Sigourney Weaver - Actresses
Summary
"Sigourney Weaver" (born "Susan Alexandra Weaver" on October 8, 1949 in New York City) is an Oscar-nominated American actress.
Early life
Weaver is the daughter of late NBC television executive Pat Weaver (d. 2002) and Elizabeth Inglis, a former British actress (d. 2007). Her uncle, Doodles Weaver, was a comedian and actor.
She began using the name "Sigourney Weaver" in 1963, aged 14, after a character in F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby".
She attended the Ethel Walker School, a prep school in Simsbury, Connecticut and graduated from Stanford University. She studied law at Harvard Law School, then drama at Yale School of Drama, where she appeared in original plays by friend and classmate Christopher Durang. She later appeared in the 1981 off-Broadway production of his comedy "Beyond Therapy".
Film career
Although Weaver has played a number of critically acclaimed roles in movies like "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. Her first appearance as Ripley was in Ridley Scott's 1979 film "Alien". She reprised the role in three sequels, "Aliens", "Alien³", and "Alien: Resurrection". She was nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award for portraying Ripley in "Aliens". Ripley was a breakthrough role: the first female action hero. Although Ripley is tender and nurturing with a cat or a child, she is tough and aggressive with adult humans and alien monsters, and ruthless enough to blow up her own ship or a planetary colony; in the third film, she destroys herself to prevent the xenomorph species from spreading.
Weaver also appeared in "Ghostbusters" and "Ghostbusters II" as Dana Barrett. She played the role of the agoraphobic criminal psychologist Helen Hudson in the 1995 movie "Copycat", and went on to become the most highly paid actress of the 1990s. In addition to her trademark role as Ripley, Weaver has recently concentrated on smaller, more challenging roles such as 1999's "A Map of the World" and 2006's "Snowcake". Critics have also noted her consistent performances in comedic roles, such as in "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, Weaver 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).
In 2006, Weaver returned to Rwanda for the BBC special "Gorillas Revisited".
Bryan Singer originally wanted Weaver to play the lead villainess role of Emma Frost in "X-Men: The Last Stand". But after Singer left the project to direct "Superman Returns", the story changed considerably and the part of Emma Frost was dropped entirely from the script.
Dual nominations
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 ten actors and actresses to have received two 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 did not win either nomination, but was awarded a Golden Globe for each role. By failing to win an Oscar in either category for 1988, she became the first person in history to lose twice in the same ceremony. Only two people have been 'double losers' since then - Emma Thompson in 1994 and Julianne Moore in 2003.
Personal life
Weaver married theater director Jim Simpson (The Flea Theater) in 1984. They have one child, Charlotte Simpson (born 13 April 1990).
After making "Gorillas in the Mist", she became a supporter of The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund and is now the DFGFI's honorary chairperson.http://www.gorillafund.org/dian_fossey/
Weaver is an environmentalist. http://chge.med.harvard.edu/events/#NYC_Dinner 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 Discovery Channel show "Planet Earth", which focuses on the wonders of our world.http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N03201755.htm http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=38361&newsdate=04-Oct-2006
Weaver is notable for her stature, standing 6' (1.83 m) tall. She is also notable for her wardrobe and at one point in the 1990s was picked by two separate magazines as best dressed and worst dressed.
Popular culture
The Italian lesbian science-fiction comics character Legs Weaver is inspired by Sigourney Weaver's role in "Alien".
In the "South Park" episode Quest for Ratings a dead horse is mistaken to be Sigourney Weaver.
In 2007 Weaver reprised her role of Ellen Ripley in a commercial for DirecTV. In the commercial Weaver in the power loader vehicle from the movie Aliens is battling the queen xenomorph while explaining to watchers how DirecTV is a better deal than cable.
External links
(BBC News article on Sigourney Weaver)
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Sigourney Weaver.
