Ian Holm - IMDb IMDb 17 January 2017 4:34 PM, UTC NEWS Actor | Soundtrack | Animation Department Sir Ian Holm is an Academy Award-nominated British film and stage actor who was a star of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and played more than 100 roles in films and on television. He was born Ian Holm Cuthbert on September 12, 1931, in Goodmayes, Essex, UK, to Scottish parents who worked at the Essex mental asylum. His mother, Jean Wilson (Holm), ... See full bio » Born: a list of 25 people created 11 Jan 2011 a list of 41 people created 16 Dec 2011 a list of 30 people created 04 Nov 2014 a list of 33 people created 04 Jul 2015 a list of 26 people created 17 Nov 2015 Do you have a demo reel? Add it to your IMDbPage How much of Ian Holm's work have you seen? User Polls Nominated for 1 Oscar.

Another 21 wins & 21 nominations. See more awards » Known For The Fifth Element Father Vito Cornelius (1997) - Episode #1.1 (2009) ... Storyteller (voice) 2007 Ratatouille (Video Game) 2000 The Holocaust on Trial (TV Movie documentary) Narrator (voice) 1999 Shanghai Vice (TV Mini-Series) Narrator (voice) 1996 The Gulf War (TV Movie) Narrator (voice) 1993-1995 Timewatch (TV Series documentary) Narrator 1992 Screen Two (TV Series) F.R.

Leavis 1990 Mistress of Suspense (TV Series) Christopher Waggoner 1983 Arena (TV Series documentary) Narrator 1981 Omnibus (TV Series documentary) Reader 1980 We, the Accused (TV Mini-Series) Paul Pressett 1980 Festival: The Misanthrope (TV Movie) Alceste 1974 Great Mysteries (TV Series) Charles Stubbs 1969-1971 ITV Playhouse (TV Series) Huw / Omri 1963-1970 Armchair Theatre (TV Series) Reverend P.

Bagley / Edward Gobey / Jamie Norton 1966-1968 Mystery and Imagination (TV Series) Frankenstein / The Being / MacFarlane 1961 Theatre Night (TV Series) The King 1957 Robert's Wife (TV Movie) Bob 2001 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (performer: "The Road Goes Ever On" - uncredited) 2000 Joe Gould's Secret (performer: "Nobody Knows When You're Down") 1999 Animal Farm (TV Movie) (performer: "Beasts of the World", "Glorious Leader Napoleon") Hide 2014 Alien: Isolation (Video Game) (character model: Ash) Hide 1995 Treasures in Trust (TV Movie documentary) (narrator) Hide 1974-2008 Horizon (TV Series documentary) Himself - Narrator 2007 Legends (TV Series documentary) Himself - Narrator 2007 Monsters We Met (TV Series documentary) Narrator - The End of Eden (2007) ...

Narrator (UK version, voice) - The Burning (2007) ...

Narrator (UK version, voice) 2005 The Adventures of Errol Flynn (TV Movie documentary) Narrator (voice) 2004 D-Day 6.6.1944 (TV Movie) Himself - Narrator (voice) 2003 Days That Shook the World (TV Series documentary) Himself - Narrator 2002 Cameras in Middle-Earth (Video documentary) Himself - Bilbo Baggins 2002 The Fellowship of the Cast (Video documentary short) Himself - Bilbo Baggins 2000 Nova (TV Series documentary) Himself - Narrator 1995-1999 Natural World (TV Series documentary) Himself - Narrator 1999 Expedition Journal (TV Series documentary) Voice 1998 An Awfully Big Adventure (TV Series documentary) Reader 1997 The Directors (TV Series documentary) Himself 1996 The Churchills (TV Mini-Series documentary) Narrator 1995 The Seas of Zanzibar (TV Movie documentary) Narrator (voice) 1994 Survival (TV Series documentary) Narrator 1993 Surprise Surprise!

(TV Series) Himself 1992 Elizabeth R (TV Movie documentary) Himself - Narrator (voice) 1991 Classic Cars (TV Series documentary) Himself - Narrator 1986-1989 Forty Minutes (TV Series documentary) Narrator 1988 Korea: The Unknown War (TV Mini-Series documentary) Narrator (voice) 1987 Adventure (TV Series documentary) Himself - Narrator - Eiger Solo ... Himself - Narrator (voice) 1979-1983 Chronicle (TV Series documentary) Himself - Narrator 1982 The Bafta Awards (TV Special) Himself - Winner: Best Actor in a Supporting Role 1980 Strike!

