Here, then, is a handy list to fill in the gaps and let you know what you’ve been missing out on all these years, not to mention what’s coming up for this stellar actress.

Annie Hall
Madman Alien
Eyewitness
The Year of Living Dangerously
Deal of the Century
Ghostbusters
Une femme ou deux
Half Moon Street
Aliens
Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey
Working Girl
Ghostbusters II
Alien 3
1492: Conquest of Paradise
Dave
Death and the Maiden
Copycat
Jeffrey
The Ice Storm
Snow White: A Tale of Terror
Alien: Resurrection
A Map of the World
Galaxy Quest
Heartbreakers
Tadpole
The Guys
Holes
Imaginary Heroes
The Village
Snow Cake
The TV Set
Infamous
Happily N’Ever After
The Girl in the Park
Vantage Point
Be Kind Rewind
Baby Mama
WALL-E
The Tale of Despereaux
Avatar
Crazy on the Outside

But it seems possible that Sigourney Weaver, the eternal Ellen Ripley of the Aliens movies, is coming back for another go at the part. She hinted as much, according to a story at ContactMusic.com - or so they say. It seems more like she’s saying she would jump back in the saddle if she wasn’t given a chance, not that the chance has been offered.

Which is fine by us. There is no other Ellen Ripley, after all. She might be getting older now, by Weaver still has the steely guts to pull off the Aliens vet a few more times if she wants.

At the beginning of the movies Ripley is a pilot for a commercial freighter. She travels the universe with her crew towing raw materials from place to place. But that all comes to an end when the first alien infects one of her crewmates and manages to kill the rest of the crew. Only Ripley survives, and she puts herself into stasis.

She’s found 57 years later and, after a period of re-adjustment, starts her life over again. But she’s approached by officials from her old company looking to have her along on a trip to a colony that’s stopped responding. The catch? The colony’s on the same planet the alien came from. After some hemming and hawing she goes along, and meets the same terror - but on a grander scale, as she’s forced to fight against a swarm of the creatures. She does so, escaping the planet (after a titanic battle with the queen alien) with an android, a marine and a little girl they found on the planet, the only survivor of the colony.

But things go bad again, and their ship - on its way back to Earth - crash lands on a prison planet. All members but Ripley die, and as if it couldn’t get worse than to be trapped on a planet full of male convicts, it becomes apparent that an alien egg has come along with Ripley. Even worse, too, she discovers that she’s been infected - with a queen. In the end Ripley throws herself into a lava pit to kill the alien inside herself.

But that’s not the end. The company that had originally tried to capture the alien via Ripley clones her using DNA they found in the lava pit. And, with her comes the alien queen, which they use to spawn a new generation of the creatures on one of their ships - though this is a completely military-owned ship at this point, and its over a hundred years after Ripley killed herself. Working together with a band of hapless mercenaries this new Ripley, part human and part alien, gets off the ship and destroys the whole thing before it can reach Earth and spread the infection.

What happens to Ripley’s clone after that is, as of yet, unknown. But if there’s ever another movie needed, chances are good they’ll bring Weaver in again.

Weaver returns as Ellen Ripley, the only survivor of her cargo ship, found over 50 years after the attack by the titular alien. Having lost her family and her life she’s ready to start over again - but she doesn’t get the chance, as a group of marines led by a slimy corporate executive (played by Paul Reiser) need her to provide advice on a colony that they’ve lost contact with.

Fittingly enough, the colony is located on the same planet that had been home to the alien.

What follows is a series of horrors where Ripley must endure the steady loss of each protecting marine in turn and do her best to survive not just one alien, but an entire colony of them. The movie’s finale is one of the most dramatic ever to be seen as Ripley faces off against the alien queen in a battle to the death.

Aliens is one of those must-see movies. So if you haven’t yet, hurry up and rent it. The movie has been re-released on DVD more times than you can count on both hands.

But did you know that at one point she was part of a chorus? And not just any chorus, but in the Yale production of “The Frogs” in 1974?

It’s true. Weaver graduated from Yale Drama School the same year she performed in “The Frogs”, a Greek tale about the god Dionysus. The same play also featured Meryl Streep, who of course would go on to rival Weaver in her stardom (though the pair were friends then and continue to be friends now, as well as occasional colleagues).

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Available on DVD in a multitude of formats, Planet Earth – narrated by award-winning actress Sigourney Weaver – puts you where you want to be when you can’t be there. It takes the magnificent panorama that is our planet and puts it right in your living room. Your evenings couldn’t be better spent than by watching this documentary and reveling in the splendor of nature.

Weaver plays the part of Ellen Ripley, a member of a hauling crew in deep space. While on their way back to Earth the crew comes across a distress beacon on an uncharted planet. Responding to it, they send down a crew to investigate – only to have one member come back with a parasite on his face. What follows is one of the greatest moments in horror history as the classic alien bursts forth from the man’s chest and proceeds to terrorize the crew.

And the Sigourney Weaver Alien story does not end there. Followed by three other movies – not to mention two spinoffs featuring another iconic move monster, the Predator - Alien is surely Weaver’s crowning achievement, and will be viewed for years to come.

Galaxy Quest is the story of a cast of actors who can find no work beyond their old science fiction show and are forced to attend conventions. Unfortunately being typecast results in their abduction by real aliens, who think the cast will save them from the threat of an evil invading overlord. Led by Tim Allen and Sigourney Weaver, the cast might fight off the overlord and perform as they had on the TV show – only now, their lives are on the line.

The result is a hilarious action comedy that will keep science fiction fans delighted with constant references to their favorite shows, the most prominent by far being Star Trek.