Three-time Oscar nominee Sigourney Weaver has proven herself a capable leading lady in a variety of genres, including science fiction, fantasy, comedy, horror and drama. Let’s take a look back at 16 of her greatest films, ranked worst to best.
Weaver made her film debut with a walk-on role as Woody Allen‘s girlfriend in “Annie Hall” (1977). Her breakthrough came just two years later for Ridley Scott‘s landmark sci-fi thriller “Alien” (1979). As Ripley, the lone survivor aboard a spacecraft besieged by a snarling, ferocious extra-terrestrial, Weaver broke down barriers for female action stars and helped launch a franchise that led to three sequels: James Cameron‘s “Aliens” (1986), David Fincher‘s “Alien 3” (1992), and Jean-Pierre Jeunet‘s “Alien: Resurrection” (1997).
“Aliens” brought Weaver her first Oscar nomination as Best Actress, a rarity for the genre. Not to be typecast, she found further success in a variety of roles that didn’t require donning a space helmet. She pulled off the rare hat trick of receiving two Oscar nominations in a single year: one for the comedic “Working Girl” (supporting) and one for the biopic “Gorillas in the Mist” (lead). Despite winning Golden Globes for both, she left the Academy Awards empty-handed, losing to Geena Davis (“The Accidental Tourist”) and Jodie Foster (“The Accused”), respectively.
Weaver found further success on the stage, reaping a Tony nomination as Best Featured Actress in a Play for “Hurlyburly” in 1985. Her small-screen work also brought her three Emmy nominations as Best Movie/Mini Actress ( “Snow White: A Tale of Terror” in 1998, “Prayers for Bobby” in 2009, and “Political Animals” in 2012).
Take a tour through our photo gallery above of Weaver’s 16 greatest films, including a few roles that should’ve led to Oscar victories.
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16. HOLES (2003)
Image Credit: Snap Stills/REX/Shutterstock Directed by Andrew Davis. Screenplay by Louis Sachar, based on his novel. Starring Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, Patricia Arquettte, Tim Blake Nelson.
This adaptation of Louis Sachar’s young adult bestseller stars Shia LaBeouf as an adolescent with perpetually bad luck sent to a detention center for a crime he didn’t commit. There, he and his cellmates are forced to dig holes under the supervision of an iron-fisted warden (Weaver) and her henchmen (Jon Voight and Tim Blake Nelson) in order to build character. Yet there’s an ulterior motive to all that digging. Directed by Andrew Davis (“The Fugitive”), this is smart, sly family entertainment.
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15. HEARTBREAKERS (2001)
Image Credit: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock Directed by David Mirkin. Written by Robert Dunn, Paul Guay and Stephen Mazur. Starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ray Liotta, Jason Lee, Gene Hackman, Anne Bancroft, Jeffrey Jones, Sarah Silverman, Zach Galifianakis, Nora Dunn.
In “Heartbreakers,” Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt play a mother-daughter con team scamming rich men for their money with the help of some tight, low-cut dresses. The film putters along until Gene Hackman shows up as a chain-smoking tobacco tycoon looking for a new wife. Less successful is the romantic subplot between Hewitt and a kindly bar owner (Jason Lee). This farce from David Mirkin (“Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion”) is far from perfect, but the actors give it their level best, as does the costume designer.
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14. THE VILLAGE (2004)
Image Credit: Frank Masi/Touchstone/Blinding Edge/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Adrien Brody, Bryce Dallas Howard, William Hurt, Brendan Gleeson.
When it was released in 2004, M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Village” was savaged by critics who found its pacing sluggish and its twist ending ludicrous. But group-think be damned! Sure, it’s slow and ridiculous, but it’s also a moody, atmospheric, and creepy thriller about an isolated Pennsylvania community besieged by monsters. Weaver plays one of the town elders, who masks a deep secret about the settlement’s origins. James Newton Howard’s haunting, Oscar-nominated score alone makes the movie worth seeing.
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13. INFAMOUS (2006)
Image Credit: Warner Independent Pictures/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Written for the screen and directed by Douglas McGrath, based on the book by George Plimpton. Starring Toby Jones, Sandra Bullock, Daniel Craig, Peter Bogdanovich, Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, Gwyneth Paltrow, Isabella Rossellini, Juliet Stevenson, Lee Pace.
“Infamous” had the misfortune for coming out a year after “Capote,” which won an Oscar for Philip Seymour Hoffman’s eerie transformation into the famed author. But while the first film was dark and brooding, this one is colorful and bubbly, a more comedic take on the origins of the landmark nonfiction book “In Cold Blood.” Writer-director Douglas McGrath gives further insight into Truman Capote’s (Toby Jones) social life, using his relationships with Manhattan’s upper-crust — such as Babe Paley (Weaver), Bennett Cerf (Peter Bogdanovich), and Slim Keith (Hope Davis) — to contrast his time in Kansas with convicted killer Perry Smith (Daniel Craig).
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12. RAMPART (2011)
Image Credit: Lightstream/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Directed by Oren Moverman. Written by James Ellroy and Moverman. Starring Woody Harrelson, Ice Cube, Ned Beatty, Anne Heche, Steve Buscemi, Robin Wright.
