At a glance
| Born | October 8, 1949, New York City |
| Birth name | Susan Alexandra Weaver |
| Known for | Ellen Ripley in Alien |
| Role | Actor |
Overview
Sigourney Weaver plays Ellen Ripley, the warrant officer who survives the Nostromo and spends three sequels failing to get free of the company that sent her. Alien (1979), Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992), and Alien Resurrection (1997) are the four films. She is not in Prometheus or Covenant. Alien: Romulus uses the world without her. The performance is the reason the series has a person in it instead of only a creature.
Career
Weaver came out of Yale drama and off-Broadway. Alien was an early film role, not a capstone. Ridley Scott cast her as a member of the crew. The film then kills everyone else. Aliens, directed by James Cameron, made Ripley a parent figure to Newt and put her in a power loader. The Oscar nomination for that film was unusual for a science-fiction sequel. Alien 3 kills Newt and Hicks in the opening and strands Ripley with a prisoner colony. Resurrection clones her. She has been frank about which of those films she likes.
The rest of the career is not the creature. Ghostbusters, Gorillas in the Mist, Working Girl, The Ice Storm, and a long run of character parts sit beside the Alien films. Avatar uses her as a scientist on the company side of a different Cameron story. She has returned to the stage between the films. The name Sigourney was one she chose as a teenager, from a minor character in The Great Gatsby.
Alien credits
- Alien (1979) — Ripley
- Aliens (1986) — Ripley, Oscar-nominated
- Alien 3 (1992)
- Alien Resurrection (1997)
Trivia
- She was not a star when Alien was cast. The film made the character the lead by process of elimination.
- The underwear scene at the end of Alien was in the script. She has talked about it as a choice she lived with, not one she designed.
- Aliens is the film that treats her as an action lead. The first film treats her as the last crew member.
- She does not play Ripley in the prequels. Those films are about David and the engineers.
- Birth name Susan. Sigourney is the professional name from early on.