Sigourney Weaver is an American actress best known for her role as Ripley in four Alien movies. Since making her screen debut in 1977’s Annie Hall, Weaver has also appeared in the 1984 blockbuster movie Ghostbusters, the 1988 dramas Gorillas in the Mist and Working Girl, and the 2009 sci-fi actioner Avatar. She was nominated for Best Actress in 1986 for reprising her role of Ripley in Aliens and again in 1988 for her part in Working Girl.
Weaver was born on October 8, 1949. Her zodiac sign is Libra and her middle name is Alexandra.
It appears that Sigourney is non-religious, or an athiest. The evidence for this comes from a statement she gave back in 2008:
“I’m not big on organized religion, but I wanted to convert to Judaism for a while. I went and lived on a kibbutz in Israel, but it was so lame because it was very conservative and all the women worked in the kitchen. It wasn’t a bunch of us out in the fields picking oranges and singing the way I had hoped, you know?” (1)
In all her interviews Sigourney hasn’t expressed any interest in adhering to a religion, so we’re assuming that her interest in Judaism was brief and limited to a time in her later teenage years.
Weaver is a staunch Democrat. She has been critical of overall Republican policy, once saying, “The Democrats are always going to be about what the people need. And the Republicans are much more serving big business.” (2)
She supported Barack Obama in both of his presidental runs as well as Hillary Clinton in her 2016 campaign.
During the making of Gorillas in the Mist in 1987, where she played the part of conservationalist Dian Fossey, Weaver developed an interest in environmental concerns. Today she is the honorary chairwoman of the Dian Fossey Foundation.
As well, Sigourney has supported initiatives to stop deep-sea trawling from damaging ocean coral forests. (3)
Weaver married stage director Jim Simpson in 1984. The couple has one daughter named Charlotte, born in 1990.
“My daughter Charlotte is absolutely the most important thing to me,” Sigourney said. “My family comes first and I’m so grateful to them that they let me go off and make films. But, you know, I find it very difficult to leave them. I hate it. I have had therapy and found it helpful in dealing with the guilt I’ve felt about leaving them. Going to New Zealand to make Avatar when my daughter was applying to colleges almost killed me.” (4)
Sigourney is of English, Scottish and Dutch ancestry. Her mother, Elizabeth, was an English actress who moved to America and married an NBC television executive named Sylvester. Sigourney was their only child.
Her birth name is Susan. As a teenager Weaver changed her first name to Sigourney, after a minor character mentioned in chapter three of The Great Gatsby.
Her nickname is Siggy.
Sigourney counts fellow actress Jamie Lee Curtis as one of her best friends.
Sources:
1: Just Jared
2: Newsbusters
4: The Guardian