Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-winning actress Sigourney Weaver received worldwide recognition for her role as Ellen Ripley in Ridley Scott’s Alien, Aliens, and two other sequels in the Alien series. She is also known for her roles in the Ghostbusters films, Gorillas in the Mist, The Ice Storm, Heartbreakers, Holesand in Avatar.
Weaver made her motion picture debut in Ridley Scott’s blockbuster Alien. She brought to life a new kind of female action hero through her character “Ripley”: one who was intelligent, resourceful, and unconsciously sexy. She later reprised the role in James Cameron’s Aliens, which earned her Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for best actress; in David Fincher’s Aliens 3, which she also co-produced; and in Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Alien Resurrection.
Following Alien, Weaver had starring roles in three back-to-back hit movies: Gorillas in the Mist, in which she portrayed primatologist “Dian Fossey”; the Mike Nichols comedy Working Girl; and Ghostbusters II. Weaver received her second and third Academy Award nominations and was awarded Golden Globes for her performances in Gorillas in the Mist and Working Girl. Some of her other films include the thriller Copycat; Roman Polanski’s Death and the Maiden; Ridley Scott’s 1492: Conquest of Paradise; One Woman or Two with Gérard Depardieu; Eyewitness with William Hurt; Showtime’s live-action film Snow White: A Tale of Horror, which earned her an Emmy nomination and a Screen Actors Guild nomination; M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village; and James Cameron’s Golden Globe-winning Avatar, the highest-grossing film of all time.
In addition to her film credits, Weaver has also taken time to shine on the stage. She has appeared in numerous Off-Broadway productions and has performed works by Harold Pinter, Tennessee Williams, Georges Feydeau, and Shakespeare. She received a Tony Award nomination for her starring role in “Hurlyburly” on Broadway, directed by Mike Nichols.
On television, Weaver received Emmy, Screen Actors Guild, and Golden Globe nominations for outstanding performance by a female for her role as “Mary Griffith” in Lifetime’s Prayers for Bobby, which received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for outstanding made-for-television movie.
A dedicated environmentalist, Sigourney Weaver narrated the documentary Acid Test, which sheds lights on how carbon dioxide pollution is affecting ocean life. She has testified before a Senate panel on ocean acidification and speaks to audiences throughout the country on the importance of preserving the planet and leading healthy lives.
