Sigourney Weaver filmography and biography
Date of birth: 8 October 1949, New York City, New York, USA
Sigourney Weaver biography
Sigourney Weaver was born Susan Alexandra Weaver, on October 8, 1949, in
Leroy Hospital in New York City. Her father, TV producer
Sylvester L. Weaver Jr., originally wanted to name her Flavia,
because of his passion for Roman history (he had already named her
elder brother Trajan). Her mother, Elizabeth Inglis, was a
British actress who had sacrificed her career for a family. Sigourney
grew up in a virtual bubble of guiltless bliss, being taken care by
nannies and maids. By 1959, the Weavers had resided in 30 different
households. In 1961, Sigourney began attending the Brearley Girls
Academy, but her mother moved her to another New York private school,
Chapin. Sigourney was quite a bit taller than most of her other
classmates (at the age of 13, she was already 5' 10"), resulting in her
constantly being laughed at and picked on; in order to gain their
acceptance, she took on the role of class clown.
In 1962, her family moved to San Francisco briefly, an unpleasant
experience for her. Later, they moved back east to Connecticut, where
she became a student at the Ethel Walker School, facing the same
problems as before. In 1963, she changed her name to "Sigourney", after
the character "Sigourney Howard" in F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The
Great Gatsby" (her own birth name, Susan, was in honor of her mother's
best friend, explorer Susan Pretzlik). Sigourney had already starred in
a school drama production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream", and, in 1965,
she worked during the summer with a stock troupe, performing in "A
Streetcar Named Desire" and "You Can't Take It With You" (she didn't
star in the latter because she was taller than the lead actor!). After
graduating from school in 1967, she spent some months in a kibbutz at
Israel. At that time, she became engaged to reporter
Aaron Latham, but they soon broke up.
In 1969, Sigourney enrolled in Stanford University, majoring in English
Literature. She also participated in school plays, especially Japanese
Noh plays. By that time she was living in a tree house, alongside a
male friend, dressed in elf-like clothes! After completing her studies
in 1971, she applied for the Yale School of Drama in New Haven. Despite
appearing at the audition reading a Bertolt Brecht speech and
wearing a rope-like belt, she was accepted by the school but her
professors rejected her, because of her height, and kept typecasting
her as prostitutes and old women (whereas classmate Meryl Streep
was treated almost reverently). However, in 1973, while making her
theatrical debut with "Watergate Classics", she met up with a team of
playwrights and actors and began hanging around with them, resulting in
long-term friendships with Christopher Durang,
Kate McGregor-Stewart and Albert Innaurato.
In 1974, she starred in such plays as Aristophanes (I)' "Frogs"
and Durang's "The Nature and Purpose of the Universe" and "Daryl and
Carol and Kenny and Jenny", as "Jenny". After finishing her studies
that year, she began seriously pursuing a stage career, but her height
kept being a hindrance. However, she continued working on stage with
Durang (in "Titanic" [1975]) and Innaurato (in "Gemini" [1976]). Other
1970s stage works included "Marco Polo Sing a Song", "The Animal
Kingdom", "A Flea in Her Ear", "The Constant Husband", "Conjuring an
Event" and others. However, the one that really got her noticed was
"Das Lusitania Songspiel", a play she co-wrote with Durang and in which
she starred for two seasons, from 1979 to 1981. She was also up for a
Drama Desk Award for it. During the mid-70s, she appeared in several TV
spots and even starred as "Avis Ryan" in the soap opera
Somerset.
In 1977, she was cast in the role Shelley Duvall (I) finally
played in Annie Hall, after rejecting the part due to
prior stage commitments. In the end, however, Woody Allen
offered her a part in the film that, while short (she was on-screen for
six seconds), made many people sit up and take notice. She later
appeared in Madman and, of course, Alien.
The role of the tough, uncompromising "Ripley" made Sigourney an
"overnight" star and brought her a British Award Nomination. She next
appeared in Eyewitness and
The Year of Living Dangerously, the latter being a great
success in Australia that won an Oscar and brought Sigourney and
co-star Mel Gibson (I) to Cannes in 1983. The same year she
delivered an honorary Emmy award to her father, a few months before her
uncle, actor Doodles Weaver, committed suicide. That year also
brought her a romance with Jim Simpson (I), her first since
having broken up two years previously with James M. McClure. She
and Simpson were married on 1 October 1984. Sigourney had, meanwhile,
played in the poorly received Deal of the Century and the
mega-hit Ghost Busters. She was also nominated for a Tony
Award for her tour-de-force performance in the play "Hurly Burly". Then
followed Une femme ou deux,
Half Moon Street and Aliens. The latter was
a huge success, and Sigourney was nominated for both a Golden Globe and
an Oscar.