(TV Movie documentary) Himself - Winner: Best Featured Actor in a Play Hide 2002 The Unforgettable Joan Sims (TV Special documentary) Patrick (uncredited) 1999 The Alien Legacy (Video documentary) Himself Personal Details Other Works: He acted in William Shakespeare's play, "Richard III-Wars of the Roses Part III," in a Royal Shakespeare Company production at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon, England with Peggy Ashcroft, David Warner, Charles Kay, Tom Fleming, Janet Suzman, Susan Engel, and Roy Dotrice in the cast. Peter Hall, John Barton... See more » Publicity Listings: 1 Print Biography | 2 Interviews | 6 Articles | 1 Magazine Cover Photo | See more » Alternate Names: Ian Holm | Alien Anthology Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia [Source] Sir Ian Holm is an English actor known for his stage work and many film roles. He received the 1967 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor for his performance as Lenny in The Homecoming and the 1998 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance in the title role of King Lear.

He was nominated for the 1981 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as athletics trainer Sam Mussabini in Chariots of Fire. Other well-known film roles include the android Ash in Alien , Father Vito Cornelius in The Fifth Element, and the hobbit Bilbo Baggins in the first and third films of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy. Contents Edit Holm was born Ian Holm Cuthbert in Goodmayes, then in Essex (now in London), to Scottish parents, Jean Wilson (née Holm) and James Harvey Cuthbert. His mother was a nurse, and his father was a psychiatrist who worked as the superintendent of the West Ham Corporation Mental Hospital and was one of the pioneers of electric shock therapy. He had an older brother, Eric, who died in 1943. Holm was educated at the independent Chigwell School in Essex. His parents retired to Mortehoe, Devon and then Worthing where he joined an amateur dramatic society.

A visit to the dentist led to an introduction to Henry Baynton, a well-known provincial Shakespearean actor who helped Holm train for admission to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he secured a place in 1949. His studies there were interrupted a year later when he was called up for National Service in the British Army, during which he was posted to Klagenfurt, Austria and attained the rank of Lance Corporal. They were then interrupted a second time when he volunteered to go on an acting tour of the United States in 1952. He finally graduated from RADA in 1953; whilst there he had been offered 'spear-carrying' roles at Stratford and he stayed there for 13 years, soon graduating to more significant roles and abandoning plans to move on after Peter Hall founded the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1960. Career life Edit Holm was an established star of the Royal Shakespeare Company before making an impact on television and film.

In 1965, he played Richard III in the BBC serialisation of the Wars of the Roses plays, based on the RSC production of the plays, and gradually made a name for himself with minor roles in films such as Oh! What a Lovely War, Nicholas and Alexandra, Mary, Queen of Scots and Young Winston. In 1967, he won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play as Lenny in The Homecoming by Harold Pinter. In 1977, Holm appeared in the TV mini-series Jesus of Nazareth as the Sadducee Zerah, and a villainous Moroccan in March or Die. The following year he played J. M. Barrie in the award-winning BBC TV series The Lost Boys, in which his son Barnaby played the young George Llewelyn Davies. Holm's first film role to have a major impact was that of the treacherous android, Ash, in Ridley Scott's Alien. His portrayal of Sam Mussabini in Chariots of Fire, earned him a special award at the Cannes Film Festival and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Back home in England, he won a BAFTA award, for Best Supporting Actor, for Chariots. In the 1980s, he had memorable roles in Time Bandits, Greystoke - The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes and Terry Gilliam's Brazil. He played Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland in the Dennis Potter-scripted fantasy Dreamchild. Forrest Wickman is Slate’s culture editor overseeing music and movies coverage. 1. David (Michael Fassbender) in Prometheus Gigolo Joe isn’t the only movie android to steal his moves from the movies. In Prometheus, Michael Fassbender’s David steals his mannerisms (and his hairstyle) from Peter O’Toole’s performance in Lawrence of Arabia . But while he’s a keen observer of humans, there’s always something odd about David. He doesn’t feel fear, so he recklessly presses into dangerous situations without a moment’s hesitation. He wears a spacesuit even though he doesn’t breathe oxygen (to put the humans more at ease). He tends to do everything—pouring vodka, palming a basketball—at too-perfect right angles .

