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. She 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.
In 2004, Weaver could be seen as part of the ensemble cast in M. Night Shyamalan's summer thriller
The Village.
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