She then entered her most productive career period and snatched Academy
Award nominations, in both Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress
categories, for her intense portrayal of Dian Fossey in
Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey and her
delicious performance as a double-crossing, power-hungry corporate
executive in Working Girl. She ended up losing in both,
but made up for it to a degree by winning both Golden Globes. After
appearing in a documentary about fashion photographer
Helmut Newton,
Helmut Newton: Frames from the Edge, and reprising her
role in the sequel Ghostbusters II, she discovered she
was pregnant and retired from public life for a while. She gave birth
to her daughter, Charlotte Simpson, on 13 April 1990, and
returned to the movies as a (now skinhead) Ripley in
AlienAcirc;sup3; and a gorgeous "Queen Isabella of Spain" in
1492: Conquest of Paradise, her second film with director
Ridley Scott. She starred in the political comedy
Dave alongside Kevin Kline, and then a
Roman Polanski thriller, Death and the Maiden.
In 1995, she was seen in Jeffrey and
Copycat. The next year, she "trod the boards" in "Sex and
Longing", yet another Durang play. She hadn't performed in the theater
in many years before that play, her last stage performances occurring
in the 1980s in "As You Like It" (1981), "Beyond Therapy" (1981), "The
Marriage of 'Bette and Boo'" (1985) and "The Merchant of Venice"
(1986). In 1997, she was the protagonist in Grimm's
Snow White: A Tale of Terror (1997) (TV),
The Ice Storm and Alien: Resurrection. Her
performance in The Ice Storm got her a BAFTA prize and
another Golden Globe nod. She also gave excellent performances in
A Map of the World and the sci-fi spoof
Galaxy Quest. Her next comedy, Company Man,
wasn't quite so warmly welcomed critically and financially, however.
She next played a sexy con artist in Heartbreakers and
had a voice role in Big Bad Love. Her father died at the
age of 93. Sigourney herself has recently starred in
Tadpole and is planning a cinematic version of
The Guys, the enthralling September 11th one-act drama
she played on stage on late 2001. She remains a remarkable and
enormously talented actress and, at the age of 52, is still one of the
world's great beauties.
Sigourney Weaver trivia
- (1995) Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film
history (#81).
- Attended the Ethel Walker School in Simsbury, CT.
- Her dad Sylvester L. Weaver Jr. ("Pat" Weaver), NBC-TV president
(1953- 55), pioneered the desk-and-couch talk show format that still
survives on two programs he created - NBC's Today and
Tonight! (aka "The Tonight Show") shows.
- (October 1997) Ranked #71 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie
Stars of All Time" list.
- Changed her name after reading "The Great Gatsby".
- Debuted in Woody Allen 's Annie Hall, duration: 6
seconds.
- Family: Daughter of NBC-TV executive Sylvester L. Weaver Jr.
("Pat" Weaver) and actress Elizabeth Inglis, older brother,
Trajan Weaver. Uncle, actor Doodles Weaver.
- Afraid to travel in elevators.
- (1997) #13 of Sci-Fi's Sexy 50, by Femme Fatales magazine.
- Eye/hair color: brown
- Speaks fluent French and German.
- Graduated from Stanford University in 1972 with a bachelor's degree in
English.
- Born at 6:15 PM EST
- Has one daughter, Charlotte Simpson, was born on 13 April 1990.
- She is one of the elite eleven thespians to have been nominated for both
a Supporting and Lead Acting Academy Award in the same year for their
achievements in two different movies. The other nine are
Fay Bainter, Teresa Wright (I),
Barry Fitzgerald (I) (he has been nominated in both categories
for the same role in the same movie), Jessica Lange (I),
Al Pacino, Emma Thompson (I), Holly Hunter,
Julianne Moore (I), Jamie Foxx and Cate Blanchett.
- Her salary for Alien: Resurrection was more than the
entire cost of the original Alien movie.
- Measurements: 34B-24-35 (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)
- Suffered nightmares for two weeks after reading the script for
The Village.
- Was nominated for Broadway's 1985 Tony Award as Best Actress (Featured
Role - Play) for David Rabe's "Hurlyburly," but lost to a
co-star, Judith Ivey.
- Has worked with three Bagginses. In Alien she works with
Ian Holm, who played Frodo in the BBC radio adaptation and Bilbo
in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. In
The Ice Storm she worked with Elijah Wood, who
played the part in the film. In Aliens the stunt double
for Newt was Kiran Shah, who was also Wood's scale double.