As he says says in the promotional clip below, “I understand human emotions, although I do not feel them myself.” And David has a sense of humor. At one point, an annoyed Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) observes, “You can get us pretty close, huh?” David, who doesn’t much like Holloway, answers, “Not too close I hope.” Advertisement 1. Robot Maria (Brigitte Helm) in Metropolis In this, one of the earliest and greatest of sci-fi masterpieces, Brigitte Helm wears many hats, but none so delightfully as that of the evil Maschinenmensch that impersonates our hero Maria (also played by Helm). While Maria is impassioned and even prophetic, the wild-eyed Robot Maria is actually more erratic and tempestuous than her human counterpart, and this—in addition to an arthritic stiffness, and her lazy eye—is ultimately what gives her away. 1. Lance Henriksen (Bishop) in Aliens Before there was David in Prometheus, there were the various other corporate androids of the Alien franchise. After David, the most transfixing is Bishop, from James Cameron’s Aliens.

An antidote to Ash (more on Ash in a moment), Bishop is revealed to be an android fairly early on—and, like Michael Fassbender, Lance Henriksen maintains a delicate tincture right between human and robot (or, as the politically correct Bishop would say, “artificial person”). 1. Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) in Blade Runner Perhaps no movie has planted itself down as firmly in the uncanny valley as Blade Runner: Even when it comes to the movie’s protagonist, the titular detective played by Harrison Ford, no one seems sure whether he’s human or robot. But the film’s most magnetic embodiment of this uncertainty is the “replicant” Roy Batty, played by Rutger Hauer. As a replicant, Batty is an unusual and ultimately unknown mixture of organic clone and robot, full of memories both real and artificial; he seems almost confused at his own apparent emotion. While we often think of robots as incapable of understanding beauty, Batty spontaneously speaks one of the movie’s most poetic lines, and somehow Hauer sells it. 1.

The Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) in Terminator 2 Of course, some actors are genuinely robotic, and, when taking on the role of a robot, this is an asset. Not only does the part come more naturally, it makes the robot’s performance as a human more believable. After all, actors like Arnold Schwarzenegger spend their whole lives in the uncanny valley. (See also Dolph Lundgren and Jean-Claude Van Damme in Universal Soldier .) Advertisement 0. Ash (Ian Holm) in Alien Some readers will want to tear my head off for this one. And I would have agreed with those readers before I recently rewatched the movie. Ash is an unforgettable character—the moment we learn he’s a robot is jaw-dropping—but it’s the screenplay and the makeup that make the scene so stunning. After you know that, Ian Holm’s performance becomes unremarkable: He mostly plays Ash like just a dickish human. 0. David (Haley Joel Osment) in A.I.

Haley Joel Osment got the role of a lifetime as the robot-boy David in A.I., but David seems more like a child struggling with Asperger’s than a machine that conceals a metal skeleton. And, like Robin Williams’ performance as Bicentennial Man , this only gets worse as the movie goes along, and the character becomes (supposedly) more and more like a “real boy.” Osment does have a few scenes of fine robot acting. The best come early on, when he’s still learning to pick up on social cues: 0. Call (Winona Ryder) in Alien: Resurrection Like Holm as Ash, Winona Ryder mostly plays Call as a human (in the scene below, Call even gets drunk), and she lets the surprises in the screenplay do the work. She’s not bad, but the performance lacks the extra layer of the finest robotic performances. 0. SID 6.7 (Russell Crowe) in Virtuosity It is also possible to take the whole flamboyant robot thing too far. Before L.A.

Confidential, The Insider, Gladiator—and the subsequent stretch during which he could get just about any role he wanted—Russell Crowe played the ultimate robotic psychopath, SID 6.7 in Brett Leonard’s sci-fi thriller Virtuosity. Looking back, there’s something delightful about how over the top the Oscar winner’s performance is. (As he says himself, with some acrobatics and a flip of the hair, “I’m a 50-terrabyte self-evolving neural-network double back-flip off the high platform. I’m not a swan dive.”) But it really only works as camp. Previously 8 Great 'Alien' References in 'Prometheus' - MTV mtv [caption id="attachment_123338" align="alignleft" width="220" caption="Fox"] [/caption] If you follow the development of major motion pictures, you may know that "Prometheus" was first conceived as an unambiguous prequel to "Alien." After a time, director Ridley Scott decided this wasn't a good idea, so he gave an already-written script to Damon Lindelof for a thorough revision.

