Jodie Foster
Alicia Christian "Jodie" Foster is an American actress and producer. She has received two Academy Awards, three British Academy Film Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, the Cecil B DeMille Award. For her work as a director, she has been nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. A child prodigy, Foster began her professional career as a child model when she was three years old, she made her acting debut in 1968 in the television sitcom Mayberry R. F. D. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, she worked in several television series and made her film debut with Disney's Napoleon and Samantha. Following appearances in the musical Tom Sawyer and Martin Scorsese's comedy-drama Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Foster's breakthrough came with Scorsese's psychological thriller Taxi Driver, in which she played a child prostitute, her other roles as a teenager include the musical Bugsy Malone and the thriller The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, she became a popular teen idol by starring in Disney's Freaky Friday and Candleshoe, as well as Carny and Foxes.
After attending college at Yale, Foster struggled to transition into adult roles until she gained critical acclaim for playing a rape survivor in the legal drama The Accused, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She won her second Academy Award three years for the psychological horror The Silence of the Lambs, in which she portrayed Clarice Starling. Foster made her debut as a film director the same year with Little Man Tate, founded her own production company, Egg Pictures, in 1992; the company's first production was Nell, in which she played the title role, garnering her fourth nomination for an Academy Award. Her other successful films in the 1990s were the romantic drama Sommersby, western comedy Maverick, science fiction Contact, period drama Anna and the King. Foster experienced career setbacks in the early 2000s, including the cancellation of a film project and the closing down of her production company, but she starred in four commercially successful thrillers: Panic Room, Inside Man, The Brave One.
She has focused on directing in the 2010s, directing the films The Beaver and Money Monster, as well as episodes for Netflix television series Orange Is the New Black, House of Cards, Black Mirror. She starred in the films Carnage and Hotel Artemis. Alicia Christian Foster was born on November 19, 1962, in Los Angeles, the youngest child of Evelyn Ella and Lucius Fisher Foster III, her father came from a wealthy Chicago family whose forebears included John Alden, who arrived in North America on the Mayflower in 1620. He was a Yale University graduate, a decorated U. S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, a real estate broker, he had three sons from an earlier marriage before marrying Brandy in Las Vegas in 1953. Brandy grew up in Rockford, Illinois. Foster has Irish roots, with ancestry that can be traced back to County Cork. Before her birth and Lucius had three other children: daughters Lucinda "Cindy" Foster and Constance "Connie" Foster, son Lucius Fisher "Buddy" Foster, their marriage ended before Foster was born, she never established a relationship with her father.
Following the divorce, Brandy raised the children with her partner in Los Angeles. She worked as a publicist for film producer Arthur P. Jacobs, until focusing on managing the acting careers of Buddy and Jodie. Although Foster was named Alicia, her siblings began calling her "Jodie", the name stuck. Foster was a gifted child, she attended the Lycée Français de Los Angeles. Her fluency in French has enabled her to act in French films, she dubs herself in French-language versions of most of her English-language films, she understands Italian, although she does not speak it, as well as some German and Spanish. At her graduation in 1980, she delivered the valedictory address for the school's French division. A successful actor, Foster attended Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, she majored in literature, writing her thesis on Toni Morrison under the guidance of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and graduated magna cum laude in 1985. She returned to Yale in 1993 to address the graduating class, was awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree in 1997.
Foster's career began with an appearance as the Coppertone girl in a television advertisement in 1965, when she was only three years old. Her mother had intended only for her older brother Buddy to audition for the ad, but had taken Jodie with them to the casting call, where she was noticed by the casting agents; the television spot led to more advertisement work, in 1968 to a minor appearance in the sitcom Mayberry R. F. D. in which her brother starred. In the following years Foster continued working in advertisements and appeared in over 50 television shows, she had recurring roles in The Courtship of Eddie's Father and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, starred opposite Christopher Connelly in the short-lived Paper Moon, adapted from the hit film. Foster appeared in films for Disney. After a role in the television film Menace on the Mountain, she made her feature film debut in Napoleon and Samantha, playing a girl who becomes friends with a boy, played by Johnny Whitaker, his pet lion, she was accidentally gr
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction set in a fictional universe inspired by real world myth and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which became literature and drama. From the twentieth century it has expanded further into various media, including film, graphic novels and video games. Fantasy is distinguished from the genres of science fiction and horror by the absence of scientific or macabre themes though these genres overlap. In popular culture, the fantasy genre is predominantly of the medievalist form. In its broadest sense, fantasy consists of works by many writers, artists and musicians from ancient myths and legends to many recent and popular works. Most fantasy uses other supernatural elements as a main plot element, theme, or setting. Magic and magical creatures are common in many of these worlds. An identifying trait of fantasy is the author's reliance on imagination to create narrative elements that do not have to rely on history or nature to be coherent; this differs from realistic fiction in that realistic fiction has to attend to the history and natural laws of reality, where fantasy does not.