This cop drama from Oren Moverman is pretty much the Woody Harrelson show, but Weaver and several others prop him up with juicy supporting performances. He plays a renegade Los Angeles cop in the notorious Rampart division, which was exposed as a hotbed of corruption in 1999. Weaver is the Assistant DA urging him to retire when he’s caught on camera beating a man half to death after a car crash (proving some things never change). Harrelson is mesmerizing as a gleeful sleaze-bag struggling to balance life and work, but the large ensemble shines alongside him.
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11. A MAP OF THE WORLD (1999)
Image Credit: Kennedy/Marshall/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Directed by Scott Elliott. Screenplay by Peter Hedges and Polly Platt, based on the novel by Jane Hamilton. Starring Julianne Moore, David Strathairn, Arliss Howard, Chloe Sevigny, Louise Fletcher.
Weaver reaped a Golden Globe nomination for playing Alice Goodwin, a school nurse who finds herself in a world of trouble when a young girl dies on her dairy farm. The town continues to turn against her when she’s accused of child abuse. This is one of Weaver’s best roles, a headstrong, self-righteous woman who would rather go to jail than say something she doesn’t believe, and views her imprisonment as a vacation away from home. Equally strong is Julianne Moore as the dead child’s mother and David Strathairn as her loyal husband.
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10. MASTER GARDENER (2022)
Image Credit: Magnolia Writer/Director: David Mamet. Starring Joel Edgerton, Sigourney Weaver, Quintessa Swindell, Esai Morales, Jared Bankens, Matt Mercurio.
In the world of David Mamet, where loners with a past chronicle their darkest thoughts (and often act on them), few vibrant female characters of late have managed to emerge from his dark stories. Not so, though, for “Master Gardener’s” formidable Norma Haverhill, whom Weaver plays to brittle perfection. Norma has been having an affair with Roth (Joel Edgerton), her estate gardener, whom she asks to take her niece Maya (Quintessa Swindell) as his apprentice. When instead he takes Maya to his bed, Norma’s brittle facade cracks, a transformation that Weaver handles with chilling effect.
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9. AVATAR (2009)
Image Credit: Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Written and directed by James Cameron. Starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez.
Weaver reunited with “Aliens” director James Cameron for another sci-fi epic. Set in the year 2154, “Avatar” centers on a paraplegic soldier (Sam Worthington) who travels to the distant planet of Pandora to learn about it alien population. With the help of a liberal exobiologist (Weaver), he’s turned into one of the nine-foot-tall blue men, and during his travels he grows to sympathize with the peaceful dwellers. Though the plot is little more than “Dances with Wolves” meets “FernGully,” the visuals are truly spectacular. It’s record-breaking box office (plus 3 Oscar wins) all but assured a sequel, and indeed, Cameron is working on 4 followups.
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8. GALAXY QUEST (1999)
Image Credit: REX/Shutterstock Directed by Dean Parisot. Screenplay by David Howard and Robert Gordon, story by Howard. Starring Tim Allen, Alan Rickman, Tony Shalhoub, Sam Rockwell, Daryl Mitchell, Enrico Colantoni, Missi Pyle.
If “Galaxy Quest” teaches us anything, it’s that some science fiction fans can really take their devotion too far. That’s what happens when an alien race intercepts reruns of a “Star Trek”-esque series and takes them for historical documents. They then enlist the washed-up cast — including Weaver, Tim Allen, Alan Rickman, Tony Shalhoub, and Sam Rockwell — to take a break from the convention circuit and help them battle a hostile warlord. The film gets a lot of laughs spoofing sci-fi cliches, while the cast relishes satirizing their archetypal characters.
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7. THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY (1983)
Image Credit: MGM/UA/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Directed by Peter Weir. Screenplay by Weir, David Williamson and C.J. Koch, based on the novel by Christopher Koch. Starring Mel Gibson, Bill Kerr, Michael Murphy Linda Hunt, Noel Ferrier.
Peter Weir’s “The Year of Living Dangerously” is best remembered for its gender-bending Oscar win: diminutive Linda Hunt dressed in drag to play a male photographer and won Best Supporting Actress. But Hunt’s performance is far from the only notable quality of this sensual, evocative period drama. Mel Gibson stars as an Australian reporter covering Indonesia in 1965, when the rule of President Sukarno is crumbling and the Vietnam war is imminent. He begins a romance with a British attache (Weaver) as the world around them becomes increasingly unstable. With gorgeous cinematography by Russell Boyd and a sweeping score by Maurice Jarre, this is old-fashioned filmmaking at its best.
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6. DAVE (1993)
Image Credit: Warner Bros/REX/Shutterstock Directed by Ivan Reitman. Written by Dave Ross. Starring Kevin Kline, Frank Langella, Kevin Dunn, Ving Rhames, Ben Kingsley.
“Dave” is one of those delightful entertainments that almost feels like it’s from another time, as if Frank Capra continued his successful run well into the 1990s. Kevin Kline stars as an ordinary man who’s enlisted to impersonate the incapacitated U.S. president and ends up winning the hearts of every American, including the First Lady (Weaver). A ridiculous premise is made believable by the charm of its actors and sparkling wit of Gary Ross’s Oscar-nominated script. If only real life politics worked this way!
