Sigourney Alexandra Weaver (born October 8, 1949) is an
American actress. She is best known for her roles as Lieutenant
Ellen Ripley in the
Alien film series and as Dana Barrett in the
Ghostbusters movies. Weaver is also a three-time
Academy Award nominee for her performances in
Aliens,
Gorillas in the Mist and
Working Girl. She is one of the very few actresses who has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in a science fiction movie (
Aliens).
Early life
Weaver was born
Susan Alexandra Weaver in
New York City, the daughter of Elizabeth Inglis (
née Desiree Mary Lucy Hawkins) (d. 2007), an English former actress, and the
NBC television executive
Sylvester "Pat" Laflin Weaver (d. 2002), an American of
Scottish, Ulster Irish and early New England ancestry.
[SIGOURNEY WEAVER - WEAVER'S SCOTTISH ANCESTRY MIX-UP][He is related to Matthew Laflin who was an American Manufacturer of Gunpowder, Businessman, Philanthropist, and a early pioneer of Chicago, Cook County, Illinois.][books.google.com/books?id=5v8TAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA211&lpg=PA211&dq=matthew+laflin&source=bl&ots=GGdxUFYTiq&sig=_ymLht0TzpA-0gDMB90K4rZx0i0&hl=en&ei=As1USqDnNJSotgOdiKCJDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5]
Her uncle,
Doodles Weaver, was a comedian and actor. She began using the name "Sigourney Weaver" in 1963, aged fourteen, after a minor character (Sigourney Howard) in
F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel
The Great Gatsby.
[Sigourney Weaver - Biography][Sigourney Weaver]