An author applies his or her imagination to come up with characters and settings that are impossible in reality. Many fantasy authors use real-world mythology as inspiration. For instance, a narrative that takes place in an imagined town in the northeastern United States could be considered realistic fiction as long as the plot and characters are consistent with the history of a region and the natural characteristics that someone, to the northeastern United States expects. Fantasy has been compared to science fiction and horror because they are the major categories of speculative fiction. Fantasy is distinguished from science fiction by the plausibility of the narrative elements. A science fiction narrative is unlikely, though possible through logical scientific or technological extrapolation, where fantasy narratives do not need to be scientifically possible. Authors have to rely on the readers' suspension of disbelief, an acceptance of the unbelievable or impossible for the sake of enjoyment, in order to write effective fantasies.
Despite both genres' heavy reliance on the supernatural and horror are distinguishable. Horror evokes fear through the protagonists' weaknesses or inability to deal with the antagonists. Elements of the supernatural and the fantastic were a part of literature from its beginning. Fantasy elements occur throughout the ancient Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh; the ancient Babylonian creation epic, the Enûma Eliš, in which the god Marduk slays the goddess Tiamat, contains the theme of a cosmic battle between good and evil, characteristic of the modern fantasy genre. Genres of romantic and fantasy literature existed in ancient Egypt; the Tales of the Court of King Khufu, preserved in the Westcar Papyrus and was written in the middle of the second half of the eighteenth century BC, preserves a mixture of stories with elements of historical fiction and satire. Egyptian funerary texts preserve mythological tales, the most significant of which are the myths of Osiris and his son Horus. Folk tales with fantastic elements intended for adults were a major genre of ancient Greek literature.
The comedies of Aristophanes are filled with fantastic elements his play The Birds, in which an Athenian man builds a city in the clouds with the birds and challenges Zeus's authority. Ovid's Metamorphoses and Apuleius's The Golden Ass are both works that influenced the development of the fantasy genre by taking mythic elements and weaving them into personal accounts. Both works involve complex narratives in which humans beings are transformed into animals or inanimate objects. Platonic teachings and early Christian theology are major influences on the modern fantasy genre. Plato used allegories to convey many of his teachings, early Christian writers interpreted both the Old and New Testaments as employing parables to relay spiritual truths; this ability to find meaning in a story, not true became the foundation that allowed the modern fantasy genre to develop. The most well known fiction from the Islamic world was The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, a compilation of many ancient and medieval folk tales.
Various characters from this epic have become cultural icons in Western culture, such as Aladdin and Ali Baba. Hindu mythology was an evolution of the earlier Vedic mythology and had many more fantastical stories and characters in the Indian epics; the Panchatantra, for example, used various animal fables and magical tales to illustrate the central Indian principles of political science. Chinese traditions have been influential in the vein of fantasy known as Chinoiserie, including such writers as Ernest Bramah and Barry Hughart. Beowulf is among the best known of the Nordic tales in the English speaking world, has had deep influence on the fantasy genre. Norse mythology, as found in the Elder Edda and the Younger Edda, includes such figures as Odin and his fellow Aesir, dwarves, elves and giants; these elements have been directly imported into various fantasy works. The separate folklore of Ireland and Scotland has sometimes been us
Alien (film)
Alien is a 1979 science-fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Dan O'Bannon. Based on a story by O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett, it follows the crew of the commercial space tug Nostromo who encounter the eponymous Alien, a deadly and aggressive extraterrestrial set loose on the ship; the film stars Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Yaphet Kotto. It was produced by Gordon Carroll, David Giler and Walter Hill through their company Brandywine Productions, was distributed by 20th Century Fox. Giler and Hill made additions to the script; the Alien and its accompanying artifacts were designed by the Swiss artist H. R. Giger, while concept artists Ron Cobb and Chris Foss designed the more human settings. Alien was released on September 6 in the United Kingdom, it was met with critical acclaim and box office success, winning the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, three Saturn Awards, a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, along with numerous other nominations.