We'll never know why decided against making it an official prequel, though it might be that since "Aliens" followed "Alien" he'd have to call this new one "Alie." And that would just look weird. As filming progressed, it was admitted that "Prometheus" was in the shared universe with "Alien." Now that I've seen the film, I'm here to tell you this is all needless jibber-jabber. There are similarities with the "Alien" films both big and small and, luckily, I was paying close enough attention that I can share them with you now. Warning: Below are spoilers that will enter your system and burst out of your chest. Before Bishop, Before Ash One of the best surprises in "Alien" is the revelation that Ian Holm's character Ash is a robot. (And an evil robot at that!) James Cameron's follow-up "Aliens" featured Lance Henriksen's on-board A.I. named Bishop. Bishop's identity isn't kept from us, indeed we open up with his inhuman dexterity with a knife.

Similarly the opening scenes of "Prometheus" introduce us to Michael Fassbender's David, an eerily perfect, slightly threatening and fastidious caretaker/language expert/cinephile. You never knew a robot could be this blonde. Two Points As the crew spends two years in cryogenic stasis (much like they did in "Alien" and Sigourney Weaver's Ripley did in between the next two films) David prepares himself for the forthcoming mission. During a spookily-shot montage we see him riding a bike around a gym, making trick shots with a basketball. You might think this is nothing, but three other colleagues besides myself saw this as a direct homage to Weaver's defiant basketball pwnage in "Alien Resurrection." Visual Similarities Over Easy Once the crew wakes up, they do just like we all do: vomit from nervous system trauma and then have breakfast. [caption id="attachment_131818" align="alignright" width="220" caption="Fox"] [/caption] The breakfast scene in "Prometheus" serves the same function as the one in "Alien." It is an opportunity to suss out the collected characters and observe them interact in a low-key setting.

The gag is that it looks EXACTLY like "Alien." The room is designed the same and the camera make near-identical slow swoops from afar using long lenses. When Sean Harris starts complaining about his wages, just as Yaphet Kotto did in "Alien," you have to wonder if maybe the homage is going a bit too far. MILF – Mom I'd Like To Fly (With) In "Alien" the on-board ship computer is called "mother." (It's spelled MU-TH-UR which I'm sure is an acronym for something but I'll leave it to fanfic authors to fill us in.) There's no "mother" on Prometheus, but when David addresses the corporate boss of the expedition, Charlize Theron's Meredith Vickers, he calls her ma'am. Now, despite the fact that every good Briton knows that it's "ma'am as in ham, not ma'am as in palm," she STILL pronounces it "ma'am as in palm." Plus he gives it a special spin to make it basically sound like he's almost calling her "mum." There's no way for longtime "Alien" fans not to notice this and wonder...

Building Better Worlds It is soon discovered that David's true allegiance is to the corporate outfit that is funding the Prometheus' scientific exploration. That company is run by Peter Weyland, played by Guy Pearce in some ridiculous old age makeup. Those of you with sharp memories will remember the printed-but-not-stated name of "the Company" in the other films being the "Weyland-Yutani Corporation." (It could be you are recalling the name from geek chic T-shirts, too.) During an exposition hologram you'll even see the same tagline "building better worlds." You may not notice it, though, because there's also an adorable dog in that scene. The Engineers "Prometheus" is all about mankind's desire to speak to his creator. Our lead scientist, played by Noomi Rapace, is convinced that we've been seeded by aliens who live on LV-223. (Not to be confused with LV-426 from the other films, but the fact that they are both LVs is another similarity.) We first see them as holographic projections and later as giant Karloff-esque blue guys.

However, when they wear their spacesuits, they look an awful lot like the guy discovered in the derelict ship sending the distress transmission – the guy fans have been calling the Space Jockey for years. At the end of the film there's a money shot. A gun emerges with a seat that's identical to the one in the other film. Everybody goes "yay!" The Xenomorph Lots of people get killed in "Prometheus," but not by those nightmarish, black creatures with the elongated heads and projecting chompers. Heck, they're not even in the movie. Until the VERY LAST SHOT. How it gets there, and, more importantly, why it gets there is something movie goers will be arguing about until the "Prometheus" sequel. The Strong Female Lead Another seldom seen creature is found in both the "Alien" films and "Prometheus" - an intelligent, strong and forthright woman central character. Think that is too vague to be included in a list of similarities between these films? You clearly aren't watching enough big budget Hollywood movies then, are you?

