Profile of the Day: Sigourney Weaver

Posted October 8, 2019 by Amanda | No Comment

Happy 70th birthday to actress Sigourney Weaver!

Image: Sigourney Weaver / Gage Skidmore, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

She was born Susan Alexandra Weaver on October 8, 1949 in Manhattan, New York. The only child of actress Elizabeth Inglis and former NBC president Sylvester “Pat” Weaver, Weaver chose to follow her parents into the entertainment industry. At the age of 14, she began going by the name “Sigourney” after a character in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby.

In the early days of her career, Weaver found steady work in off-Broadway shows. It was not until she was cast as the lead in Ridley Scott’s 1979 blockbuster film, Alien, that her career took off. She would reprise the character in three sequels of the Alien franchise and earn her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for Aliens. Weaver’s character, Ellen Ripley, has become one of the most iconic characters in film history.

Although best known for her work in sci-fi, Weaver has tackled a wide variety of roles throughout her long career in Hollywood. She earned two more Academy Award nominations in 1989 for her performance in the films Gorillas in the Midst (Best Actress) and Working Girl (Best Supporting Actress).

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