Ellen Ripley is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Alien film series played by American actress Sigourney Weaver. The character is often considered as one of the best female protagonists of all time: it was heralded for challenging gender roles, particularly in the science fiction, action and horror genres, gave world recognition to Weaver and remains her most famous role to date.
The character has been included in many Best Characters lists: In 2011, Total Film ranked her first of their top of the 100 Greatest Female Characters. Ripley has been selected as the eighth-greatest hero in American cinema history by the American Film Institute, as fifth-coolest hero in pop culture by Entertainment Weekly, the ninth-greatest movie character ever by Empire (the highest-placing female of the list), and the eighth-best movie character of all time by Premiere, In 2011, John Scalzi called her "Clearly the Best Female Character in Scifi Film".
Weaver's performances was highly praised as well: for Aliens, she earned her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, which is now seen as a landmark in the recognition of science fiction, action, and horror genres, when the Academy gave little recognition to science fiction. For her role in the franchise, Weaver has also been nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama, a BAFTA Award for Best Leading Newcomer, and four Saturn Awards for Best Actress, winning one for Aliens.
In the 2000 video game Alien Resurrection, the character is referred as Lieutenant Ellen L. Ripley and is voiced by Lani Minella.
Famous quotes containing the word ellen:
“I know that each stage is not going to last forever. I used to think that when he was little. Whenever he was in a bad stage I thought that he was going to be like that for the rest of his life and that I’d better do something to shape him up. When he was in a good state, I thought he was going to be a perfect child and I would never have to worry; he was always going to stay that way.”
—Anonymous Parent of An Eight-Year-Old. As quoted in Between Generations by Ellen Galinsky, ch. 4 (1981)