Sigourney Weaver

Susan Alexandra "Sigourney" Weaver was born on October 8, 1949. Sigourney Weaver is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Warrant Officer (later Lieutenant) Ellen Ripley in Ridley Scott's Alien (1979), James Cameron's Aliens (1986) and in the rest of the Alien film series, as Dana Barrett in the Ghostbusters films, as Jill Bryant in The Year of Living Dangerously (1983), as Helen Hudson in Copycat (1995), as Max Conners in Heartbreakers (2001), as Warden Walker in Holes (2003), and as Dr. Grace Augustine in Avatar (2009). Weaver is also a three-time Academy Award nominee for her performances in Aliens (1986), Gorillas in the Mist (1988), and Working Girl (1988).

Career
Although Weaver has played a number of critically acclaimed roles in movies such as Annie Hall, Gorillas in the Mist, The Ice Storm, Dave, and The Year of Living Dangerously, she is best known for her appearances as Warrant Officer/Lieutenant Ellen Ripley in the blockbuster Alien movie franchise. She first appeared as Ripley in Ridley Scott's 1979 film Alien. She reprised the role in three sequels, Aliens, Alien 3, and Alien Resurrection. She was nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award for portraying Ripley in Aliens. She also starred in two films in 1988, receiving Academy Award nominations for her roles as Katherine Parker in Working Girl and as naturalist Dian Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist. She lost out to Geena Davis and Jodie Foster respectively, although she received Golden Globes for both roles. In 1992, she played Queen Isabella of Spain in Ridley Scott's 1492: Conquest of Paradise - her second film with director Ridley Scott.

Weaver also appeared in Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II as Dana Barrett. She played the role of agoraphobic criminal psychologist Helen Hudson in the 1995 movie Copycat, and went on to become one of the most highly paid actresses of the 1990s. In addition to her trademark role as Ripley, Weaver has recently concentrated on smaller roles such as 1999's A Map of the World and 2006's Snow Cake. She has also appeared in comedic roles, such as Jeffrey (1994), Galaxy Quest (1999), and Heartbreakers (2001), in which she starred with Jennifer Love Hewitt. In 1997, Weaver won the BAFTA Award for her supporting role in Ang Lee's The Ice Storm. In 2003, she was voted 20th in Channel 4's countdown of the 100 greatest movie stars of all time. She was one of only two women in the top 20 (the other was Audrey Hepburn). That year, she also played The Warden in the movie Holes. In 2006, Weaver returned to Rwanda for the BBC special Gorillas Revisited. In 2009, Weaver starred as Mary Griffith in her first made-for-TV movie, Prayers for Bobby, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award. She also guest starred in the TV show Eli Stone in the fall of 2008.

Weaver also has done voice work in television and film. She had a guest role in the Futurama episode "Love and Rocket" in February 2002, playing the female Planet Express Ship. In 2006, she was the narrator for the American version of the Emmy Award-winning series Planet Earth. Also in 2006, Weaver narrated "A Matter of Degrees". A short film that plays daily at The Natural History Museum of the Adirondacks (The Wild Center) in Tupper Lake, New York. In 2008, Weaver was featured as the voice of the ship's computer in the Pixar and Disney release, WALL•E. She also voiced a narrating role in another computer-animated film, 2008's The Tale of Despereaux, based on the novel by Kate DiCamillo. In 2009, Weaver starred in James Cameron's Avatar. Sigourney Weaver has also expressed interest in starring in a fifth Alien film. Pre-production details for the film are expected to start soon. Ivan Reitman has confirmed that Weaver will reprise her role as Dana Barrett in the rumored third Ghostbusters movie due for release in 2012.

Weaver has hosted two episodes of the long-running NBC sketch show Saturday Night Live: once on the 12th season premiere in 1986, and again, on a season 35 episode in January, 2010. Weaver has now broken Madeline Kahn's record for longest gap between hosting appearances on SNL. Kahn had an 18-year gap between her second appearance in 1977 and her third and final appearance in 1995; Weaver, on the other hand, has a 24-year gap between her first appearance in 1986 and her second and most recent appearance in 2010.