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Early life

Veronica Cartwright was born on April 20, 1949¹ in Bristol, England, and grew up in Los Angeles, having immigrated to the US shortly after the birth of her younger sister, actress Angela Cartwright.

Career

In 1958, her career as a child actress began with a role in In Love and War. Among her early appearances were repeated roles in the television series Leave It to Beaver (as Beaver's classmates Violet Rutherford and, later, Peggy MacIntosh) and episodes of One Step Beyond ("The Haunting") and The Twilight Zone ("I Sing the Body Electric").² In 1963, she guest starred twice 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".

Cartwright appeared in the films The Children's Hour (1961) and Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963),³ which were both highly successful. In The Birds, she was cast along with her television father from Leave It to Beaver, Richard Deacon, although the two were not on screen together. She appeared in Spencer's Mountain (1963) with Henry Fonda and Kym Karath. She played 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, Ed Ames and Dallas McKennon. She won a regional Emmy Award for the television movie Tell Me Not in Mournful Numbers (1964).⁴⁵ She achieved adult success with film roles in Inserts (1974), Goin' South (1978) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978).

Cartwright's breakout feature was the science-fiction horror film Alien (1979), for which she was originally cast as Alien's heroine Ellen Ripley, but director Ridley Scott instead set her to play Lambert prior to shooting. The infamous chestburster scene in the film featured a genuine reaction from Cartwright, who had not been informed beforehand that blood would be involved;⁶⁷ co-star Tom Skerritt confirmed this by saying, "What you saw on camera was the real response. She had no idea what the hell happened. All of a sudden this thing just came up." She won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.⁸

Her subsequent film roles include The Right Stuff (1983), Flight of the Navigator (1986), The Witches of Eastwick (1987), Money Talks (1997), Scary Movie 2 (2001), Kinsey (2004) and Straight-Jacket (2004). She was nominated again for the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Witches of Eastwick.

A frequent performer in television, she has played guest roles in such series as Route 66, Leave It to Beaver, The Mod Squad, Miami Vice, Baywatch, L.A. Law, ER, The X-Files, Chicago Hope, Will & Grace, Touched by an Angel, Judging Amy, Six Feet Under, The Closer, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.⁹ Cartwright has received three Emmy Award nominations,¹⁰ one for her work in ER in 1997, and two for her work on The X-Files in 1998 and 1999. Cartwright also starred as Mrs. Olive Osmond in the made-for-TV film Inside the Osmonds.

She co-starred in the fourth version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Invasion (2007). She appears on the cover art for the Scissor Sisters' 2006 single "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'" and on their second album Ta-Dah. In 2014, Cartwright reprised her role as Joan Lambert for DLC episodes in Alien: Isolation based on the original film, and appeared in the remake of The Town That Dreaded Sundown.¹¹¹² She played the role of Sibley Gamble, a psychic on General Hospital, between July 8, 2019, and July 16, 2019.¹³

Cartwright's many theatre credits include Electra, Talley's Folly, The Bat¹⁴ and The Master Builder,¹⁵ for which she received brilliant reviews. Her performances in The Hands of its Enemy,¹⁶ The Triplet Collection and Homesteaders brought her Drama-Logue Awards for Best Actress.¹⁷

Personal life

Cartwright married Richard Gates first, then Stanley Goldstein; both ended in divorce. Her third marriage to television director Richard Compton lasted until Compton's death in 2007.

A Catholic, Cartwright and her sister Angela have attended Mass at St. Charles Borromeo.¹⁸

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Awards and nominations

Further reading

• Alien (The Director's Cut) : DVD 20th Century Fox 2006. ASIN: B00011V8IQ UPC: 024543098508. Interview with Veronica Cartwright

External links

• Official website
• Veronica Cartwright interview at Classic Film & TV Cafe
• Veronica Cartwright at IMDb
• Veronica Cartwright at Turner Classic Movies

References

1. Rubin, Steven Jay (2017). The Twilight Zone Encyclopedia. Chicago Review Press. ISBN 9781613738887. 9781613738887 ↩

2. Chiotakis, Steve (31 October 2019). "The 60-year legacy of The Twilight Zone". KCRW. https://www.kcrw.com/news/shows/greater-la/celebrating-the-60th-anniversary-of-the-twilight-zone/the-60-year-legacy-of-the-twilight-zone ↩

