Keynote Speaker: Sigourney Weaver

Most moviegoers will probably remember this striking, patrician leading lady for her characterization of Ripley, the besieged protagonist of the Alien movies, but she's shown herself to be capable of much more than blasting slimy monsters into atoms. Born in New York to an affluent family (her father is broadcasting executive Sylvester "Pat" Weaver; her uncle was comedian Doodles Weaver), Sigourney, who adopted her name from a character in F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby," attended Yale Drama School and worked on stage before landing a lead in Madman (1976) and a bit in Annie Hall (1977, as Woody's date at the end of the film). Her role as the tough astronaut in Ridley Scott's Alien (1979) made Weaver a recognizable screen player. Having graduated to starring parts, Weaver appeared as a reporter in both Eyewitness (1981, opposite William Hurt) and The Year of Living Dangerously (1983, opposite Mel Gibson). Those films bolstered her standing as a compelling lead, but the immense success of Ghostbusters (1984), in which she played a comically possessed New Yorker romanced by Bill Murray, did more for her career. She played an intelligent hooker in Half Moon Street (1986), and reprised her Ripley characterization-even tougher and more commanding than before-in Aliens (1986, and earned her first Oscar nomination) before pulling off the nifty trick of snagging two Oscar nominations-Best Supporting Actress for her comic turn as the bitchy businesswoman in Working Girl and Best Actress for her portrayal of the devoted anthropologist in Gorillas in the Mist in 1988. She appeared in the lightweight Ghostbusters II (1989), and returned to Ripley (with a shaved head!) in Aliens3 (1992). She then costarred with Kevin Kline in Dave (1993) as an aloof First Lady who falls in love with the President's "double" and took on the demanding role of a former torture victim who confronts her tormentor in Death and the Maiden (1994).

In the past decade she has consolidated her position as one of Hollywood’s most versatile leading ladies while developing her ties to the world of independent films. In 1995 she played a traumatized woman stalked by a killer in Copycat. 1997 saw her reprising the role of Ripley in Alien Resurrection. Two years later she scored a hit spoofing sci-fi films in Galaxy Quest. The same year she dazzled critics with a subtle performance in the independent production The Ice Storm directed by Ang Lee. In the acclaimed independent film Map of the World (1999) she portrayed a woman whose world falls to pieces as a consequence of an accidental death. Her comic talents were put to good use in 2002 in Tadpole, a modestly budgeted satire of the uses to which wealthy women put young men. In The Guys (2002), based on the play by Anne Nelson and directed by James Simpson, she played an editor who must help a fire captain prepare the eulogies for the men he lost on 9/11. In Holes (2003) she returned to big budget Hollywood fare to enact the villainous warden of the juvenile detention camp in the classic children’s tale. Given the range of her roles, there can be no doubt that Sigourney Weaver has helped define the American cinema of the past twenty-five years. Few actors can say the same.

<Adapted from Leonard Maltin’s Movie Encyclopedia>