It has been praised in the years since its release, is considered one of the greatest films of all time. In 2002, Alien was deemed "culturally or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. In 2008, it was ranked by the American Film Institute as the seventh-best film in the science fiction genre, as the thirty-third greatest film of all time by Empire magazine; the success of Alien spawned a media franchise of films, comic books, video games, toys. It launched Weaver's acting career, providing her with her first lead role; the story of her character's encounters with the Alien creatures became the thematic and narrative core of the sequels Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection. A crossover with the Predator franchise produced the Alien vs. Predator films, which includes Alien vs. Predator and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem. A prequel series includes Alien: Covenant; the commercial space tug Nostromo is on a return trip to Earth with a seven-member crew in stasis, Captain Dallas, Executive Officer Kane, Warrant Officer Ripley, Navigator Lambert, Science Officer Ash and two Engineers and Brett.
Detecting a transmission from nearby moon LV-426, the ship's computer, awakens the crew. Company policy requires any potential distress signal be investigated, so they land on the moon, sustaining damage from its atmosphere and rocky landscape. Parker and Brett repair the ship while Dallas and Lambert head out to investigate, they discover the signal comes from a derelict alien ship and enter it, losing communication with the Nostromo. Ripley deciphers part of the transmission, determining it to be a warning, but cannot relay this information to those on the derelict ship. Meanwhile, Kane discovers a chamber containing hundreds of large egg-like objects; when he touches one, a creature springs out, breaks through his helmet, attaches itself to his face. Dallas and Lambert carry the unconscious Kane back to the Nostromo; as acting senior officer, Ripley refuses to let them aboard, citing quarantine regulations, but Ash overrides her decision and lets them inside. Ash attempts to remove the creature from Kane's face but stops when he discovers that its blood is an corrosive acid.
It detaches on its own and is found dead. The ship is repaired, the crew lifts off. Kane is otherwise unharmed. During a final crew meal before returning to stasis, he convulses. A small alien creature bursts from Kane's chest, killing him, escapes into the ship; the crew attempts to locate it with tracking devices and capture or kill it with nets, electric prods and flamethrowers. Brett follows the crew's cat Jones into a huge supply room, where the now fully-grown alien attacks and disappears with his body. After heated discussion, the crew decide. Dallas enters the ducts, intending to force the alien into an airlock, but it ambushes and kills him. Lambert implores the others to escape in its small shuttle. Now in command, Ripley explains it will not support four people and pursues the plan of flushing out the alien. Now with access to Mother, Ripley discovers Ash has been secretly ordered by the company to bring the alien back, with the crew deemed expendable, she confronts Ash. Parker intervenes and clubs Ash, revealing him to be an android.
Ash's head is reactivated, they learn he was assigned to ensure the creature's survival. He expresses admiration for the creature's psychology, unhindered by conscience or morality, taunts them about their chances of survival. Ripley cuts off his power; the remaining crew decides to escape in the shuttle. Parker and Lambert are killed by the creature. Ripley initiates the self-destruct sequence, but finds the alien blocking her path to the shuttle, she attempts unsuccessfully to abort the self-destruct. With no further options, she makes her way to the shuttle and escapes as the Nostromo explodes; as Ripley prepares for stasis, she discovers that the alien is aboard, having wedged itself into a narrow space. She uses gas to flush the creature out, it approaches Ripley, but be
Blythe Danner
Blythe Katherine Danner is an American actress. She is the recipient of several accolades, including two Primetime Emmy Awards for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Izzy Huffstodt on Huff, a Tony Award for Best Actress for her performance in Butterflies Are Free on Broadway. Danner was twice nominated for the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for portraying Marilyn Truman on Will & Grace, the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for her roles in We Were the Mulvaneys and Back When We Were Grownups. For the latter, she received a Golden Globe Award nomination. Danner played its sequels Meet the Fockers and Little Fockers, she has collaborated on several occasions with Woody Allen, appearing in three of his films: Another Woman and Husbands and Wives. Her other notable film credits include 1776, Hearts of the West, The Great Santini, Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, The Prince of Tides, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything!
