Jacki Weaver Biography

Jacki Weaver AO (birth name: Jacqueline Ruth Weaver) is an Australian theatre, film, and TV actress who is known internationally for her roles in the films Animal Kingdom (2010) as Janine “Smurf” Cody and Silver Linings Playbook (2012). Both of these films led to her nominations for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

She has her own autobiography titled Much Love, Jac that she released in 2005. She is also known for her performance in the 70s Ozploitation films like Stork (1971), Alvin Purple (1973), and Petersen (1974).

In 1970, Jacki Weaver made headlines for having a child out of wedlock. This scandal did little to hamper her career, however. Weaver had a major career breakthrough with the 1971 comedy Stork, which be proved to be a big hit with audiences as well as critics. Jacki Weaver won an Australian Film Institute Award for her work on the film. More films followed, such as Alvin Purple in 1973 and Petersen in 1974. Weaver also appeared in Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock in 1975. After the 1970s, Jacki Weaver worked primarily as a stage actress, only appearing on screen from time to time.

Jacki Weaver Age

The Silver Linings Playbook star is 71 years old as of 2018. She was born on 25 May 1947 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Jacki Weaver Family

Jacki comes from a family of an England migrant, Edith Simpson, and a Sydney solicitor, her father Arthur Weaver. She has a brother by the name Rod Weaver.

She went to Hornsby Girls’ High School where she became the Dux. For her university education, she won a sociology scholarship but decided to get into acting.

Jacki Weaver’s Picture

Jacki Weaver Husband

In 1966 Jacki Weaver married David Price but they divorced in 1970. In 1975 she married Max Hensser. She lived with Phil Davis, former Sydney crime reporter, Canberra Press Secretary and Executive Producer for Mike Willesee, for five years in “the most stable relationship of her life” until 1981 before she married radio and television presenter Derryn Hinch in 1983. Jacki Weaver and Hinch divorced in 1996, remarried in 1997, and divorced again in 1998. She had a son, Dylan (b. 1969) with partner at the time John Walters. She is currently married to actor Sean Taylor.

Jacki Weaver Career

At the age of 16 in 1963, Jacki Weaver mimed the role of Gretel to the great soprano, Marilyn Richardson, in an ABC production of Weber’s Hansel and Gretel, conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras. In 1964 at the Palace Theatre in Sydney, Weaver and a number of other Australian singers such as The Delltones and her then-boyfriend Bryan Davies performed a satire on the Gidget movies, in which Weaver performed as “Gadget.”

In 1965, Weaver was cast in the television series ‘Wandjina!’. Weaver’s film debut came with 1971’s Stork for which she won her first Australian Film Institute Award. In the 1970s, Jacki Weaver gained a sex-symbol reputation thanks to her performances in the likes of Alvin Purple (1973), a stereotyping she claimed she hated, but complied with as a means to work. Other notable films during this time include a small role in Peter Weir’s critically acclaimed film version of Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), and a more substantial appearance in Caddie (1976) for which she won her second Australian Film Institute Award.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, Weaver found it increasingly difficult to gain roles on screen or television and she devoted much of her energy to the Australian stage, starring in plays including A Streetcar Named Desire, Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Death of a Salesman, Reg Cribb’s Last Cab to Darwin, and Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya alongside Cate Blanchett and Richard Roxburgh in 2010-11.

In 2010, Weaver starred in the Melbourne-set crime thriller Animal Kingdom playing a gang family matriarch. Her dead-pan performance earned her an Academy Award nomination as well as winning the Australian Film Institute Award, the National Board of Review, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award and a Satellite Award.

In August 2013, Australians in Film announced that Weaver would be honored with the organization’s Breakthrough Award at an exclusive Benefit Dinner held 24 October 2013 in Los Angeles. She also portrayed Dr. Warren in the 2014 comedy crime horror film ‘The Voices’.

Jacki Weaver Silver Linings Playbook

Silver Linings Playbook romantic comedy-drama film that was released in 2012 and stars Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, alongside Jacki Weaver and others. Weaver plays the role of Dolores Solitano, Pat Jr. (played by Bradley Cooper) and Jake’s (played by Shea Whigham) mother.

Jacki Weaver Theatre

Jacki Weaver Movies and TV Shows

Jacki Weaver Bird Box

Bird Box is post-apocalyptic horror thriller film that was released in 2018. It stars the likes of Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, John Malkovich, Danielle Macdonald and Sarah Paulson. It focuses on a woman, Malorie Hayes, as she tries to protect herself and two children from malevolent supernatural entities that make people who look at them go insane and commit suicide.

Weaver was cast in the film in October 2017 and played the role of Cheryl, an elderly survivor who later commits suicide by stabbing herself with a pair of scissors in the neck.

Jacki Weaver Net Worth

The Australian actress has an estimated net worth of $2 million.

Jacki Weaver Height

Weaver is 1.51 m tall.

Jacki Weaver Interview