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5. GHOSTBUSTERS (1984)
Image Credit: Columbia/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Directed by Ivan Reitman. Written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. Starring Bill Murray, Aykroyd, Ramis, Rick Moranis, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts.
Looking for something that’s spooky, silly and strange? Better call the Ghostbusters. Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson play a team of paranormal investigators ridding Manhattan of ghosts and ghouls. Weaver costars as a woman whose apartment is possessed by demons, while Rick Moranis and Annie Potts score laughs as a nerdy neighbor and a bespectacled secretary, respectively. Director Ivan Reitman never allows the humor to get lost in the mind-blowing special effects, making for a surprisingly smart blockbuster. A sequel, a TV series, and a remake followed, but none have been able to match the charm of the original.
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4. GORILLAS IN THE MIST (1988)
Image Credit: Warner Bros/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Directed by Michael Apted. Screenplay by Anna Hamilton Phelan, story by Phelan and Tab Murphy, based on the book by Dian Fossey and articles by Harold T.P. Hayes. Starring Bryan Brown, Julie Harris, Iain Glen.
Weaver earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination for Michael Apted’s arresting biopic of Dian Fossey, a scientist who traveled to Africa in 1967 to study the vanishing mountain gorillas. Witnessing firsthand the appalling treatment of primates, she becomes a fierce advocate for their survival, which eventually leads to her murder. Weaver tied at the Golden Globes with eventual Oscar-winner Jodie Foster (“The Accused”) and Shirley MacLaine (“Madame Sousatzka”). She also won her supporting bid for “Working Girl” (for which she also competed at the Oscars that year), but left the Academy Awards empty-handed.
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3. THE ICE STORM (1997)
Image Credit: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock Directed by Ang Lee. Screenplay by James Schamus, based on the novel by Rick Moody. Starring Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Henry Czerny, Adam Hann-Byrd, Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci, James Sheridan, Elijah Wood.
In 1973, an ice storm descends upon suburban Connecticut during Thanksgiving. But for the residents of New Canaan, the weather is the least of their troubles. In adapting Rick Moody’s beloved novel, Ang Lee examines the cultural, sexual, and political upheaval of the times through the lens of one seriously screwed-up family. Weaver won the BAFTA prize and reaped a Golden Globe bid as Best Supporting Actress for her performance as a dissatisfied housewife having an affair with her neighbor (Kevin Kline). Though ignored by audiences (and the Academy) in its time, “The Ice Storm” has found a second life as a modern day masterpiece, at times haunting and hilarious, tragic and uplifting.
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2. WORKING GIRL (1988)
Image Credit: 20th Century Fox/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Directed by Mike Nichols. Written by Kevin Wade. Starring Melanie Griffith, Harrison Ford, Alec Baldwin, Joan Cusack, Philip Bosco, Nora Dunn, Oliver Platt.
Weaver contended at the Oscars as Best Supporting Actress for Mike Nichols’ delightful feminist comedy. Melanie Griffith stars as a Wall Street secretary whose brain is as big as her hair, but her evil boss (Weaver) won’t take her seriously. She gets a chance to prove herself when her employer is incapacitated by a leg injury, and she begins to impersonate her in business meetings. Perhaps tired of playing heroic women, Weaver relishes acting as a diva. Despite winning the Golden Globe, she lost her Oscar bid to Geena Davis (“The Accidental Tourist”), perhaps splitting her vote with costar Joan Cusack. Weaver, in fact, went 0-for-2 that night, losing Best Actress “Gorillas in the Mist”) to Jodie Foster in (“The Accused”).
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1. The ALIEN series (1979, 1986, 1992, 1997)
Image Credit: 20th Century Fox/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Directors: Ridley Scott, James Cameron, David Fincher, Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Writers: Dan O’Bannon, Ronald Shusett, Cameron, David Giler, Walter Hill, Larry Ferguson, Vincent Ward, Joss Whedon. Starring Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Yaphet Kotto; Michael Biehn, Paul Reiser, Lance Henriksen, Carrie Henn, Bill Paxton, Jenette Goldstein, Al Matthews; Charles S. Dutton, Charles Dance, Brian Glover, Ralph Brown, Holt McCallany; Winona Ryder, Ron Perlman, Dan Hedaya, J. E. Freeman, Brad Dourif.
When the script for “Alien” was originally conceived, the role of Ripley — the lone survivor aboard a spaceship besieged by a snarling, murderous extra-terrestrial — was written for a man. But director Ridley Scott swapped genders and cast Weaver, at that time a relative newcomer. In the original and each subsequent followup — James Cameron’s “Aliens” (for which she received an Oscar nomination, a rarity for the genre), David Fincher’s “Alien 3,” and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s “Alien: Resurrection,” Weaver proved that women can kick butt with the best of anyone. At the same time, she creates a surprisingly sympathetic character who watches in horror as everyone around her falls victim to her constant companion. The franchise itself, meanwhile, terrified sci-fi fans enchanted by the friendly aliens of “Star Wars” and “E.T.”