But before you go telling your pamphlet-distributing aunt to go see this flick, know that "Prometheus" is just like "Alien" in its readiness to leer at its female lead as it runs in terror wearing thin white underpants. Come back every Thursday for more intergalactic musings on Planet Fanboy and follow its fearless leader Jordan Hoffman on Twitter! Ash (Alien) - IGN IGN Biography Ash, played by Ian Holm, has an important role in the 1979 movie Alien. As the ship's science officer everything related to science needs to go through him including the investigations of any possible life forms that they encounter. With only one crew member, Ripley (played by Sigourney Weaver), suspicious of him, Ash is trusted until the end when he turns on everyone to get this alien life form back to the office he works for. Also Known As: Science Officer Ash First Appearance: Alien, 1979 Ash, played by Ian Holm, has an important role in the 1979 movie Alien. As the ship's science officer everything related to science needs to go through him including the investigations of any possible life forms that they encounter.

With only one crew member, Ripley (played by Sigourney Weaver), suspicious of him, Ash is trusted until the end when he turns on everyone to get this alien life form back to the office he works for. Base: Expired Alien(1979) | Planet Xenomorph Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia This page uses material from the Alien (film ) article on Wikipedia and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License . Alien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Tom Skerret, Sygourney Weaver, Veronica Cartright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, The original 1979 release Ian Holm, and Yaphet Kotto. The film's title refers to its primary antagonist: a highly aggressive extraterestrial creature which stalks and kills the crew of a spaceship. Dan O'Bannon wrote the screenplay from a story by him and Ronald Shushet, drawing influence from previous works of science fiction and horror. The film was produced through Brandywine Productions and distributed by 20th Century Fox, with producers David Giler and Walter Hill making significant revisions and additions to the script.

The titular Alien and its accompanying elements were designed by Swiss surrealist artist H. R. Giger, while concept artists Ron Cobb and Chris Foss designed the human aspects of the film. Alien garnered both critical acclaim and box office success, receiving an Academy Award for best visual effects, Saturn Awards for Best science fiction film, Best Direction for Scott, and Best Supporting Actress for Cartwright, and a Hugo Award for best dramatic presentation, along with numerous other award nominations. It has remained highly praised in subsequent decades, being inducted into the National film registry of the Library of Congress in 2002 for historical preservation as a film which is "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and being ranked by the American film institute in 2008 as the seventh-best film in the science fiction genre. The success of Alien spawned a media franchise of novels, comic books, video games, and toys, as well as three sequels and two prequel films.

It also launched Weaver's acting career by providing her with her first lead role, and the story of her character Ripley's encounters with the Alien creatures became the thematic thread that ran through the sequels Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992), and Alien Resurrection (1997). The subsequent prequels Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007) abandoned this theme in favor of a crossover with the Predator franchise. Contents Edit A scene with a facehugger on kane's face In the near future, during its return to the earth, a commercial spaceship Nostromo intercepts a distress SOS from a distant planet. The seven-member crew are woken up from the hypersleep and the spaceship subsequently descends on the planet. While exploring the planet, a three-member team of the crew discovers a derelict spaceship and a huge chamber inside it containing thousands of eggs. When a curious team member goes too near the egg the parasite inside the egg attacks him, rendering him unconscious. He is brought back aboard, the spaceship takes off. After a little while the parasite dies and his host wakes up seemingly unruffled.

But other crew members are unaware of the living nightmare which is going to descend upon them when the alien creature planted inside its unfortunate host would emerge. Direction and design Edit [1] [2] H. R. Giger designed and worked on the Alien and its accompanying elements.O'Bannon had originally assumed that he would direct Alien, but 20th Century Fox instead asked Hill to direct. [22 ] [23 ] Hill declined due to other film commitments as well as not being comfortable with the level of visual effects that would be required. [24 ] Peter Yates , Jack Clayton , and Robert Aldrich were considered for the task, but O'Bannon, Shusett, and the Brandywine team felt that these directors A model version of the alien head would not take the film seriously and would instead treat it as a B monster movie . [23 ] [25 ] Giler, Hill, and Carroll had been impressed by Ridley Scott 's debut feature film The Duellists (1977) and made an offer to him to direct Alien, which Scott quickly accepted.

[14 ] [25 ] Scott created detailed storyboards for the film in London , which impressed 20th Century Fox enough to double the film's budget from $4.2 million to $8.4 million. [23 ] [26 ] His storyboards included designs for the spaceship and space suits , drawing influences from films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Wars. [26 ] However, he was keen on emphasizing horror in Alien rather than fantasy, describing the film as " The Texas Chain Saw Massacre of science fiction". [23 ] [25 ] O'Bannon introduced Scott to the artwork of H. R. Giger; both of them felt that his painting Necronom IV was the type of representation they wanted for the film's antagonist and began asking the studio to hire him as a designer. [23 ] [25 ] 20th Century Fox initially believed Giger's work was too ghastly for audiences, but the Brandywine team were persistent and eventually won out.

