Sigourney Weaver has battled ghosts, aliens, and serial killers throughout her on-screen career. She has also dated actors like Harrison Ford and Mel Gibson and observed the clannish movements of gorillas in the mist and suburban swingers in Connecticut. But before you were aware of her for any of those achievements, she taught a lesson through an outlandish stage act that has lasted for the whole of her five-decade career.
Born Susan Alexandra Weaver, Weaver adopted the name “Sigourney,” taken from a minor character in The Great Gatsby, when she was 14 years old. Weaver’s height (she is nearly six feet tall) and her honeyed voice are some characteristics that won’t change, but she is likable in comedic, dramatic, and action tentpoles and has built an exceptionally flexible career that is on full display this season.
You may have seen Weaver in the independent comedy “The Good House” in which she played Hildy, a witty and frequently soused real estate agent; the following month, New York Film Festival viewers got to know Weaver as Norma, a wealthy woman having an affair with Joel Edgerton in the tense drama “Master Gardener,” which was directed by Paul Schrader.
The 73-year-old actress is now portraying Virginia, an abortion-rights activist, in the historical drama “Call Jane”, and she reteams with Cameron in “Avatar: The Way of the Wind” in December.
Parents and Siblings
October 8, 1949 saw the birth of Susan Alexandra Weaver in New York City. Elizabeth Inglis, her mother, was a Colchester, England, native who worked as an actress in England. She was born Desiree Mary Lucy Hawkins. Sylvester “Pat” Weaver Jr., Weaver’s father, was a Los Angeles-born American television executive who held the position of NBC President from 1953 to 1955 and was responsible for the creation of the Today Show in 1952.
Winstead “Doodles” Weaver, Pat’s brother, was an actor and Mad contributor. Dutch, English, Scots-Irish, and Scottish ancestry made up the American family of her father.
Spouse and Children
Weaver and stage director Jim Simpson have been married since that date in 1984. One non-binary child, born in 1990, resides with them in Manhattan.
