in The Film. Weaver Actually Also Co-hosted The News on WNYW For The Film
1982	The Year of Living Dangerously	Jilly Bryant
1983	Deal of the Century	Catherine DeVoto
1984	Ghostbusters	Dana Barrett
	Terror in the Aisles		archival footage
1985	Une Femme ou Deux	Jessica Fitzgerald
1986	Half Moon Street	Dr. Lauren Slaughter
	Aliens	Ellen Ripley	Saturn Award for Best Actress Nominated – Academy Award for Best Actress Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
1988	Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey	Dian Fossey	Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama Nominated – Academy Award for Best Actress
	Working Girl	Katharine Parker	Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture Nominated – Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
1989	Ghostbusters II	Dana Barrett
1992	Alien 3	Ellen Ripley	Co-Producer Nominated – Saturn Award for Best Actress
	1492: Conquest of Paradise	Queen Isabella
1993	Dave	Ellen Mitchell
1994	Death and the Maiden	Paulina Escobar
1995	Copycat	Helen Hudson
	Jeffrey	Debra Moorhouse
1997	The Ice Storm	Janey Carver	BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture Nominated – Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
	Snow White: A Tale of Terror	Lady Claudia Hoffman	Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress - Miniseries or a Movie Nominated – SAG Award for Outstanding Female Actor - Miniseries or Television Film
	Alien Resurrection	Ellen Ripley Clone	Co-Producer Nominated – Saturn Award for Best Actress
1999	A Map of the World	Alice Goodwin	Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama Nominated – Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
	Galaxy Quest	Gwen DeMarco/Lieutenant Tawny Madison	Nominated – Saturn Award for Best Actress
2000	Company Man	Daisy Quimp
2001	Heartbreakers	Max Conners/Angela	Nominated – Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
2002	Tadpole	Eve Grubman
	The Guys	Joan	Directed by husband Jim Simpson, starring daughter Charlotte Simpson Nominated – Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
2003	Holes	Warden Walker
2004	Imaginary Heroes	Sandy Travis	Nominated – Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
	The Village	Alice Hunt
2006	Snow Cake	Linda Freeman	Nominated – Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
	The TV Set	Lenny
	Infamous	Babe Paley
2007	Happily N'Ever After	Frieda	voice only
	The Girl in the Park	Julia Sandburg	Nominated: Academy Awards
2008	Vantage Point	Rex Brooks
	Be Kind Rewind	Ms. Lawson
	Baby Mama	Chaffee Bicknell
	WALL•E	Computer	voice only
	The Tale of Despereaux	The Narrator	voice only
2009	Prayers for Bobby	Mary Griffith	Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie Nominated: Golden Globes Award
	Avatar	Dr. Grace Augustine
	ACID TEST: The Global Challenge of Ocean Acidification	The Narrator	Voice and image
2010	Paul	Tara
	Crazy on the Outside	Vicky
	You Again	Aunt Ramona	filming
2011	Dark Shadows

Selected stage credits

• Crazy Mary (2007, Playwright's Horizons) as Lydia
• Mrs Farnsworth (2004, Flea Theater) as Mrs Farnsworth
• The Mercy Seat (2002, Acorn Theater) as Abby
• The Guys (2002, Flea Theater) as Joan
• Sex and Longing (1996, Nederlander Theater) as Lulu
• The Merchant of Venice (1986, Classic Stage Company) as Portia
• A Streetcar Named Desire (1986) as Stella
• The Marriage of Bette and Boo (1985) as Soot
• Hurlyburly (1984) as Darlene
• Old Times (1983) as Anna
• Beyond Therapy (1981, Marymount Manhattan Theatre) as Prudence
• As You Like It (1981) as Rosalind
• Lone Star (1980) as Elizabeth
• New Jerusalem (1979)
• Conjuring an Event (1978)
• A Flea In Her Ear (1978)
• Marco Polo Sings a Solo (1977) as Freydis
• Das Lustania Songspiel (1976)
• Gemini (1976, Playwright's Horizons)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sigourney Weaver

• Sigourney Weaver at the Internet Movie Database
• Sigourney Weaver at the Internet Broadway Database
• AskMen.com information
• BBC News article on Sigourney Weaver
• Daily Telegraph interview with Sigourney Weaver

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