Veronica Cartwright

Born: 20 April 1950
Where: Bristol, UK

One of the actress's most memorable early roles was as the daughter of the family terrorised from above in Alfred Hithcock's The Birds.

She was also scared out of her wits as one of the crew members of the Nostromo who witnesses the Alien bursting out of John Hurt's chest.

Industry rumour has it that director Ridley Scott failed to tell the cast about the little horror lurking in Hurt's body...so the look of horror is a real one.

Cartwright began acting as a young girl after her family moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1950s.

During that decade, she made guest appearances before landing good feature roles ranging from her debut in In Love and War.

Like many child performers, Cartwright hit an awkward stage and the acting jobs were not flowing and by the end of the 60s, her career had all but petered out.

After nearly a decade, with only one feature appearance in Inserts, she returned to the USA and resumed her acting career with a fresh outlook.

Beginning slowly, it wasn't long before Jack Nicholson cast her as his ex-lover in his directorial debut, Goin' South.

Cartwright then appeared in back-to-back sci-fi classics - Philip Kaufman's remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Scott's Alien.

During the 80s, she continued to find interesting roles, like those in The Right Stuff and The Witches of Eastwick.

But during the 90s, she resorted to the horror sequel Mirror, Mirror 2: Raven Dance and in Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh.

With the new millennium came new and diverse roles, with Cartwright appearing in spoof horror Scary Movie 2, drama In The Bedroom, and teen comedy Just Married.