Julie Newmar, The Myth of Fingerprints, The X-Files, Forces of Nature, The Last Kiss, Hello I Must Be Going, I'll See You in My Dreams, What They Had. Danner is the widow of Bruce Paltrow, she is the mother of director Jake Paltrow. Danner was born in Philadelphia, the daughter of Katharine and Harry Earl Danner, a bank executive, she has opera singer and actor Harry Danner. Danner has Pennsylvania Dutch, some English and Irish, ancestry. Danner graduated from George School, a Quaker high school located near Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania in 1960. A graduate of Bard College, Danner's first roles included the 1967 musical Mata Hari, the 1968 Off-Broadway production of Summertree, her early Broadway appearances included Cyrano de Bergerac and her Theatre World Award-winning performance in The Miser. She won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for portraying a free-spirited divorcée in Butterflies Are Free. In 1972, Danner portrayed Martha Jefferson in the film version of 1776; that same year, she played a wife whose husband has been unfaithful, opposite Peter Falk and John Cassavetes, in the Columbo episode "Etude in Black".
Her earliest starring film role was opposite Alan Alda in To Kill a Clown. Danner appeared in the episode of M*A*S*H entitled "The More I See You", playing the love interest of Alda's character Hawkeye Pierce, she played lawyer Amanda Bonner in television's Adam's Rib opposite Ken Howard as Adam Bonner. She played Zelda Fitzgerald in F. Scott Fitzgerald and'The Last of the Belles', she was the eponymous heroine in the film Lovin' Molly. She appeared in Futureworld. In the 1982 TV movie Inside the Third Reich, she played the wife of Albert Speer. In the film version of Neil Simon's semi-autobiographical play Brighton Beach Memoirs, she portrayed a middle-aged Jewish mother, she has appeared in two films based on the novels of Pat Conroy, The Great Santini and The Prince of Tides, as well as two television movies adapted from books by Anne Tyler, Saint Maybe and Back When We Were Grownups, both for the Hallmark Hall of Fame. Danner appeared opposite Robert De Niro in the 2000 comedy hit Meet the Parents, its sequels, Meet the Fockers and Little Fockers.
From 2001 to 2006, she appeared on NBC's sitcom Will & Grace as Will Truman's mother Marilyn. From 2004 to 2006, she starred in the main cast of the comedy-drama series Huff. In 2005, she was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards for her work on Will & Grace and the television film Back When We Were Grownups, winning for her role in Huff; the following year, she won a second consecutive Emmy Award for Huff. For 25 years, she has been a regular performer at the Williamstown Summer Theater Festival, where she serves on the Board of Directors. In 2006, Danner was awarded an inaugural Katharine Hepburn Medal by Bryn Mawr College's Katharine Houghton Hepburn Center. In 2015, Danner was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. Danner has been involved in environmental issues such as recycling and conservation for over 30 years, she has been active with INFORM, Inc. is on the Board of Environmental Advocates of New York and the Board of Directors of the Environmental Media Association, won the 2002 EMA Board of Directors Ongoing Commitment Award.
In 2011, Danner joined Moms Clean Air Force, to help call on parents to join in the fight against toxic air pollution. After the death of her husband Bruce Paltrow from oral cancer, she became involved with the nonprofit Oral Cancer Foundation. In 2005, she filmed a public service announcement to raise public awareness of the disease and the need for early detection, she has since given interviews in such magazines as People. The Bruce Paltrow Oral Cancer Fund, administered by the Oral Cancer Foundation, raises funding for oral cancer research and treatment, with a particular focus on those communities in which healthcare disparities exist, she has appeared in commercials for Prolia, a brand of denosumab used in the treatment of osteoporosi
Lois Lane
Lois Lane is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, she first appeared in Action Comics #1. Lois is an award-winning journalist for the Metropolis newspaper the Daily Planet and the primary love interest of the superhero Superman and his alter-ego Clark Kent. In DC continuity, she is his wife and the mother of their son, Jonathan Samuel Kent, the current Superboy in the DC Universe. Lois' physical appearance was based on Joanne Carter, a model hired by Joe Shuster. For her character, Jerry Siegel was inspired by actress Glenda Farrell's portrayal of the fictional reporter Torchy Blane in a series of films. Siegel took her name from actress Lola Lane, she was influenced by the real-life journalist Nellie Bly. Depictions of the character have varied spanning the comics and other media adaptations; the original Golden Age version of Lois Lane, as well as versions of her from the 1970s onwards, portrays Lois as a tough-as-nails journalist and intellectually equal to Superman.
