Whatever happened to Carrie Henn?

It wouldn’t be much of an exaggeration to say my favourite action move of all time is the James Cameron-directed Aliens. I don’t really see this as a movie sequel in a conventional sense. While it retained characters and ideas from the original, the direction that Cameron took this was entirely different from Ridley Scott’s work. Viewed entirely in isolation it’s a wildly unpredictable ride, stunningly designed and brilliantly executed.

Along with Sigourney Weaver, this production also had some stand-out performances by Michael Biehn and Lance Henriksen, but also a young actress called Carrie Henn, as Rebecca ‘Newt’ Jordan. The soft spoken Carrie was obviously meant for a sparkling movie career, so why did we never see her ever again?

Curiously she had no prior acting experience before Aliens, not even a school production performance. The daughter of a US Air Force serviceman, she was at school near Lakenheath when she was unexpectedly cast in the roll of Newt. Interestingly her brother ‘Christopher Henn’ was also cast as Newt’s brother Timmy, but he didn’t appear in the original release. Only in the extended version do we meet Timmy. Like his sister, he’s never appeared in anything else.

After Aliens was a huge success she was interviewed a number of times, and every time she said she had no intentions to act again. She’s stuck to her word, and for a very long time she never appeared on film again. But since 2001 she’s appeared in a couple of made-for-TV documentaries on Alien, and she was also interviewed with Sigourney and her brother for the Alien Quadrilogy DVD pack. But aside from occasional interest from the Sci-Fi community, she’s led an entirely Hollywood-free existence. Her last official appearance was at the 20th Anniversary screening of Aliens in 2006, in Los Angeles.

In 2000 she earned her degree in liberal studies and child development, and now works as a school teacher in Atwater, California.