Saturdays with the Stars: Sigourney Weaver

Each month of 2026 we are looking at an actor or actress who found their fame in action films, fighting bad guys & saving the day.  Last month, we talked about Tom Cruise, oftentimes billed as the "Last Great Movie Star."  This month, we're going to make sure that "actress" intro I've said to every one of these biographies isn't just name-checking.  Despite action films being largely a male-dominated field, we're going to talk about a woman who made her initial fame in action films, but still managed to have a really impressive career as a dramatic performer, gaining Oscar attention while headlining several big-name franchises.  This month's star is Sigourney Weaver.

Many of the men we've talked about this year had rough childhoods, ones that it's hard to see how they exactly got to Hollywood.  That is not the case for Sigourney Weaver, born Susan Alexandra Weaver, whose mother was a character actress (who made films with Alfred Hitchcock, Bette Davis, & Edward G. Robinson) and her father was Pat Weaver, the president of NBC, who was the initial creator of The Today Show, The Tonight Show, and who ended up saving Meet the Press from cancellation.  She got her unusual name from The Great Gatsby, an erudite moniker that would complement her Yale education.  While at school, she'd originate a role in Stephen Sondheim's The Frogs, where she'd play opposite Meryl Streep, whom she'd have a friendly professional rivalry with in her early career.

That rivalry led to what would end up being Weaver's first really big role: as Ellen Ripley in Alien.  Streep was considered for the part, but had to turn it down as she was still recovering from the death of her boyfriend John Cazale, and so Weaver got the film, and it would end up becoming one of the biggest movies of the year (it's worth noting that the biggest film of the year, Kramer vs. Kramer, not only starred Streep but won her an Oscar, a distinction Weaver still hasn't achieved).  For decades, Weaver would alternate between big-screen starring roles and character work in smaller dramas.

As a result, it feels to a degree that Weaver might be cheating to include this year.  With the very big exceptions of the Alien and Avatar franchises, Weaver has rarely had major roles in action films, and is probably better known as a dramatic performer than an action star.  One could argue I should be picking someone like Linda Hamilton, Angelina Jolie, or Michelle Yeoh, all of whom have been parts of more varied action films, for this distinction.  But I am picking Weaver because I think she's a fascinating prototype of the women who came after-because it's almost impossible to imagine any of those women getting the opportunities that they did without her Ripley suiting up first.