During the Silver Age of Comics, she was the star of Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane, a comic book series that had a light and humorous tone. Beginning in 2015, she is the protagonist in the young adult novel series, Lois Lane, by writer Gwenda Bond. Lois is among the best-known female comic book characters, she has appeared in various media adaptations. Actress Noel Neill first portrayed Lois Lane in the 1940s Superman film series and reprised her role in the 1950s television series Adventures of Superman, replacing Phyllis Coates from season two. Margot Kidder played the character in four Superman films in the 1970s and 1980s, Kate Bosworth in the 2006 film Superman Returns, Amy Adams in the DC Extended Universe. In the 1990s television series, she was portrayed by Teri Hatcher in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and Erica Durance in the 2000s series, Smallville. Most Elizabeth Tulloch appeared as Lois in the Arrowverse television series. Actresses who have voiced Lois in animated adaptations include Joan Alexander in the Fleischer Superman cartoons and Dana Delany in Superman: The Animated Series, among others.
Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster first conceived Lois Lane in 1934, when they were still developing Superman. One of the major influence on Lois' characterization was actress Glenda Farrell and her portrayal of the fictional reporter Torchy Blane in a series of Warner Bros. films. The Torchy Blane movies were popular second features during the 1930s. On the conception of Lois Lane, Jerry Siegel stated in the 1988 Time magazine: My wife Joanne was Joe's original art model for Superman's girlfriend Lois Lane back in the 1930s. Our heroine was, of course. What inspired me in the creation was Glenda Farrell, the movie star who portrayed Torchy Blane, a gutsy, beautiful headline-hunting reporter, in a series of exciting motion pictures; because the name of the actress Lola Lane appealed to me, I called my character Lois Lane. Strangely, the characterization of Lois is amazingly like the real-life personality of my lovely wife. Joe Shuster based Lois' physical appearance on a model name Joanne Carter. Carter had placed an ad in the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper in the Situation Wanted column, advertising herself as a model.
Shuster hired her as the model for Lois Lane. Shuster's depiction of Lois was modeled on facial features. "To me she was Lois Lane. She was a great inspiration for me, though, she encouraged me, she was enthusiastic about the strip. Shuster said about Joanne Carter. Joanne Carter married co-creator Jerry Siegel in 1948. On working with Joe Shuster for Lois Lane, Carter said in the 1983 Nemo magazine interview: "Joe was redrawing the strip, it was going to be more realistic, rather than cartoony. I used to model for him every Saturday, he made so many stock drawings. We became such good friends by that time we decided we would always stay friends." Lois Lane made her debut in Action Comics #1 the first published Superman story, was one of the first female comic book characters introduced in the superhero comics. Lois is the daughter of Ella and Sam Lane, in earlier comics, her parents were farmers in a town called Pittsdale; the modern comics depicts Lois as a former Army brat, born at Ramstein Air Base with Lois having been trained by her father, a US Army General, in areas such as hand-to-hand combat and the use of firearms.
She has her sister Lucy Lane. Lois is a journalist for the Daily Planet, one of the best investigative reporters and the best at the newspaper she works at. In some stories, she has been shown obtaining superpowers and becoming a superhero, some of her superhero identities are Superwoman and Red Tornado of Earth 2. Aspects of Lois' personality have varied over the years, depending on the comic book writers handling of the character and American social attitudes toward women at the time. In most incarnations, she is shown to be an independent person, smart and strong-willed, her physical appearance has varied over the years, depending either on contemporary fashion or media adaptations. In the 1990s, when the television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman began airing Lois received a haircut that made her look more like actress Teri Hatcher, her eyes were violet to match her character on Superman: The Animated Series. From the late 1980s through the 1990s she was depicted with auburn hair in the comic books.
