Tom Skerritt

Tom Skerritt as Dallas, the captain of the Nostromo. Skerritt had been approached early in the film's development but declined as it did not yet have a director and had a very low budget. Later, when Scott was attached as director and the budget had been doubled, Skerritt accepted the role of Dallas. Skerritt made his film debut in War Hunt, produced by Terry Sanders and released in 1962. Skerritt's notable film appearances include MASH (1970), Harold and Maude (credited as "M. Borman", 1971), Big Bad Mama, Cheech & Chong's Up in Smoke (1978), Ice Castles (1978), as Captain Dallas in Alien (1979),[6] as a would-be astronaut in Contact (1997) and SpaceCamp (1986), and in Top Gun (1986) as Commander Mike "Viper" Metcalf. In 1988, he starred with Nancy Allen and Lara Flynn Boyle in Poltergeist III. In 1989, he played the role of Thomas Drummond "Drum" Eatenton in Steel Magnolias. In 1992, he appeared in the critically acclaimed Robert Redford-directed film A River Runs Through It, playing a fly-fish loving minister and father of the two brother protagonists in the film. Skerritt guest-starred in the television series The Real McCoys (1963), as a letter carrier in the episode "Aunt Win Steps In". He was cast in Bonanza in 1964 and on Death Valley Days in 1965, as a young gambler, Patrick Hogan, who meets a tragic fate after winning a small fortune in the saloon in Calico in San Bernardino County, California. In another Death Valley Days episode, "A Sense of Justice" (1966), he played a young Roy Bean in San Diego, California, c. 1850, with his older brother, Joshua Bean, played by Tris Coffin.[7] He also appeared in the ABC series, Twelve O'Clock High (1964–1967), five episodes; Gunsmoke (1965–1972), also five episodes), and as Evan Drake on Cheers. He then appeared in CBS's Picket Fences (1992–1996), in the role of Sheriff Jimmy Brock, for which he won an Emmy Award. More recently, he has starred in Homeland Security and The Grid. He portrayed the deceased William Walker on Brothers and Sisters, having appeared in the pilot as well as in several flashbacks scenes. This was his second time playing the husband of Sally Field, the first having been in Steel Magnolias, set in Natchitoches, Louisiana. He played the role of Ezekiel on ABC Family's Fallen miniseries. He also appeared as the guide on the showcase website for Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system. He lent his voice in the video game Gun (2005), where he voices as Clay Allison. He guest-starred in seasons three and four of Leverage as Nate Ford's father.[8] In February 2012, Skerritt played the title role in Pacific Northwest Ballet's production of Don Quixote.[9] In 2014, Skerritt was reunited with ex-Picket Fences co-star, Lauren Holly, to star with her in Field of Lost Shoes.[10] Skerritt is founder and chairman of Heyou Media, a Seattle-based digital media company.[11] Skerrit is appearing with Armie Hammer in a Broadway production, "Straight White Men"

Sigourney Weaver

Sigourney Weaver as Ripley, the warrant officer aboard the Nostromo. Weaver, who had Broadway experience but was relatively unknown in film, impressed Scott, Giler, and Hill with her audition. She was the last actor to be cast for the film, and performed most of her screen tests in-studio as the sets were being built. The role of Ripley was Weaver's first leading role in a motion picture, and earned her nominations for a Saturn Award for Best Actress and a BAFTA award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Role. Weaver's first role is often said to be in Woody Allen's comedy Annie Hall (1977) playing a minor role opposite Allen.[19] Weaver appeared two years later as Warrant Officer / Lieutenant Ellen Ripley in Ridley Scott's blockbuster film Alien (1979), in a role initially designated to co-star Veronica Cartwright, until a late change in casting. She reprised the role in the three sequels of the Alien movie franchise, Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection. Ty Burr of The Boston Globe states, "One of the real pleasures of "Alien" is to watch the emergence of both Ellen Ripley as a character and Sigourney Weaver as a star."[20] In the sequel Aliens directed by James Cameron, critic Roger Ebert wrote, "Weaver, who is onscreen almost all the time, comes through with a very strong, sympathetic performance: She's the thread that holds everything together."[21] She followed the success of Alien appearing opposite Mel Gibson in The Year of Living Dangerously released to critical acclaim and as Dana Barrett in Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II.

Veronica Cartwright

Veronica Cartwright as Lambert, the Nostromo's navigator. Cartwright had experience in horror and science fiction films, having acted as a child in The Birds (1963) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978). She originally read for the role of Ripley, and was not informed that she had instead been cast as Lambert until she arrived in London for wardrobe. She disliked the character's emotional weakness, but nevertheless accepted the role: "They convinced me that I was the audience's fears; I was a reflection of what the audience is feeling." Cartwright won a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. Cartwright achieved 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 (1963), Inserts (1974), Goin' South (1978), 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). A frequent performer in television, she has played guest roles in such series as 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. Veronica 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'" as well as 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.

Harry Dean Stanton

Harry Dean Stanton as Brett, the engineering technician. Stanton's first words to Scott during his audition were "I don't like sci fi or monster movies." Scott was amused and convinced Stanton to take the role after reassuring him that Alien would actually be a thriller more akin to Ten Little Indians. Stanton appeared in indie and cult films (Two-Lane Blacktop, Cockfighter, Escape from New York, Repo Man), as well as many mainstream Hollywood productions, including Cool Hand Luke, The Godfather Part II, Alien, Red Dawn, Alpha Dog, Pretty in Pink, Stephen King's Christine, and The Green Mile. He was a favorite actor of the directors Sam Peckinpah, John Milius, David Lynch, and Monte Hellman, and was also close friends with Francis Ford Coppola and Jack Nicholson. He was best man at Nicholson's wedding in 1962. He made his first television appearance in 1954 in Inner Sanctum, and made his film debut three years later in the Western Tomahawk Trail. He appeared (uncredited) as a complaining BAR man at the beginning of the 1959 film Pork Chop Hill starring Gregory Peck. Then in 1962 he had a very small part in How the West Was Won, portraying one of Charlie Gant's (Eli Wallach) gang. The following year he had a minor role as a poetry-reciting beatnik in The Man from the Diner's Club. Early in his career he took the name Dean Stanton to avoid confusion with the actor Harry Stanton.[2] His breakthrough part[10] came with the lead role in Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas (1984). Playwright Sam Shepard, who wrote the film's script, had spotted Stanton at a bar in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1983 while both were attending a film festival in that city. The two fell into conversation. "I was telling him I was sick of the roles I was playing," Stanton recalled in a 1986 interview. "I told him I wanted to play something of some beauty or sensitivity. I had no inkling he was considering me for the lead in his movie." Not long afterward, Shepard phoned him in Los Angeles to offer Stanton the part of the protagonist, Travis, "a role that called for the actor to remain largely silent ... as a lost, broken soul trying to put his life back together and reunite with his estranged family after having vanished years earlier." Stanton was a favorite of film critic Roger Ebert, who said that "no movie featuring either Harry Dean Stanton or M. Emmet Walsh in a supporting role can be altogether bad." However, Ebert later admitted that Dream a Little Dream (1989), in which Stanton appeared, was a "clear violation" of this rule. Stanton's television credits were extensive, including eight appearances between 1958 and 1968 on Gunsmoke, four on the network's Rawhide, three on The Untouchables, two on Bonanza, and an episode of The Rifleman. He later had a cameo in Two and a Half Men (having previously appeared with Jon Cryer in Pretty in Pink and with Charlie Sheen in Red Dawn). Beginning in 2006, Stanton featured as Roman Grant, the manipulative leader/prophet of a polygamous sect on the HBO television series Big Love.