Sigourney Weaver at the premiere of Avatar
Born in New York City in 1949 under the name of Susan Weaver, Sigourney Weaver would go on to dominate Hollywood for more than a decade and become one of the best known actresses of our times.
Taking her stage name from a character from the novel The Great Gatsby, Weaver initially wanted to move to England and pursue a career on the stage, much like her mother.
In 1979 though, everything changed when Ridley Scott cast her as the part of Ellen Ripley his low budget sci-fi horror movie Alien.
Pitting Sigourney against cinema’s most terrifying monster yet, Alien became an enormous hit with both critics and audiences, with nearly all praising Weaver’s brilliant performance.
Having had her big break in Alien, Weaver decided to take on different roles, going on to dominate both the Box Office and the awards during the 1980’s.
The first of these was maybe what made her possibly the iconic actress of the decade, when she took on the role of Dana Barrett in Dan Ackroyd’s immensely popular comedy Ghostbusters.
Changing yet again to action woman two years later with James Cameron’s 1986 classic Aliens, a role that not only secured her an Oscar nomination (she is still one of only a few to get an acting nomination for a sci-fi movie) as well as world wide acclaim and the devotion of millions of fans.
Two years later was possibly Weaver’s most successful year as an actress.
Starring in both romantic comedy Working Girl alongside Harrison Ford and the biopic of activist Dian Fossey in Gorillas In The Mist, she dominated the 1988 awards ceremonies.
Winning both the leading and supporting a
ctress Golden Globes and being nominated for the leading actress Oscar for both films.
Despite being one of only 11 people in the history of the awards to be nominated for the same award twice in a year, she unfortunately missed out on both.
She then went on to reprise her roles in both the Ghostbusters and Alien sequels, cementing herself as a fan favourite, as well as winning award nominations with her performances in dramas The Ice Storm and A Map of The World.
Also loved by the world of voiceovers for her soft tones, Weaver has done vocal roles for animated films Wall E and the Tale of Desperaux, as well as narrating the American version of the groundbreaking BBC documentary series Planet Earth.
Despite a career without any real downturns in work, she has found time to take up other causes along her path to stardom.
Weaver has been a passionate environmentalist ever since her role in Gorillas In The Mist, supporting Dian Fossey’s charity since her portrayal of her.
She gained much publicity before a UN policy conference in 2005 when she spoke out about the dangers of some deep sea fishing methods.
This, along with her involvement with poverty organisation Trickle Up Foundation and her support of Barack Obama’s election campaign last year, there’s never been a dull moment since she fought with an alien in space, even finding time to have her daughter Charlotte Simpson in 1990 with her long time husband Jim Simpson.
Avatar sees the return of Sigourney Weaver to the blockbuster as scientist Dr Grace Augustine, and sees her back under the direction of James Cameron.
When linking up with one of Hollywood’s most pioneering directors again, Weaver claims it that the two are “like an old married couple. I am a perfectionist, and I love working with Jim because I know he is going to stay longer on set than I will.”
Little wonder as she claims that the two have been good friends ever since the 1984 smash hit that took her to become one of Hollywood’s highest paid and highest profile actors.
With her return to the big time this week, and the possibility of her reprising the part of Dana for the much anticipated third Ghostbusters film, it looks like it’ll be an Indian summer for one of cinema’s great leading ladies.
FemaleFirst Cameron Smith
Tagged in Sigourney Weaver Avatar