Born in Bristol, England, Veronica is the older sister of the popular child actress Angela Cartwright. In her early career, Veronica was cast in a number of popular movies such as William Wyler’s The Children’s Hour (1961), Spencer’s Mountain (1963) and Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963). As such, she was cast as “Jemima Boone”” in the popular television series Daniel Boone (1964), which ran from 1964 to 66. Her career after “”Daniel Boone”” may have been influenced by Hitchcock, since she appeared in both the remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) and the horror classic Alien (1979). On television, she appeared twice as Lumpy’s younger sister, “”Violet Rutherford”” and once as “”Peggy MacIntosh”” on Leave It to Beaver (1957) and had a small role in the television movie Still the Beaver (1983).Cartwright also appeared in Robert Kennedy and His Times (1985), Tanner ’88 (1988) and had a recurring role on L.A. Law (1986). Her big screen features included The Right Stuff (1983), Flight of the Navigator (1986) and The Witches of Eastwick (1987). Veronica worked on the stage in “”Electra””, “”Talley’s Folly””, “”Homesteaders””, “”Butterflies are Free”” and “”The Triplet Connection””. Alternating between television and big screen movies in the 90s, Cartwright has appeared in such films as Hitler’s Daughter (1990) and Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995).”
Veronica Cartwright
Movies
Just Married
Charming, relatively poor, somewhat goofy Tom falls in love with haughty snob tycoon McNerney’s spoiled daughter Sarah, who was destined for a more socialite match, such as slick Peter Prentiss. They still get married and fly to Europe for a romantic honeymoon Tom can’t afford. Their love gets tested dangerously…
Speed
When a young Los Angeles police department, Special Weapons and Tactics (S.W.A.T.) officer called Jack Traven angers retired Atlanta police department bomb squad member Howard Payne, by foiling his attempt at taking hostages stuck in an elevator with a bomb, Payne in retaliation arms a bus with a bomb that…
Fun Facts
Older sister of Angela Cartwright.
Has one son with Richard Compton: Dakota Compton.
She appeared in Hitler's Daughter (1990) and was born on Hitler's birthday (April 20).
Her character on Leave It to Beaver (1957) gave Beaver Cleaver his first kiss.
Aunt of actors Jesse Gullion and Becca Gullion.
Sister-in-law of Steve Gullion.
She and her sister, Angela Cartwright, were born in England and grew up in Ontario and Los Angeles.
She starred in two remakes of the 1950s horror film Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). The first Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) and most recently in The Invasion (2007).
She was a guest at the 2012 Memphis Film Festival's "A Gathering of Guns 4: A TV Western Reunion"" at the Whispering Woods Hotel and Conference Center in Olive Branch
Quotes
[speaking in 2011] I recently met Q [Quentin Tarantino] coming back from England and we had a long talk and I told him I'd love to work with him. I heard that he made it mandatory for the cast and crew on Grindhouse (2007) to watch Macon County Line (1974) and my husband [Richard Compton] directed that... I thought, 'This is my intro into Tarantino'. I mean, this guy knew every movie that Richard had done. We were on this flight and he was on his knees talking to me. It was so cool... I introduced myself and he said, 'Oh, I loved The Invasion of the Body Snatchers!' He didn't know that I had been married to Richard.
[speaking in 2011] There is a group of women that get all of the roles and it just doesn't seem fair when Susan Sarandon gets everything - and now she's willing to do TV. I want to get offered those parts.
No one ever bugged Jack Nicholson. When we made [The Witches of Eastwick (1987)], and people were standing around to see him, he'd just come out and say, 'Hi everybody!' I was lucky enough to go with him to a Lakers game, too, and he was always friendly. No one bothers Jack, because he makes himself so accessible.
There was a period of time when I couldn't seem to get anything. I was on the series, Daniel Boone (1964), and then, when that ended, I was still under 18, so I was too young to be in the older category and too old to be a child. So there was a few years there that were dry.