In the 1940s, Lois had a newspaper comic strip, Lois Lane, Girl Reporter, a direct spin-off o
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of speculative fiction dealing with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, extraterrestrials in fiction. Science fiction explores the potential consequences of scientific other various innovations, has been called a "literature of ideas." "Science fiction" is difficult to define as it includes a wide range of concepts and themes. James Blish wrote: "Wells used the term to cover what we would today call'hard' science fiction, in which a conscientious attempt to be faithful to known facts was the substrate on which the story was to be built, if the story was to contain a miracle, it ought at least not to contain a whole arsenal of them."Isaac Asimov said: "Science fiction can be defined as that branch of literature which deals with the reaction of human beings to changes in science and technology." According to Robert A. Heinlein, "A handy short definition of all science fiction might read: realistic speculation about possible future events, based solidly on adequate knowledge of the real world and present, on a thorough understanding of the nature and significance of the scientific method."Lester del Rey wrote, "Even the devoted aficionado or fan—has a hard time trying to explain what science fiction is," and that the reason for there not being a "full satisfactory definition" is that "there are no delineated limits to science fiction."
Author and editor Damon Knight summed up the difficulty, saying "science fiction is what we point to when we say it." Mark C. Glassy described the definition of science fiction as U. S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart did with the definition of pornography: "I know it when I see it." Science fiction had its beginnings in a time when the line between myth and fact was arguably more blurred than the present day. Written in the 2nd century CE by the satirist Lucian, A True Story contains many themes and tropes that are characteristic of contemporary science fiction, including travel to other worlds, extraterrestrial lifeforms, interplanetary warfare, artificial life; some consider it the first science-fiction novel. Some of the stories from The Arabian Nights, along with the 10th-century The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter and Ibn al-Nafis's 13th-century Theologus Autodidactus contain elements of science fiction. Products of the Age of Reason and the development of modern science itself, Johannes Kepler's Somnium, Francis Bacon's New Atlantis, Cyrano de Bergerac's Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon and The States and Empires of the Sun, Margaret Cavendish's "The Blazing World", Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Ludvig Holberg's Nicolai Klimii Iter Subterraneum and Voltaire's Micromégas are regarded as some of the first true science-fantasy works.
Indeed, Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan considered Somnium the first science-fiction story. Following the 18th-century development of the novel as a literary form, Mary Shelley's books Frankenstein and The Last Man helped define the form of the science-fiction novel. Brian Aldiss has argued. Edgar Allan Poe wrote several stories considered science fiction, including "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall" which featured a trip to the Moon. Jules Verne was noted for his attention to detail and scientific accuracy Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea which predicted the contemporary nuclear submarine. In 1887, the novel El anacronópete by Spanish author Enrique Gaspar y Rimbau introduced the first time machine. Many critics consider H. G. Wells one of science fiction's most important authors, or "the Shakespeare of science fiction." His notable science-fiction works include The Time Machine, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds. His science fiction imagined alien invasion, biological engineering and time travel.
In his non-fiction futurologist works he predicted the advent of airplanes, military tanks, nuclear weapons, satellite television, space travel, something resembling the World Wide Web. In 1912, Edgar Rice Burroughs published A Princess of Mars, the first of his three-decade-long planetary romance series of Barsoom novels, set on Mars and featuring John Carter as the hero. In 1926, Hugo Gernsback published the first American science-fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, in which he wrote: By'scientifiction' I mean the Jules Verne, H. G. Wells and Edgar Allan Poe type of story—a charming romance intermingled with scientific fact and prophetic vision... Not only do these amazing tales make tremendously interesting reading—they are always instructive, they supply knowledge... in a palatable form... New adventures pictured for us in the scientifiction of today are not at all impossible of realization tomorrow... Many great science stories destined to be of historical interest are still to be written...
Posterity will point to them as having blazed a new trail, not only in literature and fiction, but progress as well. In 1928, E. E. "Doc" Smith's first published work, The Skylark of Space, written in collaboration with Lee Hawkins Garby, appeared in Amazing Stories. It is called the first great space opera; the same year, Philip Francis Nowlan's original Buck Rogers story, Armageddon 2419 appeared in Amazing Stories. This was followed by the first serious science-fiction comic. In 1937, John W. Campbell became editor of Astounding Science Fiction, an event, sometimes conside
Sigourney Weaver
Susan Alexandra "Sigourney" Weaver is an American actress. Dubbed "the Sci-Fi Queen", Weaver is considered to be pioneer of action heroines in science fiction films, she is known for her role as Ellen Ripley in the Aliens franchise. The role earned her an Academy Award nomination in 1986 and is considered one of the most significant female protagonists in all of cinema. Weaver received a Tony Award nomination for the 1984 Broadway play Hurlyburly. A seven-time Golden Globe Award nominee, in 1988 she won both Best Actress in Drama and Best Supporting Actress for her work in the films Gorillas in the Mist and Working Girl, becoming the first person to win two acting Golden Globes in the same year, she received Academy Award nominations for both films. For her role in the film The Ice Storm, she won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Weaver's other popular works include Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters II, Galaxy Quest, Futurama, WALL-E, Paul, The Cabin in the Woods, Finding Dory, A Monster Calls.