[25 ] According to Gordon Carroll: "The first second that Ridley saw Giger's work, he knew that the biggest single design problem, maybe the biggest problem in the film, had been solved." [23 ] Scott flew to Zürich to meet Giger and recruited him to work on all aspects of the Alien and its environment including the surface of the planetoid, the derelict spacecraft, and all four forms of the Alien from the egg to the adult. [23 ] [25 ] I resent films that are so shallow they rely entirely on their visual effects, and of course science fiction films are notorious for this. I've always felt that there's another way to do it: a lot of effort should be expended toward rendering the environment of the spaceship, or space travel, whatever the fantastic setting of your story should be–as convincingly as possible, but always in the background. That way the story and the characters emerge and they become more real.

[14 ] –Ron Cobb on his designs for Alien.O'Bannon brought in artists Ron Cobb and Chris Foss (with whom he had worked on Dark Star and Dune, respectively) to work on designs for the human aspects of the film such as the spaceship and space suits. [23 ] [27 ] Cobb created hundreds of preliminary sketches of the interiors and exteriors of the ship, which went through many design concepts and possible names such as Leviathan and Snark as the script continued to develop. The final name of the ship was derived from the title of Joseph Conrad 's 1904 novel Nostromo , while the escape shuttle, called Narcissus in the script, was named after Conrad's 1897 novella The Nigger of the 'Narcissus' . [28 ] The production team particularly praised Cobb's ability to depict the interior settings of the ship in a realistic and believable manner. Under Ridley Scott's direction the design of the Nostromo shifted towards an 800-foot (240 m)-long tug towing a refining platform 2 miles (3.2 km) long and 1.5 miles (2.4 km) wide.

[14 ] Cobb also created some conceptual drawings of the Alien, but these were not used. [23 ] [27 ] Moebius was attached to the project for a few days as well, and his costume renderings served as the basis for the final space suits created by costume designer John Mollo. [14 ] [27 ] Edit For more details on individual characters, see List of characters in the Alien series . Casting calls and auditions for Alien were held in both New York and London. [26 ] With only seven human characters in the story, Scott sought to hire strong actors so that he could focus most of his energy on the film's visual style. [26 ] He employed casting director Mary Selway , who had worked with him on The Duellists, to head the casting in the United Kingdom, while Mary Goldberg handled casting in the United States. [29 ] [30 ] In developing the story O'Bannon had focused on writing the Alien first, putting off developing the characters for a later draft.

[23 ] He and Shusett had therefore written all of the roles as generic males with a note in the script explicitly stating that "The crew is unisex and all parts are The alien approaching veronica cartright's character lambert in alien interchangeable for men or women." [29 ] [31 ] This left Scott, Selway, and Goldberg free to interpret the characters as they liked and to cast accordingly. They wanted the Nostromo's crew to resemble working astronauts in a realistic environment, a concept summed up as "truckers in space". [26 ] [29 ] Scott has stated that this concept was inspired partly by Star Wars, which deviated from the pristine future often depicted in science fiction films of the time. [32 ] [3] [4] The principal cast members of Alien. Left to right: Holm, Stanton, Weaver, Kotto, Skerritt, Cartwright, and Hurt.The principal cast members of Alien were: Bolaji Badejo as The Alien , the titular antagonist of the film. A Nigerian design student, Badejo was discovered in a bar by a member of the casting team, who put him in touch with Ridley Scott.

[33 ] [34 ] Scott believed that Badejo, at 7 feet 2 inches (218 cm) and with a slender frame, could portray the Alien and look as if his arms and legs were too long to be real, creating the illusion that there could not possibly be a human being inside the costume. [14 ] [33 ] [34 ] Stuntmen Eddie Powell and Roy Scammell also portrayed the Alien in some scenes. [14 ] [35 ] Veronica Cartwright as Lambert, the Nostromo's navigator. Cartwright had previous experience in horror and science fiction films, having acted in The Birds (1963) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978). [36 ] 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.

[29 ] [37 ] She disliked the character's emotional weakness, [34 ] 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." [29 ] Cartwright won a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. [5 ] [6 ] Ian Holm as Ash , the ship's Science Officer who is revealed to be an android under orders to bring the Alien back to the Nostromo's corporate employers. Holm, a character actor who in 1979 had already been in twenty films, was the most experienced actor cast for Alien. [21 ] John Hurt as Kane, the Executive Officer who becomes the host for the Alien. Hurt was Scott's first choice for the role but was contracted on a film in South Africa during Alien's filming dates, so Jon Finch was cast as Kane instead. [34 ] However, Finch became ill during the first day of shooting and was diagnosed with severe diabetes , which had also exacerbated a case of bronchitis . [38 ] By this point, Hurt was in London, his South African project having fallen through, and he quickly replaced Finch.

