Sigourney Weaver

Susan Alexandra “Sigourney” Weaver is an American actor whose career helped redefine the place of women in science fiction, action and prestige drama. Born in New York City on October 8, 1949, she is the daughter of television executive Pat Weaver and English actor Elizabeth Inglis. She adopted the name Sigourney as a teenager, studied English at Stanford University and earned a Master of Fine Arts from the Yale School of Drama, where her classmates included other major actors of her generation.

Weaver's screen debut was a small role in Woody Allen's Annie Hall, but her breakthrough came two years later as Ellen Ripley in Ridley Scott's Alien. The role began as part of an ensemble science-fiction horror film, yet Ripley emerged as one of modern cinema's defining protagonists. Weaver returned to the character in James Cameron's Aliens, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, an unusual recognition at the time for a performance in a science-fiction action film. She played Ripley again in Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection, giving the franchise continuity through sharply different directors and tones.

Her success in the Alien series did not confine her to one genre. In the 1980s she appeared in The Year of Living Dangerously and became widely known to comedy audiences as Dana Barrett in Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II. In 1988 she achieved a rare awards-season double, winning Golden Globes for Gorillas in the Mist and Working Girl and receiving Oscar nominations for both films. In Gorillas in the Mist she portrayed primatologist Dian Fossey; in Working Girl she played a polished corporate executive whose charm masked opportunism.