Alien

Al Matthews

Brooklyn

Al Matthews built a career that crossed music, film, television, theatre and radio, but for many movie fans, one performance stands at the centre of it: Sergeant Apone in Aliens. Matthews gave the 1986 film a commanding presence shaped by more than acting alone. Before entering entertainment, he had served in the United States Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, graduating at Parris Island in 1966. Born in Brooklyn on November 21, 1942, Matthews first found notable success as a singer. His single “Fool” reached number 16 on the UK Singles Chart in 1975, and he continued recording with releases including “It’s Only Love” in 1977 and “People Are People” in 1978. That musical background became one part of an unusually varied working life rather than a separate chapter left behind. His screen credits stretched from Rough Cut and Omen III: The Final Conflict to The Sender and Superman III. In 1986, the same year he played Apone, he appeared as Benedict in The American Way. Later film roles included General Tudor in The Fifth Element and Master Sergeant #3 in Tomorrow Never Dies, both released in 1997. Matthews was also active in British television, playing Sam Green, the father of Benny Green, in Grange Hill. Away from the screen, he worked in theatre and on radio, acting for BBC Radio 4 and presenting on BBC Radio 1 and Capital Radio. He also worked as a voice actor, returning to Sergeant Apone 27 years after Aliens for the 2013 video game Aliens: Colonial Marines. Matthews died in 2018, leaving behind a body of work spread across several corners of entertainment. His career did not follow a single lane, moving instead between records, broadcasting and genre movies with the ease of a seasoned performer.

Bill Paxton

Fort Worth

Bill Paxton brought nervous energy, dry humor and an appealingly human edge to roles across science fiction, horror, action and drama. Born in Fort Worth, Texas, on May 17, 1955, he began his film career behind the scenes, working in props and art departments after moving to Los Angeles. When film schools in Southern California rejected him, he shifted his ambitions from directing to acting—though filmmaking would remain an important part of his career. Early appearances included a punk in The Terminator and the bullying Chet Donnelly in Weird Science, but Private William Hudson in Aliens gave Paxton one of his defining roles. Hudson’s swagger and panic allowed him to be funny without weakening the danger around him, and the performance earned Paxton the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor. He could be considerably more menacing, too, as the volatile vampire Severen in Kathryn Bigelow’s Near Dark. Paxton became a dependable presence in large-scale productions while keeping his characters grounded. He played Morgan Earp in Tombstone, astronaut Fred Haise in Apollo 13, storm chaser Bill Harding in Twister and treasure hunter Brock Lovett in Titanic. Darker dramas such as One False Move and A Simple Plan gave him room to explore quieter forms of fear and moral pressure. Later roles included appearances in Edge of Tomorrow and Nightcrawler, while The Circle became his final film appearance in 2017. His interest in directing eventually returned to the foreground. Paxton directed and starred in Frailty, then directed The Greatest Game Ever Played. His work also extended substantially into television. He led HBO’s Big Love from 2006 to 2011, receiving three Golden Globe nominations, and earned an Emmy nomination for Hatfields & McCoys. He later played John Garrett in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., General Sam Houston in Texas Rising and Detective Frank Rourke in Training Day. Across those roles, Paxton rarely seemed interested in polished invulnerability. His characters sweated, worried, bluffed and pushed forward anyway—a quality that made even his biggest movies feel a little more immediate.

Carrie Henn

Panama City

Carrie Henn is an American actress whose professional life brings together film acting and teaching. Rather than fitting neatly into a single screen-focused label, her profile includes work as an actor, film actor and teacher. Those occupations sit side by side, giving a concise picture of someone connected both to movies and to the classroom. Henn was born on May 7, 1976, in Panama City. Her biography is defined less by a long list of public milestones than by the contrast between her two fields. Acting asks for presence within a story, while teaching depends on direct engagement beyond the screen. In Henn’s case, both belong to the same professional portrait. As a film actor, Henn has a place in movie culture; as a teacher, she also represents a working life that is not limited to performance. That combination is the most distinctive feature of her career as presented here. It makes for a biography that is straightforward but not one-dimensional: Henn is an American screen performer with a professional identity extending into education. For movie fans, that makes Carrie Henn an interesting figure to revisit. Her profile does not need an inflated account of fame or a sweeping career narrative. The essential facts are clear: she was born in Panama City in 1976, is associated with acting and film acting, and is also a teacher. Together, those details present a career balanced between screen work and another profession built around communication and attention.

Colette Hiller

Colette Hiller is an American actor whose screen career encompasses both film and television. Her work places her across two distinct forms of performance: the concentrated storytelling of movies and the different rhythms of television. There are currently no Colette Hiller films connected to the Please Rewind movie collection, so this profile begins as a simple introduction rather than an attempt to build a larger career narrative without the films to support it. As more of her screen work enters the conversation, the focus will remain where it belongs: on the performances, the roles and the movies worth returning to. For now, Hiller’s place on the Talent Wall reflects her work as a film and television actor. It is a concise starting point for readers looking to explore the people who have contributed to the screen, whether through a single memorable appearance or a wider body of work.

