continued to appear sporadically at sporting events
into the twenty-first century.
Further Reading
Free, Marcus.The Uses of Sport: A Critical Study. Lon-
don: Routledge, 2004.
Wann, Daniel L.Sport Fans: The Psychology and Social
Impact of Spectators. London: Routledge, 2001.
Michael H. Burchett
See also Fads; Olympic Games of 1984; Sports.
Weaver, Sigourney
Identification American actor
Born October 8, 1949; New York, New York
During the 1980’s, Weaver established herself as an actor
capable of playing strong, aggressive women willing to take
on impossible odds.
At the beginning of the 1980’s, Sigourney Weaver
had just played Ellen Ripley, an independent woman
who takes on the alien inAlien(1979), a moderate
box-office hit. This role set the tone for her film
performances of the decade, especially her reprisal
of the role in the 1986 sequel,Aliens(1986), an-
other successful film for which she received an Acad-
emy Award nomination. Weaver also starred as Dian
Fossey inGorillas in the Mist(1988), a film based on
the life of a conservationist and activist who was
eventually killed by poachers.
Weaver was affected by the film’s material and be-
came an ardent environmentalist, as well as the hon-
orary chairperson of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund,
which is devoted to the preservation of that endan-
gered species. She received an Academy Award nom-
ination for Best Actress for her role as Fossey and
in the same year was also nominated as Best Sup-
porting Actress for playing Katherine Parker, the
conniving, ruthless career woman who finally gets
her comeuppance inWorking Girl(1988). She thus
became one of very few actresses ever to receive two
Oscar nominations in one year. Although she failed
to win an Oscar, she did receive Golden Globe awards
for both films.
In addition to the films of the 1980’s for which she
was best known, Weaver starred in other films in
which she remained true to type. She was an intrepid
reporter in the thrillerEyewitness(1981), and she
played opposite Mel Gibson in Peter Weir’sThe Year
of Living Dangerously(1982), an underappreciated
Australian film in which she portrayed a British
attaché in revolutionary Indonesia. Although she is
less known for her comedic talents, Weaver held her
own inGhostbusters(1984), a hugely popular comedy
featuring Bill Murray and Dan Ackroyd; she re-
peated her role in the sequel,Ghostbusters 2(1989).Impact Standing almost six feet tall, Weaver em-
bodied the strong, powerful, imposing woman of
the 1980’s, a role model for women to emulate.
Whether confronting aliens or poachers, she was a
force to be reckoned with, but she also represented
the aggressive woman many men were encountering
at the office and at home. Thus, she came to stand
for some men as a figure to be feared. The fine line
in film portrayals between strong woman and threatThe Eighties in America Weaver, Sigourney 1035
Sigourney Weaver as Ripley inAlien,the role for which she was
best known at the beginning of the 1980’s.(Hulton Archive/
Getty Images)