[29 ] [38 ] His performance earned him a nomination for a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role . [6 ] Yaphet Kotto as Parker, the Chief Engineer. Kotto was chosen partly to add diversity to the cast and give the Nostromo crew an international flavor. [29 ] 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. [26 ] [29 ] 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." [26 ] 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 . [26 ] Sigourney Weaver as Ripley , the Warrant Officer onboard the Nostromo and protagonist of the film.

The decision to make the lead character a woman was made by Giler and Hill, who felt that this would help Alien stand out in the otherwise male-dominated genre of science fiction. [29 ] 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. [29 ] [34 ] 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. [6 ] To assist the actors in preparing for their roles, Ridley Scott wrote several pages of backstory for each character explaining their histories. [22 ] [39 ] He filmed many of their rehearsals in order to capture spontaneity and improvisation, and tensions between some of the cast members, particularly towards the less-experienced Weaver, translated convincingly on film as tension between their respective characters.

[39 ] Film critic Roger Ebert has noted that the actors in Alien were older than was typical in thriller films at the time, and that this helped make the characters more convincing: [N]one of them were particularly young. Tom Skerritt, the captain, was 46, Hurt was 39 but looked older, Holm was 48, Harry Dean Stanton was 53, Yaphet Kotto was 42, and only Veronica Cartwright at 29 and Weaver at 30 were in the age range of the usual thriller cast. Many recent action pictures have improbably young actors cast as key roles or sidekicks, but by skewing older, Alien achieves a certain texture without even making a point of it: These are not adventurers but workers, hired by a company to return 20 million tons of ore to Earth. [10 ] David McIntee , author of Beautiful Monsters: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to the Alien and Predator Films, has praised the acting and characterizations in Alien.

He notes that part of the film's effectiveness in frightening viewers "comes from the fact that the audience can all identify with the characters...Everyone aboard the Nostromo is a normal, everyday, working Joe just like the rest of us. They just happen to live and work in the future." [40 ] [ edit ] Set design and filming Edit [7] [8] Ridley Scott filming model shots of the Nostromo and its attached ore refinery. He made slow passes filming at 2½ frames per second to give the models the appearance of motion. [14 ]The spaceships and planets for the film were shot using models and miniatures. These included models of the Nostromo, its attached mineral refinery, the escape shuttle Narcissus, the alien planetoid, and the exterior and interior of the derelict spacecraft. Visual Effects Supervisor Brian Johnson, supervising modelmaker Martin Bower, and their team worked at Bray Studios, roughly 30 miles (48 km) from Shepperton Studios where principal filming was taking place. [49 ] [50 ] The designs of the Nostromo and its attachments were based on combinations of Ridley Scott's storyboards and Ron Cobb's conceptual drawings.

[49 ] The basic outlines of the models were made of wood and plastic, and most of the fine details were added from model kits of battleships, tanks, and World War II bombers. Three models of the Nostromo were made: a 12-inch (30 cm) version for medium and long shots, a 4-foot (1.2 m) version for rear shots, and a 12-foot (3.7 m), 7-short-ton (6.4 t) rig for the undocking and planetoid surface sequences. [14 ] [50 ] Scott insisted on numerous changes to the models even as filming was taking place, leading to conflicts with the modeling and filming teams. The Nostromo was originally yellow, and the team filmed shots of the models for six weeks before Johnson left to work on The Empire Strikes Back . Scott then ordered it changed to gray, and the team had to begin shooting again from scratch. [49 ] [50 ] He ordered more and more pieces added to the model until the final large version with the refinery required a metal framework so that it could be lifted by a forklift .

He also took a hammer and chisel to sections of the refinery, knocking off many of its spires which Bower had spent weeks creating. Scott also had disagreements with lighting technician Denny Ayling over how to light the models. [49 ] A separate model, approximately 40 feet (12 m) long, was created for the Nostromo's underside from which the Narcissus would detach and from which Kane's body would be launched during the funeral scene. Bower carved Kane's burial shroud out of wood and it was launched through the hatch using a small catapult and filmed at high speed, then slowed down in editing. [49 ] [51 ] Only one shot was filmed using blue screen compositing: that of the shuttle racing past the Nostromo. The other shots were simply filmed against black backdrops, with stars added via double exposure . [50 ] Though motion control photography technology was available at the time, the film's budget would not allow for it. The team therefore used a camera with wide-angle lenses mounted on a drive mechanism to make slow passes over and around the models filming at 2½ per second, [14 ] giving them the appearance of motion.

