Browse: Home / Celebrating the Living: Veronica Cartwright

Menu

Skip to content
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us
  • Login

The-SoluteLogo

A Film Site By Lovers of Film

Menu

Skip to content
  • Features
  • Reviews
  • Long Reviews
  • News
  • Articles and Opinions
  • Other Media
  • Disney Byways: Archives Museum
  • How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World Closes Out This Fantasy Trilogy In Style
  • Year of the Month: Jake Gittes on Harakiri and The Trial of Joan of Arc
  • Clytie's Recommended Entertainment Articles (February 15-21, 2019)
  • What the F? Babalugats on SOLARIS

Celebrating the Living: Veronica Cartwright

Posted By Gillianren on August 12, 2018 in Features | Leave a response

Man, Veronica Cartwright has two people’s worth of qualifying performance for a fantasy/sci-fi month, huh? She basically has two careers, one as a child and one as an adult, and either one would qualify. Sure, it’s her sister Angela who was Penny Robinson on Lost in Space (and Brigitta in The Sound of Music), but Veronica has been a staple of the genre since her Alfred Hitchcock days in the early ’60s. (Two episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Birds.) She’s still going, too.

Probably the first thing I ever saw her in myself is the underrated Flight of the Navigator, wherein she plays the mother of an abductee—a twelve-year-old who is gone for eight years and returns as a twelve-year-old. She conveys the exact sort of agony you’d expect from a woman in her situation, especially after shadowy agents basically abduct her kid all over again. And then I saw her as an abductee in The X-Files. Which, again, she was amazing at.

I feel as though you can be a fan of pretty much anything and recognize her. Not into sci-fi? Okay. How about The Right Stuff, where she’s Betty Grissom or Kinsey, where she’s Sara Kinsey? History not your speed? How about Leave It To Beaver, where she gave the Beav his first kiss? More into Westerns? She was Jemima Boone on 37 episodes of Daniel Boone. If you’re into classic film, there’s The Birds, of course, but also The Children’s Hour. Feminist psychodrama? The Yellow Wallpaper. Jack Nicholson fan? The Witches of Eastwick, where she’s Felicia Alden. And, of course, she’s Lambert in Alien!

And yet for all that, she’s definitely someone you have to dig around until you find one of those roles for people. Her career is long and impressive, but she’s never been a leading lady. She’s been around forever, but I’m not sure I know of a movie where you’d stay it stars Veronica Cartwright. I’ve never seen a less than professional performance from her (I honestly don’t know if I’ve seen her Leave It to Beaver episodes, to be fair), but it kind of feels as though she never got the chance to show her ability in a single role, more sort of just compiled over more than fifty years.

Still, you know, more than fifty years of memorable performances is definitely something. More than most people get, but also more than some considerably more famous people are ever going to have. I feel as though you can look at some of these people and say, “I can’t promise I’ll remember you in five years.” I don’t feel as though anyone can say that about Veronica Cartwright, even if they can’t remember her name for five minutes at a go.

I remembered her name for days in the lead-up to writing this; celebrate by contributing to my Patreon!

Posted in Features | Tagged celebrate the living, tribute, Veronica Cartwright

About the Author

gillianmadeira@hotmail.com'

Gillianren

Gillianren is a forty-something bipolar woman living in the Pacific Northwest after growing up in Los Angeles County. She and her boyfriend have one son and one daughter, and she gave a daughter up for adoption. She fills her days by watching her local library system’s DVD collection in alphabetical order, watching everything that looks interesting. She particularly enjoys pre-Code films, blaxploitation, and live-action Disney movies of the ’60s and ’70s. She has a Patreon account at https://www.patreon.com/gillianren

Related Posts

Celebrating the Living: Yaphet Kotto→

Attention Must Be Paid: Billie Holiday→

Celebrating the Living: Octavia Spencer→

Attention Must Be Paid: Eddie “Rochester” Anderson→

  • Comments
  • Popular
  • Most Recent
  • r**********@gmail.com'
    Rosy Fingers on Clytie's Recommended Entertainment Articles (February 15-21, 2019)I actually struggled a bit…
  • n***********@gmail.com'
    Ruck Cohlchez on Clytie's Recommended Entertainment Articles (February 15-21, 2019)Monaco?
  • j***********@gmail.com'
    Son of Griff on Disney Byways: Archives MuseumI second all of these…
  • j*********@yandex.com'
    CineGain on Clytie's Recommended Entertainment Articles (February 15-21, 2019)There's an Canadian podcast that…
  • r**********@gmail.com'
    Rosy Fingers on Clytie's Recommended Entertainment Articles (February 15-21, 2019)Haven't listened to that Mike…
  • What the fuck did I just watch? SPHERE

    13573 views / Posted March 19, 2015
  • Scenic Routes: SHOWGIRLS (1995)

    11385 views / Posted November 20, 2014
  • “The End” of SAVAGES

    7110 views / Posted November 10, 2014
  • Futurama + Pixels = Pixels

    6895 views / Posted March 18, 2015
  • The Problem with BOYHOOD (2014)

    6212 views / Posted September 3, 2014
  • Disney Byways: Archives Museum

    February 22, 2019 / Gillianren
  • How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World Closes Out This Fantasy Trilogy In Style

    February 22, 2019 / NerdInTheBasement
  • Year of the Month: Jake Gittes on Harakiri and The Trial of Joan of Arc

    February 22, 2019 / Sam "Burgundy Suit" Scott
  • Clytie’s Recommended Entertainment Articles (February 15-21, 2019)

    February 22, 2019 / Clytie
  • Not even the protective suit could spare Clooney from the Cinemascore "F".

    What the F? Babalugats on SOLARIS

    February 21, 2019 / The Ploughman

Last Tweets

  • Disney Byways: Archives Museum - https://t.co/Y5cHniqer3, 6 hours ago
  • How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World Closes Out This Fantasy Trilogy In Style - https://t.co/FceMBjYTvx, 13 hours ago
  • Year of the Month: Jake Gittes on Harakiri and The Trial of Joan of Arc - https://t.co/Z2ptoETPm9, 17 hours ago

©2014 - 2016 The-Solute | Hosted, Developed and Maintained by Bellingham WP LogoBellinghamWP.com.

Menu

  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us
  • Login
Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!