Cynthia Dale Scott

Cynthia Dale Scott is an American film actress whose professional work is associated with screen performance. Her Talent Wall entry is currently a compact one, with no individual movies connected to her on Please Rewind yet. Rather than fill those gaps with assumptions, this profile keeps the focus on what can be said clearly: Scott has worked as a film actor. Specific roles, career milestones and further biographical details are not included here at present. For now, this page serves as a straightforward introduction to Scott and her place in American film. As her movies become part of the Please Rewind archive, it can grow into a fuller look at her performances and the films worth going back for.

Daniel Kash

Montreal

Daniel Kash is a Canadian actor whose career has ranged across film, television, directing and video games. Born in Montreal on April 25, 1959, he grew up in a musical family: his mother was Canadian opera singer Maureen Forrester, while his father, Eugene Kash, was a violinist and conductor. His sister, Linda Kash, also became an actress. After studying acting at Drama Centre London, Kash made his film debut as Private Spunkmeyer in Aliens in 1986. It was an early step into the kind of genre storytelling that would remain a steady part of his screen work. His later film credits include Crown Heights, True Confections, Gross Misconduct, Solo, Mama and Easy Land, as well as Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam, in which he played Axel Turner. Television has given Kash room to move between crime stories, science fiction, horror and drama. He has appeared in series including Due South, Street Legal, Goosebumps, Law & Order, Nikita, Hannibal and Orphan Black. His recurring roles have often placed him close to the centre of larger conflicts: he played Everett Barnes in The Strain, the villain Dresden in The Expanse and the Alpha Werewolf of the Russian pack in Bitten. In Bad Blood, he had a main role as Enzo Cosoleto. Kash has also brought his voice and performance work to video games. He played main antagonist Damien Brenks in Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs and Orion in Thief, both released in 2014. Away from acting, he directed the short films Germgirl, Flip Phone and For Lease. Taken together, his credits show an actor comfortable shifting between formats and genres, with a career built as much on distinctive supporting parts as on recurring and central roles.

Lance Henriksen

Manhattan, New York, USA

Lance Henriksen has built a screen career around a presence that can feel stern, weathered and quietly vulnerable—qualities that have served him equally well in science fiction, horror, westerns and crime stories. Born in Manhattan on May 5, 1940, Henriksen took an unconventional route to acting. He left school after first grade, worked as a muralist and ship labourer, and remained illiterate until around age 30. While working as a theatre set designer, he was offered an acting role after building the production’s set. With a friend’s help, he recorded the entire script, learned every part, and taught himself to read during this period. He later graduated from the Actors Studio and began acting in New York City. Early film work included small and supporting parts in Sidney Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon, Network and Prince of the City, as well as Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Damien: Omen II. His collaboration with James Cameron became a defining part of his career. Henriksen played LAPD detective Hal Vukovich in The Terminator before taking on Bishop, the composed android at the centre of some of Aliens’ most human moments. He returned to that world as Bishop’s designer, Michael Weyland, in Alien 3. Henriksen could also turn that stillness into menace. As vampire leader Jesse Hooker in Kathryn Bigelow’s Near Dark, he brought authority without needing to crowd the frame. Western roles followed in The Quick and the Dead and Dead Man, while television gave him one of his most substantial characters: Frank Black, the former FBI agent in Chris Carter’s Millennium. The performance earned Henriksen three consecutive Golden Globe nominations. His distinctive voice has carried into animation and games, including Kerchak in Disney’s Tarzan, Admiral Hackett in the Mass Effect series and Carl Manfred in Detroit: Become Human. In Viggo Mortensen’s Falling, Henriksen received a rare leading showcase and a Canadian Screen Award nomination, reaffirming the emotional weight beneath that famously hard exterior.

Sigourney Weaver

Manhattan, New York City, USA

Sigourney Weaver’s screen career has always been difficult to box in. She can anchor science fiction without losing the human scale, sharpen a comedy with cool precision, or bring unease and complexity to a drama. That range has carried her from Ellen Ripley in Alien and Aliens to Dana Barrett in Ghostbusters, Dian Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist and the calculating Katharine Parker in Working Girl. Born in Manhattan in 1949, Weaver developed an interest in performing at school before studying English at Stanford University, where she became heavily involved in theatre. She later earned an MFA from the Yale School of Drama in 1974. Her early professional work included Broadway’s The Constant Wife, television appearances and a small part in Annie Hall, but Alien provided the major screen breakthrough. Ripley became the role most closely associated with Weaver, and Aliens brought her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Her work soon made clear that Ripley was not a limit. Weaver played British Embassy officer Jill Bryant in The Year of Living Dangerously, returned to comedy for Ghostbusters and took on two markedly different roles in 1988. Gorillas in the Mist and Working Girl earned her Golden Globes for lead and supporting actress respectively, as well as simultaneous Academy Award nominations. Later films including Death and the Maiden, Copycat, The Ice Storm and Galaxy Quest gave her room to move between psychological intensity, dry comedy and genre playfulness. Weaver has continued to work across film, television, voice acting and the stage. Her credits include the narration of the American version of Planet Earth, the voice of the ship’s computer in WALL•E, the political miniseries Political Animals and a return to James Cameron’s science-fiction worlds in Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water. Onstage, she appeared in Christopher Durang’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike and made her West End debut as Prospero in The Tempest. It is a career built not around one mode, but around the ability to make authority, wit and vulnerability occupy the same frame.