Weaver was born in Manhattan, New York City, the only daughter of Elizabeth Inglis, an actress, NBC television executive and television pioneer Sylvester "Pat" Weaver. Her uncle, Doodles Weaver, was a actor, her mother was English, from Colchester and her father, American, had English, Scots-Irish, Dutch ancestry, including roots in New England. Weaver began using the name "Sigourney Weaver" in 1963 after a minor character in Chapter 3 of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby. Weaver attended a girls' preparatory school in Simsbury, Connecticut, she attended The Chapin School and The Brearley School. Sigourney was 5 ft 10 1⁄2 in tall by the age of 14, although she only grew another inch during her teens to her adult height of 5 ft 11 1⁄2 in. In 1967, at the age of 18, Weaver volunteered on a kibbutz for several months. Weaver attended Sarah Lawrence College. In 1972, she graduated with a B. A. in English from Stanford University, where she first began her involvement in acting by living in Stanford's co-ed Beta Chi Community for the Performing Arts.
Weaver earned her Master of Fine Arts degree at the Yale University School of Drama in 1974, where one of her appearances was in the chorus in a production of Stephen Sondheim's musical version of The Frogs, another was as one of a mob of Roman soldiers alongside Meryl Streep in another production. Weaver acted in original plays by her friend and classmate Christopher Durang, she appeared in an "Off-Broadway" production of Durang's comedy Beyond Therapy in 1981, directed by the up-and-coming director Jerry Zaks. Weaver's first role is said to be in Woody Allen's comedy Annie Hall playing a non speaking role opposite Allen. Weaver appeared two years as Warrant Officer / Lieutenant Ripley in Ridley Scott's blockbuster film Alien, in a role designated to co-star British-born actress, Veronica Cartwright, until a late change in casting. Cartwright stated to World Entertainment News Network that she was in England ready to start work on Alien when she discovered that she would be playing the navigator Lambert in the project, Weaver had been given the lead role of Ripley.
She reprised the role in the three sequels of the Alien movie franchise, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection. Ty Burr of The Boston Globe states, "One of the real pleasures of Alien is to watch the emergence of both Ellen Ripley as a character and Sigourney Weaver as a star."In the sequel Aliens directed by James Cameron, critic Roger Ebert wrote, "Weaver, onscreen all the time, comes through with a strong, sympathetic performance: She's the thread that holds everything together." She followed the success of Alien appearing opposite Mel Gibson in The Year of Living Dangerously released to critical acclaim and as Dana Barrett in Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II. By the end of the decade, Weaver appeared in two of her most memorable and critically acclaimed performances. In 1988, she starred as Dian Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist; the same year, she appeared opposite Harrison Ford in a supporting role as Katharine Parker in the film Working Girl. Weaver won Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress for her two roles that year.
She received two Academy Award nominations in 1988, for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Working Girl and Best Actress for Gorillas in the Mist. She gave birth to her daughter Charlotte Simpson taking a few years' break from the movie business and focusing on her family, she returned to the big screen with Alien 3 and Ridley's Scott's 1492: Conquest of Paradise in which she played the role of Queen Isabella. In the early 1990s, Weaver appeared in several films including Dave opposite Kevin Kline and Frank Langella. In 1994, she starred in the Maiden as Paulina Escobar, she played the role of agoraphobic criminal psychologist Helen Hudson in the movie Copycat. Throughout the 1990s decade, Weaver concentrated on smaller and supporting roles such as Jeffrey with Nathan Lane and Patrick Stewart. In 1997, she appeared in Ang Lee's The Ice Storm, her role in The Ice Storm as Janey Carver, earned her another Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress, won her a BAFTA Award for Actress in a Supporting Role.
In 1999, she co-starred in the science fiction comedy Galaxy Quest and the drama A Map of the World, earning her another Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress
