Sigourney Weaver

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Sigourney Weaver
Sigourney Weaver in Aliens <tr><td style="text-align:left;">Birth name</td><td>Susan Alexandra Weaver</td></tr>
Born	October 8, 1949 Manhattan, New York City
Height	1.82m (5' 11½")<ref>Sigourney Weaver at the IMDb.com. URL last accessed 9 September, 2006.</ref>
Notable roles	Ellen Ripley in Alien and its sequels
Academy Awards	None; however she has been nominated.<ref>Sigourney Weaver awards at the IMDb.com. URL last accessed 9 September, 2006.</ref>

Sigourney Weaver (born Susan Alexandra Weaver on October 8, 1949 in New York City) is an Academy Award-nominated American actress.

1 Early life
2 Film career
- 2.1 Dual nominations
3 Personal life
4 Partial filmography
5 References
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Early life

Weaver is the daughter of the late NBC television executive Pat Weaver and Desirée Hawkins Ingles, a British actress. Her uncle was comedian and actor Doodles Weaver.

She began using the name Sigourney Weaver in 1963, after a character in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. She attended high school in New York City and later studied English at Stanford University, then drama at Yale School of Drama where she appeared in original plays by friend and classmate Christopher Durang.

[edit] Film career

Although Weaver has played a number of critically acclaimed roles in movies like The Ice Storm, Dave, and The Year of Living Dangerously, she is perhaps 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 then reprised the role in all three sequels: Aliens, Alien³, and Alien: Resurrection. She was nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award for portraying Ripley in Aliens.

She also appeared in Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II, as Dana Barrett. She played the role of the agorophobic criminal psychologist Helen Hudson in the 1995 movie Copycat.

[edit] Dual nominations

In addition to her Academy Award nomination for Aliens, Weaver has received two other nominations in her career. Those two nominations both occurred 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 one; however, she won a Golden Globe award for each role.

[edit] Personal life

Weaver married theater director Jim Simpson (of The Flea Theater) in 1984, and they have one child, Charlotte Simpson (born 1990).

After making the movie Gorillas in the Mist, she became a supporter of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund and is now the DFGFI's honorary chairperson.<ref>http://www.gorillafund.org/dian_fossey/</ref>

Weaver is a committed environmentalist. <ref>http://chge.med.harvard.edu/events/#NYC_Dinner</ref> As an example of her efforts, in October 2006 she drew international attention through a news conference at the start of a United Nations General Assembly policy deliberation; specifically, the topic was the widespread ocean-habitat threat posed by deep-sea trawling, an industrial method for harvesting fish. <ref>http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N03201755.htm</ref> <ref>http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=38361&newsdate=04-Oct-2006</ref>

Weaver is notable for her stature, standing 5 ft 11½ in (182 cm) tall.

[edit] Partial filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
2006
	Infamous	Babe Paley
	The TV Set	Lenny	Filming
	Happily N'Ever After	Rieda	Post-production; voice
	Snowcake	Linda Freeman
2004	Imaginary Heroes	Sandy Travis
2004	The Village	Alice Hunt
2003	Holes	Warden Walker
2002	Tadpole	Eve Grubman
2001	Heartbreakers	Max Conners/Angela
1999	Galaxy Quest	Gwen DeMarco/Lieutenant Tawny Madison
1997	The Ice Storm	Janey Carver
	Alien: Resurrection	Ellen Ripley
	Snow White: A Tale of Terror	Claudia Hoffman
1995	Jeffrey	Debra Moorhouse
1995	Copycat	Helen Hudson
1994	Death and the Maiden	Paulina Escobar
1993	Dave	Ellen Mitchell
1992	1492: Conquest of Paradise	Queen Isabella
1992	Alien³	Ellen Ripley
1989	Ghostbusters II	Dana Barrett
1988	Working Girl	Katharine Parker
1988	Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey	Dian Fossey
1986	Aliens	Ellen Ripley
1986	Half Moon Street	Dr. Lauren Slaughter
1985	Une femme ou deux	Jessica Fitzgerald
1984	Ghostbusters	Dana Barrett
1982	The Year of Living Dangerously	Jilly Bryant
1981	Eyewitness	Tony Sokolow
1979	Alien	Ellen Ripley
1977	Annie Hall	Alvy's Date Outside Theater