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"). 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". (1963) in 2006.|200x200pxCartwright appeared in the films ''
The Children's Hour'' (1961) and
Alfred Hitchcock's
The Birds (1963), 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). 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
Aliens 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; 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. 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
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. Cartwright has received three
Emmy Award nominations, 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 "
Don't Stop Believin" 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. She played the role of Sibley Gamble, a psychic on
General Hospital, between 8 July 2019, and 16 July 2019. Cartwright's theatre credits include
Electra, ''Talley's Folly
, The Bat
and The Master Builder
, for which she received brilliant reviews. Her performances in The Hands of its Enemy
, The Triplet Collection
and Homesteaders'' brought her
Drama-Logue Awards for Best Actress. ==Filmography==