Which actress played Ellen Ripley in James Cameron’s Aliens?

Sigourney Weaver played Ellen Ripley in James Cameron’s Aliens.

Ripley is the central survivor of the first Alien film and becomes the emotional center of Cameron’s sequel. In Aliens, she reluctantly returns to space with the Colonial Marines after learning that contact has been lost with a human colony on LV-426. Weaver’s performance combines fear, determination, and protective concern for the young survivor Newt.

Weaver received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, an unusual achievement for a science-fiction action film at the time. The nomination helped establish Ripley as one of cinema’s most influential action protagonists. Weaver later returned for Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection.

Carrie Henn played Newt, not Ripley. Linda Hamilton worked with Cameron on The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, while Jamie Lee Curtis starred in True Lies. Those casting links can make the names easy to mix up.