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Sigourney Weaver (born Susan Alexandra Weaver on October 8, 1949 in New York City) is an Academy Award-nominated American actress.

Early life

Weaver is the daughter of the late NBC television executive Pat Weaver and Desirée Hawkins Ingles, a British actress. Her uncle was comedian and actor Doodles Weaver.

She began using the name Sigourney Weaver in 1963, after a character in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. She attended high school in New York City and later studied English at Stanford University, then drama at Yale School of Drama where she appeared in original plays by friend and classmate Christopher Durang.

Film career

Although Weaver has played a number of critically acclaimed roles in movies like The Ice Storm, Dave, and The Year of Living Dangerously, she is perhaps best known for her appearances as Warrant Officer/Lieutenant Ellen Ripley in the blockbuster "Alien" movie franchise. Her first appearance as Ripley was in Ridley Scott's 1979 film Alien. She then reprised the role in all three sequels: Aliens, Alien³, and Alien: Resurrection. She was nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award for portraying Ripley in Aliens.

She also appeared in Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II, as Dana Barrett. She played the role of the agorophobic criminal psychologist Helen Hudson in the 1995 movie Copycat.

Dual nominations

In addition to her Academy Award nomination for Aliens, Weaver has received two other nominations in her career. Those two nominations both occurred in 1988; This makes Weaver one of only ten actors and actresses to have received two nominations in the same year. Weaver received a Best Actress nomination for her role as gorilla conservationist Dian Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist and a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her role as Katharine Parker in Working Girl opposite Harrison Ford and Melanie Griffith. She did not win either one; however, she won a Golden Globe award for each role.

Personal life

Weaver married theater director Jim Simpson (of The Flea Theater) in 1984, and they have one child, Charlotte Simpson (born 1990).

After making the movie Gorillas in the Mist, she became a supporter of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund and is now the DFGFI's honorary chairperson.http://www.gorillafund.org/dian_fossey/

Weaver is a committed environmentalist. http://chge.med.harvard.edu/events/#NYC_Dinner As an example of her efforts, in October 2006 she drew international attention through a news conference at the start of a United Nations General Assembly policy deliberation; specifically, the topic was the widespread ocean-habitat threat posed by deep-sea trawling, an industrial method for harvesting fish. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N03201755.htm http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=38361&newsdate=04-Oct-2006

Weaver is notable for her stature, standing 5 ft 11½ in (182 cm) tall.

Partial filmography

References

See also

• List of famous tall women

External links

• The Unofficial Sigourney Weaver Page
• AskMen.com information
• BBC News article on Sigourney Weaver

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