- Before working together on You Again she has co-starred
with nine actors who have also co-starred with Jamie Lee Curtis:
Ray Liotta, Dan Aykroyd, Kevin Kline,
Tim Allen (I), J.E. Freeman, Mel Gibson (I),
Elijah Wood, Philip Bosco (I) and Bill Paxton.
Both have co-starred with Michelle Williams (I). They have also
both worked with composer John Ottman and director
James Cameron (I).
- In many of her roles her character has had to deal with artificially
intelligent spaceships. In the "Alien" movies, she battles them. In
Galaxy Quest, much to her character's chagrin, she
repeated whatever the spaceship said. In addition, on an episode of
Futurama, and in the film WALLAcirc;middot;E, she had
the chance to voice a spaceship.
- Member of jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1998
- Attended the Yale School of Drama
- Remains in contact with her former Aliens co-star
Carrie Henn.
- In the film Alien: Resurrection Sigourney actually managed
to sink the basketball into the hoop backwards on the first take, even
though she wasn't supposed to or intended to. The shot was almost
ruined because Ron Perlman broke character because he was so
amazed.
- Her performance as Ellen Ripley in Aliens is ranked #58 on
Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).
- Her performance as Ellen Ripley in the "Alien" quadrilogy is ranked #8
on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.
- Injured her knee during the shooting of Snow Cake and has
been forced to stop exercising for a year.
- Friend of Selina Cadell.
- Ranked #20 on E4's 100 Greatest Movie Stars. She was the second highest
female on the list behind #13 Audrey Hepburn.
- Along with Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Janet Leigh,
Jodie Foster, Glenn Close, Kathy Bates (I),
Eileen Heckart, Ruth Gordon (I), Patty McCormack,
Nancy Kelly (I), Toni Collette, Ellen Burstyn and
Linda Blair, she is one of the few actresses to have been
nominated for an Oscar for a performance in a horror movie.
- Singer/songwriter Mike Garrigan wrote a song entitled "Sigourney Weaver"
that pays tribute to the actress.
- Dana Barrett, her character in the Ghostbusters films, is the only
character among the leads who did not appear in the animated
adaptation, The Real Ghostbusters (1986).
- Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film
history (#74). [2007].
- Ranked #74 on Empires's 100 Sexiest Movie Stars. (2007).
- Studied acting with Michael Howard in New York City.
- Returned to work nine months after giving birth to her daughter
Charlotte (at age 42) in order to begin filming AlienAcirc;sup3;.
- Lives in New York City, New York and Santa Barbara, California.
Sigourney Weaver quotes
- I'd rather have a small part in a movie I love than a bigger part in one
I don't care about.
- Well, I've always admired Margaret Rutherford. Like her I'd like
to play Miss Marple when I'm eighty.
- I'm having a wonderful time producing. There are good producers and bad
producers. I've learned the hard way what not to do. The ultimate aim
is to produce things I'm not actually in. I'm not looking for vehicles
for myself. It's not a vanity company.
- Some of the most intense affairs are between actors and characters.
There's a fire in the human heart and we jump into it with the same
obsession as we have with our lovers.
- I'd rather work with a first-time director who's passionate about the
material. I've done enough movies with old and jaded people who are
just like, "Let's get this over with."
- I've always regretted having such a serious career because I'm really
more of an idiot.
- In Hollywood, if you are a man and speak your mind openly, you're
considered a man in full. But, if you are a woman and do the same,
you're nothing but an annoying bitch.
- Usually all Hollywood wants you to do is what you just did. After
The Ice Storm I was offered a thousand "Ice Storms" and
so on. You always get offered the same thing again and again, if you're
not very careful. It's up to you to swing back and forth.
- I think I get sent the roles Meryl's [Meryl Streep] not doing.
- These deep sea trawlers are operating beyond the reach of the law. It's
up to all of us to change that.
- Most people think somebody, somewhere is looking out for the deep
oceans, but they aren't.
- I've lost a lot of roles because of my height. I'm 6ft 3in in heels.
Producers are short and I was never their sexual fantasy. As for
actors, if I enter a room and an actor stands up then immediately gets
self-conscious and sits back down, I hear myself saying, 'This job
isn't for me'. I once offered to paint my shoes on my bare feet to get
one part because it made me appear shorter.
- I don't have ambitions, I believe in taking what comes. I have that
philosophy about life in general. I go in and try to transform it into
the best it can be.
- It took me a while to let my hair down in the business because I was
kind of a shy person. I was from New York and never really felt at ease
in Hollywood. I don't really now either but I don't care, it's not
important that I do. Filmmakers find me or I find them.