Her given name is Susan Alexandra Weaver, but by the age of 14, she had begun to be called Sigourney, inspired by a minor character from The Great Gatsby. Weaver, who is receiving this year’s Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Venice after her last appearance at the Lido in 2022 with Paul Schrader’s Master Gardener, earned a Bachelor of Arts from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, and later obtained a Master of Fine Arts from Yale University’s School of Drama.

One of her early film appearances was a small role in Woody Allen’s Annie Hall in 1977. However, her true cinematic debut came with Ridley Scott’s highly successful 1979 film Alien. “One of the real pleasures of Alien is watching a star like Sigourney Weaver,” wrote Ty Burr of the Boston Globe. Seven years later, in 1986, she reprised her role as Ellen Ripley in James Cameron’s Aliens, earning her an Academy Award and Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress. In 1992, she brought Ripley back to life in David Fincher’s Alien 3, and in 1997, she both starred in and co-produced Alien: Resurrection under the direction of Jean-Pierre Jeunet.

The 1980s were a golden decade for the actress, cementing her status as a Hollywood star. In 1982, she starred in The Year of Living Dangerously by Peter Weir (who will also be honored this year by the Mostra del Cinema with a Golden Lion), alongside Mel Gibson, solidifying her position as a rising star. In 1984, she appeared in the unforgettable Ghostbusters by Ivan Reitman, who would later cast her again in Ghostbusters II in 1989. That same year, Weaver won two Golden Globes: Best Supporting Actress for Working Girl (1988), alongside Melanie Griffith and Harrison Ford, and Best Actress for Gorillas in the Mist (1988). She was also nominated for an Oscar for both roles.

The 1990s saw her remain very active, though without the same level of public success as the previous decade. In 1993, she starred in Dave by Ivan Reitman and in Death and the Maiden by Roman Polanski in 1994. She received Golden Globe nominations for her roles in Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm (1997), for which she won a BAFTA, and A Map of the World (1999), co-starring Julianne Moore. In 1999, she was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Subsequent years saw her in supporting roles in films like Heartbreakers (2001), Tadpole (2002), and The Girl in the Park (2007). She also appeared in the epic Exodus (2014) by her friend Ridley Scott, who had redefined the image of women in Hollywood with her 35 years earlier.