Best known for portraying strong, independent women, Sigourney Weaver was born in 1949 in New York.
Susan Alexandra Weaver began calling herself Sigourney at the age of 14, after a character in the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel The Great Gatsby.
Weaver, the daughter of English actress Elizabeth Inglis and former NBC president Sylvester Weaver, lacked confidence because she was taller than most girls she knew and because of something her mom told her once when she was a kid. “I thought, well, if my mother doesn’t think I’m pretty … no one else will,” Weaver once said.
After graduating from Stanford University, Weaver studied drama at Yale, where she realized she wanted to become an actress.
Following her graduation, Weaver acted in Gemini, 1976, and in several works by Durang, including Titanic, also in 1976.
At that time, Weaver made her film debut as a walk-on in Woody Allen’s Annie Hall.
A few years later, Weaver came to the attention of actor Warren Beatty, who recommended her to Ridley Scott, the director of Alien.
“ I thought it would be a very special film and a well done film. I was sure that in its way it would be a classic. Not being a fanatic scary movie fan, I wasn’t aware of how much people like to be scared. But I was pleasantly delighted at all the screenings I went to,” she said.
In the ‘80s, Weaver tried to play diverse roles across a wide range of genres, and she starred in many films, including The Year of Living Dangerously, Ghost Busters, and Working Girl.
Weaver played many roles in the ‘90s and 2000s, like Dave, Avatar, and The Meyerowitz Stories. In 1996, Weaver helped co-found The Flea Theater in New York with her husband Jim Simpson, Mac Wellman, and Kyle Chepulis.
One of her latest works is the new nature documentary from ASICS that shows how our daily habitats are changing the way we move, with Weaver as the narrator.
Ask us! What questions do you have about content, strategy, pop culture, lifestyle, wellness, history or more? We may use your question in an upcoming article!
Like MediaFeed’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was syndicated by MediaFeed.co
