Veronica Cartwright is an English-born American actress who has worked mainly in American film and television. As a child actress she appeared in supporting roles in The Children's Hour and The Birds. She is perhaps best known for her roles in the science fiction films Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Alien, for which she won a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Alien franchise credit[]
Lambert[]
- Alien (1978)
Other credits[]
- In Love and War (1958) - Allie O'Neill (uncredited)
- Zane Grey Theater (1959) – Sarah Butler
- The Danny Thomas Show (1959 - 1961) Girl in Play
- Leave It to Beaver (1959 - 1963) - Violet Rutherford / Peggy MacIntosh
- The Children's Hour (1961) - Rosalie Wells
- Route 66 (1962) - Miriam at age 9
- The Twilight Zone (1962) - Anne Rogers
- The Birds (1963) - Cathy Brenner
- Spencer's Mountain (1963) - Becky Spencer (uncredited)
- The Eleventh Hour - Jan Ellendale / Judith Cameron
- One Man's Way (1964) - Mary
- Dr. Kildare (1965) - Nancy Hiller
- Dragnet 1967 (1969) - Melissa Stevens
- The Mod Squad (1969) - Gail Whitney
- My Three Sons (1970) Ruth Fletcher
- Here We Go Again (1973) - Nancy
- Serpico (1976) - Lucy
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) - Nancy Bellicec
- Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones (1980) - Marceline 'Marcy' Jones
- Nightmares (1983) - Claire Houston
- The Right Stuff (1983) - Betty Grissom
Biographical information[]
Early life[]
Cartwright was born in Bristol and grew up in Toronto and Los Angeles. Her career as a child actress began in 1958, with a role in In Love and War. Among her early appearances was a semi-regular part in the television series Leave It to Beaver (as Beaver's classmate "Violet Rutherford") and an episode of The Twilight Zone "I Sing the Body Electric" (1962). She guest starred twice in 1963 in NBC's medical drama about psychiatry, The Eleventh Hour, in the episodes "The Silence of Good Men" and "My Name is Judith, I'm Lost, You See".
Career life[]
Cartwright appeared in the films, The Children's Hour and Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds which were both highly successful. She was cast as daughter Jemima Boone in the first two seasons of NBC's Daniel Boone from 1964 until 1966, with co-stars Fess Parker, Patricia Blair, Darby Hinton and Ed Ames.
Cartwright's career slowed down during the late 1960s. She continued to work and achieved two of her biggest successes with Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) and Alien (1979), the latter performance winning her a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress. She was originally cast as Alien's heroine Ellen Ripley, but director Ridley Scott switched her role with Sigourney Weaver's just prior to shooting the film.
Other film roles include: Spencer's Mountain with Henry Fonda and Kym Karath, Inserts, Goin' South, The Right Stuff, Flight of the Navigator, The Witches of Eastwick, Money Talks, Scary Movie 2, Kinsey, and Straight-Jacket.