Scott added smoke and wind effects to enhance the illusion. [49 ] For the scene in which the Nostromo detaches from the refinery, a 30-foot (9.1 m) docking arm was created using pieces from model railway kits. The Nostromo was pushed away from the refinery by the forklift, which was covered in black velvet, causing the arm to extend out from the refinery. This created the illusion that the arm was pushing the ship forward. [49 ] [50 ] Shots from outside the ship in which the characters are seen through windows moving around inside were filmed using larger models which contained projection screens showing pre-recorded footage. [49 ] A first screen test of the alien A separate model was created for the exterior of the derelict alien spacecraft. Matte paintings were used to fill in areas of the ship's interior as well as exterior shots of the planetoid's surface. [49 ] The surface as seen from space during the landing sequence was created by painting a globe white, then mixing chemicals and dyes onto transparencies and projecting them onto it.

[14 ] [50 ] The planetoid was not named in the film, but some drafts of the script gave it the name Acheron [34 ] after the river which in Greek mythology is described as the "stream of woe", a branch of the river Styx , and which forms the border of Hell in Dante 's Inferno . The 1986 sequel Aliens named the planetoid as "LV-426", [45 ] and both names have been used for it in subsequent expanded universe media such as comic books and video games. In Alien the planetoid is said to be located somewhere in the Zeta2 Reticuli system. [52 ] [ edit ] Egg and facehugger Edit An alien approaching from the smoke in a cut scene from alien For the scene in which Ash is revealed to be an android and has his head knocked off, a puppet was created of the character's torso and upper body which was operated from underneath by a small puppeteer. [39 ] During a preview screening of the film this scene caused a female usher to faint.

[54 ] [61 ] In the following scene Ash's head is placed on a table and re-activated; for portions of this scene an animatronic head was made using a face cast of actor Ian Holm. [48 ] However the latex of the head shrank while drying and the result was not entirely convincing. [39 ] For the bulk of the scene Holm knelt under the table with his head coming up through a hole and milk , caviar , pasta , and glass marbles were used to show the android's inner workings and fluids. [39 ] [48 ] Edit Editing and post-production work on Alien took roughly twenty weeks to complete. [62 ] Terry Rawlings served as Editor, having previously worked with Scott on editing sound for The Duellists . [62 ] Scott and Rawlings edited much of the film to have a slow pace in order to build suspense for the more tense and frightening moments. According to Rawlings: "I think the way we did get it right was by keeping it slow, funny enough, which is completely different from what they do today.

And I think the slowness of it made the moments that you wanted people to be sort of scared...then we could go as fast as we liked because you've sucked people into a corner and then attacked them, so to speak. And I think that's how it worked." [62 ] The first cut of the film was over three hours long; further editing trimmed the final version to just under two hours. [54 ] [62 ] An alien One scene that was cut from the film occurred during Ripley's final escape from the Nostromo: she encounters Dallas and Brett who have been partially cocooned by the Alien. O'Bannon had intended the scene to indicate that Brett was becoming an Alien egg while Dallas was held nearby to be implanted by the resulting facehugger.

[19 ] Production Designer Michael Seymour later suggested that Dallas had "become sort of food for the alien creature", [42 ] while Ivor Powell suggested that "Dallas is found in the ship as an egg, still alive." [62 ] Scott remarked that "they're morphing, metamorphosing , they are changing into...being consumed, I guess, by whatever the Alien's organism is...into an egg." [21 ] The scene was cut partly because it did not look realistic enough and partly because it slowed the pace of the escape sequence. [19 ] [48 ] Tom Skerritt remarked that "The picture had to have that pace. Her trying to get the hell out of there, we're all rooting for her to get out of there, and for her to slow up and have a conversation with Dallas was not appropriate." [62 ] The footage was included amongst other deleted scenes as a special feature on the Laserdisc release of Alien, and a shortened version of it was re-inserted into the 2003 "Director's Cut" which was re-released in theaters and on DVD . [19 ] [66 ] [ edit ] Release and reception

Question: What was the name of the robot played by Ian Holm in Alien?
Answer: Ash