3. Nolasco, Stephanie (15 July 2021). "'The Birds' star Veronica Cartwright recalls giving Beaver Cleaver his first kiss, meeting Alfred Hitchcock". Fox News. Retrieved 27 January 2024. https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/birds-veronica-cartwright-leave-beaver-alfred-hitchcock ↩

4. Nolasco, Stephanie (15 July 2021). "'The Birds' star Veronica Cartwright recalls giving Beaver Cleaver his first kiss, meeting Alfred Hitchcock". Fox News. Retrieved 27 January 2024. https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/birds-veronica-cartwright-leave-beaver-alfred-hitchcock ↩

5. Rick29. "Veronica Cartwright Talks with the Café about Hitchcock, Alien, and the Beaver". Classic Film and TV Cafe. Retrieved 27 January 2024. https://www.classicfilmtvcafe.com/2014/02/veronica-cartwright-talks-with-cafe.html ↩

6. Scott, Ridley (13 October 2009). "The making of Alien's chestburster scene". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 April 2022. /wiki/Ridley_Scott ↩

7. "Alien named as top 18-rated scene". BBC News. 26 April 2007. Retrieved 21 April 2022. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6597295.stm ↩

8. "Past Saturn Awards". Saturn Awards. 14 September 2008. Archived from the original on 14 September 2008. Retrieved 21 April 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20080914184217/http://www.saturnawards.org/past.html ↩

9. Maden, Ben L (6 August 2017). "EXCLUSIVE: At #LFCC Alien star Veronica Cartwright told me she is returning as Cassandra Spender in #TheXFiles season 11!". Twitter. Retrieved 30 April 2018. https://twitter.com/blmaden/status/894274495124471809 ↩

10. "Emmys Bio: Veronica Cartwright | Awards and Nominations". Emmys. https://www.emmys.com/bios/veronica-cartwright ↩

11. Danny! (2 March 2015). "Double Murder Ep 55: The Town That Dreaded Sundown (Original vs. Remake/Sequel)". Bloody Disgusting!. Retrieved 27 January 2024. https://bloody-disgusting.com/reviews/3334335/double-murder-ep-55-town-dreaded-sundown-original-vs-remakesequel/ ↩

12. Kit, Borys (7 May 2013). "'Town That Dreaded Sundown' Casts Trio (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 27 January 2024. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/town-dreaded-sundown-casts-trio-518864/ ↩

13. Rice, Lynette (11 June 2019). "General Hospital casts Alien actress Veronica Cartwright in secret role". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 11 June 2019. Retrieved 27 January 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20190611185843/https://ew.com/tv/2019/06/11/general-hospital-casts-alien-actress-veronica-cartwright/ ↩

14. Brandes, Philip (2 August 2012). "Theater review: 'The Bat' at Theatre 40". The Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 20 January 2022. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-xpm-2012-aug-02-la-et-cm-theater-review-the-bat-at-theatre-40-20120801-story.html ↩

15. Richards, David (20 January 1991). "Sunday View: Is It Ibsen? Or Is It Stephen King?". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2 December 2010. Retrieved 27 January 2024. https://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/20/theater/sunday-view-is-it-ibsen-or-is-it-stephen-king.html ↩

16. Foster, Catherine (10 January 1985). "Deft handling of difficult story in new Mark Medoff play". The Christian Science Monitor. https://www.csmonitor.com/1985/0110/lhands.html ↩

17. "Mark Taper Forum Awards". StudyLib. December 2007. Retrieved 27 January 2024. https://studylib.net/doc/7497973/ ↩

18. Stagnaro, Angelo (26 February 2017). "Where the Stars Go to Pray: The Churches of Hollywood". National Catholic Register. Retrieved 27 January 2024. https://www.ncregister.com/features/where-the-stars-go-to-pray-the-churches-of-hollywood ↩

19. "Veronica Cartwright (visual voices guide)". Behind The Voice Actors (A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information). Retrieved 20 August 2024. https://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/Veronica-Cartwright/ ↩

20. "Veronica Cartwright (visual voices guide)". Behind The Voice Actors (A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information). Retrieved 20 August 2024. https://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/Veronica-Cartwright/ ↩

21. "Veronica Cartwright (visual voices guide)". Behind The Voice Actors (A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information). Retrieved 20 August 2024. https://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/Veronica-Cartwright/ ↩