Sigourney Weaver

Sigourney Weaver

Actor
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Life Story

Sigourney Weaver was born Susan Alexandra Weaver in Leroy Hospital in Manhattan, New York City. Her father, TV producer Sylvester L. Weaver Jr., originally wanted to name her Flavia, because of his passion for Roman history (he had already named her elder brother Trajan). Her mother, Elizabeth Inglis (née Desiree Mary Lucy Hawkins), was an English actress who had sacrificed her career for a family. Sigourney grew up in a virtual bubble of guiltless bliss, being taken care of by nannies and maids. By 1959, the Weavers had resided in 30 different households. In 1961, Sigourney began attending the Brearley Girls Academy, but her mother moved her to another New York private school, Chapin. Sigourney was quite rather taller than most of her other classmates (at age 13, she was already 5' 10"), resulting in her constantly being laughed at and picked on; in order to gain their acceptance, she took on the role of class clown.

In 1962, her family moved to San Francisco briefly, an unpleasant experience for her. Later, they moved back east to Connecticut, where she became a student at the Ethel Walker School, facing the same problems as before. In 1963, she changed her name to "Sigourney", after the character Sigourney Howard in F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" (her own birth name, Susan, was in honor of her mother's best friend, explorer Susan Pretzlik). Sigourney had already starred in a school drama production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream", and, in 1965, she worked during the summer with a stock troupe, performing in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "You Can't Take It With You" (she did not star in the latter because she was taller than the lead actor). After graduating from school in 1967, she spent some months in a kibbutz in Israel. At that time, she became engaged to reporter Aaron Latham, but they soon separated.

In 1969, Sigourney enrolled in Stanford University, majoring in English Literature. She also participated in school plays, especially Japanese Noh plays. By that time, she was living in a tree house, alongside a male friend, dressed in elf-like clothes! After completing her studies in 1971, she applied for the Yale School of Drama in New Haven. Despite appearing at the audition reading a Bertolt Brecht speech and wearing a rope-like belt, she was accepted by the school but her professors rejected her, because of her height, and kept typecasting her as prostitutes and old women (whereas classmate Meryl Streep was treated almost reverently). However, in 1973, while making her theatrical debut with "Watergate Classics", she met up with a team of playwrights and actors and began hanging around with them, resulting in long-term friendships with Christopher Durang, Kate McGregor-Stewart and Albert Innaurato.

In 1974, she starred in such plays as Aristophanes' "Frogs" and Durang's "The Nature and Purpose of the Universe" and "Daryl and Carol and Kenny and Jenny", as "Jenny". After finishing her studies that year, she began seriously pursuing a stage career, but her height kept being a hindrance. However, she continued working on stage with Durang (in "Titanic" [1975]) and Innaurato (in "Gemini" [1976]). Other 1970s stage works included "Marco Polo Sing a Song", "The Animal Kingdom", "A Flea in Her Ear", "The Constant Husband", "Conjuring an Event" and others. However, the one that really got her noticed was "Das Lusitania Songspiel", a play she co-wrote with Durang and in which she starred for two seasons, from 1979 to 1981. She was also up for a Drama Desk Award for it. During the mid-1970s, she appeared in several TV spots and even starred as Avis Ryan on the soap opera Somerset (1970).

Family

Jim Simpson (1 October 1984 - present) ( 1 child)

Trivia

Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#81). [1995]
Attended the Ethel Walker School in Simsbury, Conneticut.
Her father Sylvester L. Weaver Jr. ("Pat" Weaver), NBC-TV president (1953-55), pioneered the desk-and-couch talk show format that still survives on two programs he created - NBC's shows Today (1952) and Tonight! (1953) (aka "The Tonight Show").
Ranked #71 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]
Changed her name after reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel "The Great Gatsby".
Family: Daughter of NBC-TV executive Sylvester L. Weaver Jr. ("Pat" Weaver) and actress Elizabeth Inglis, older brother, Trajan Weaver. Uncle, actor Doodles Weaver.
Despite gaining fame for action roles, she has a strong dislike of guns; she's also afraid to travel in elevators.
Ranked #13 of Sci-Fi's Sexy 50, by Femme Fatales magazine. [1997]
Speaks French and German fluently.
Received her Bachelor's degree in English from Stanford University in Stanford, California. [1972]
Received her Master's degree in Fine Arts from the Yale School of Drama in New Haven, Connecticut. [1974]
Mother of Charlotte Simpson.
Along with Fay Bainter, Teresa Wright, Barry Fitzgerald, Jessica Lange, Al Pacino, Holly Hunter, Emma Thompson, Julianne Moore, Jamie Foxx, Cate Blanchett and Scarlett Johansson, she is one of only twelve actors to receive Academy Award nominations in two acting categories in the same year. She was nominated for Best Actress for Gorillas in the Mist (1988) and Best Supporting Actress for Working Girl (1988) at the 61st Academy Awards in 1989.

 

Personal Quotes 

I'd rather have a small part in a movie I love than a bigger part in one I don't care about.
Well, I've always admired Margaret Rutherford. Like her, I'd like to play Miss Marple when I'm eighty.
I'm having a wonderful time producing. There are good producers and bad producers. I've learned the hard way what not to do. The ultimate aim is to produce things I'm not actually in. I'm not looking for vehicles for myself. It's not a vanity company.
Some of the most intense affairs are between actors and characters. There's a fire in the human heart and we jump into it with the same obsession as we have with our lovers.
I'd rather work with a first-time director who's passionate about the material. I've done enough movies with old and jaded people who are just like "Let's get this over with".
In Hollywood, if you are a man and speak your mind openly, you're considered a man in full. But if you are a woman and do the same, you're nothing but an annoying bitch.
Usually, all Hollywood wants you to do is what you just did. After The Ice Storm (1997), I was offered a thousand "Ice Storms" and so on. You always get offered the same thing again and again, if you're not very careful. It's up to you to swing back and forth.
These deep sea trawlers are operating beyond the reach of the law. It's up to all of us to change that.
Most people think somebody, somewhere is looking out for the deep oceans, but they aren't.
I've lost a lot of roles because of my height. I'm 6 feet 3 inches in heels. Producers are short and I was never their sexual fantasy. As for actors, if I enter a room and an actor stands up then immediately gets self-conscious and sits back down, I hear myself saying, "This job isn't for me". I once offered to paint my shoes on my bare feet to get one part because it made me appear shorter.

 

Filmography

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