Sigourney Weaver

Susan Alexandra "Sigourney" Weaver ( si-GOR-nee; born October 8, 1949) is an American actress. Prolific in film since the late 1970s, she is known for her pioneering portrayals of action heroines in blockbusters and for her various roles in independent films. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Grammy Award, in addition to nominations for three Academy Awards, four Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award. Born in New York City, Weaver is the daughter of American television executive Pat Weaver and English actress Elizabeth Inglis. She made her screen debut with a minor role in the romantic comedy film Annie Hall (1977), before landing her breakthrough role as Ellen Ripley in the science fiction horror film Alien (1979). She reprised the role in the sequel Aliens (1986) earning a landmark nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress, and in two more films for the franchise. Ripley is regarded as a significant female protagonist in cinema history. Her other franchise roles include Dana Barrett in the Ghostbusters films (1984–2021) and dual roles in the Avatar film series (2009–present), which rank among the highest-grossing films of all time. In 1989, Weaver won two Golden Globes and two simultaneous Oscar nominations for her roles as Dian Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist and a young associate in Working Girl (both 1988); she also became the first actor to win two Golden Globes for acting in the same year. She then won the British Academy Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in The Ice Storm (1997). Her other film roles include The Year of Living Dangerously (1982), Copycat (1995), Galaxy Quest (1999), The Village (2004), Vantage Point (2008), Chappie (2015), and A Monster Calls (2016). She also had voice roles in the Pixar animated films WALL-E (2008) and Finding Dory (2016). On stage, Weaver's Broadway performances include The Constant Wife (1975), Hurlyburly (1984), Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (2013), and The Tempest (2025); her performance in Hurlyburly earned her a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. On television, she received Emmy Award nominations for her roles in the horror film Snow White: A Tale of Terror (1998), the drama film Prayers for Bobby (2009), the miniseries Political Animals (2013), and for narrating the National Geographic documentary Secrets of the Whales (2021). Her other television projects include the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero miniseries The Defenders (2017) and the drama miniseries The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart (2023).

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