Sigourney Weaver ~ The ‘Sci-Fi Queen’ Notably Trained

Susan Alexandra “Sigourney” Weaver born October 8, 1949 is an American actress. Dubbed “The Sci-Fi Queen”, Weaver is considered to be a pioneer of action heroines in science fiction films. She is primarily known for her role as Ellen Ripley in the Alien franchise. The role earned her an Academy Award nomination in 1986 and is often considered one of the most significant female protagonists in all of cinema.

Weaver received a Tony Award nomination for the 1984 Broadway play Hurlyburly. A seven-time Golden Globe Award nominee, in 1988 she won both Best Actress in Drama and Best Supporting Actress for her work in the films Gorillas in the Mist and Working Girl, becoming the first person to win two acting Golden Globes in the same year. She also received Academy Award nominations for both films. For her role in the film The Ice Storm (1997), she won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.
Weaver’s other popular works include Ghostbusters (1984), Ghostbusters II (1989), Galaxy Quest (1999), WALL-E (2008), Avatar (2009), Prayers for Bobby (2009), Paul (2011), The Cabin in the Woods (2012), A Monster Calls (2016), and The Defenders (2017).

Weaver was born in Manhattan, New York City, the only daughter of Elizabeth Inglis (née Desiree Mary Lucy Hawkins; 1913–2007), an actress, and NBC television executive and television pioneer Sylvester “Pat” Weaver (1908–2002). Her uncle, Doodles Weaver (1911–1983), was a comedian and actor. Her mother was English, from Colchester, Essex, and her father, who was American, had English, Scottish, Scots-Irish, and Dutch ancestry, including roots in New England. Weaver began using the name “Sigourney Weaver” in 1963 after a minor character (Mrs. Sigourney Howard, Jordan Baker’s aunt) in Chapter 3 of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby.

Weaver attended the Ethel Walker School, a girls’ preparatory school in Simsbury, Connecticut. She also attended The Chapin School and The Brearley School. Sigourney was reportedly 5 ft 10 1⁄2 in (179 cm) tall by the age of 14, although she only grew another inch during her teens to her adult height of 5 ft 11 1⁄2 in (182 cm). In 1967, at the age of 18, Weaver visited Israel and volunteered on a kibbutz for several months.

Weaver attended Sarah Lawrence College. In 1972, she graduated with a B.A. in English from Stanford University, where she first began her involvement in acting by living in Stanford’s co-ed Beta Chi Community for the Performing Arts. Weaver earned her Master of Fine Arts degree at the Yale University School of Drama in 1974, where one of her appearances was in the chorus in a production of Stephen Sondheim’s musical version of The Frogs, and another was as one of a mob of Roman soldiers alongside Meryl Streep in another production. Weaver later acted in original plays by her friend and classmate Christopher Durang. She later appeared in an “Off-Broadway” production of Durang’s comedy Beyond Therapy in 1981, which was directed by the up-and-coming director Jerry Zaks.

Weaver has been married to stage director Jim Simpson since October 1, 1984. They have one daughter, Charlotte Simpson (born April 13, 1990).
After making Gorillas in the Mist, she became a supporter of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund and is now its honorary chairwoman. She was honored by the Explorers Club for this work. Weaver is considered to be an environmentalist.

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 catching fish.

On April 8, 2008, she hosted the annual gala of the Trickle Up Program, a non-profit organization focusing on those in extreme poverty, mainly women and disabled people, in the Rainbow Room.
In 2009, Weaver signed a petition in support of Roman Polanski, calling for his release after he was arrested in Switzerland in relation to his 1977 charge for drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl; she had previously starred in his 1994 film Death and the Maiden.

She is a longtime friend of Jamie Lee Curtis, with whom she starred in the romantic comedy You Again (2010). In a 2015 interview together, Curtis admitted to Weaver that she never saw Alien in its entirety because she was too scared. In 2017, Weaver made a cameo in the English television series Doc Martin. She revealed that the reason behind her appearance was her 40-year friendship with Doc Martin star Selina Cadell.

Weaver has been nominated three times for an Academy Award, three BAFTA Awards (one win) and seven Golden Globe Awards (two wins). She has also earned Tony Award and Drama Desk Award nominations for her work on the stage.

Principal photography for Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 started on September 25, 2017, with Weaver returning; however, she stated that she would portray a different, currently unknown character. She had to learn both free-diving and scuba diving for the film at age 69.

In July 2020, Weaver will be reprising her role as Dana Barrett in Ghostbusters 2020, teaming up with Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd.
Estimated net worth is 50 million dollars.

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