Gordon Carroll, producer of ‘Alien’ films, was also an Army veteran

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Actors Veronica Cartwright and Sigourney Weaver in a scene from the movie 'Alien', 1979. (Photo by Stanley Bielecki Movie Collection/Getty Images)
Actors Veronica Cartwright and Sigourney Weaver in a scene from the movie 'Alien', 1979. (Photo by Stanley Bielecki Movie Collection/Getty Images) Stanley Bielecki Movie Collectio

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Gordon Carroll left an indelible mark on the film world, especially for his work in the science fiction genre on the first five Alien films. He produced such projects as Cool Hand Luke, the Oscar-winning film starring Paul Newman, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, with stars Kris Kristofferson and James Coburn, Blue Thunder with Roy Scheider and Red Heat with Arnold Schwarzenegger. All highly legit and well-made films. His biggest hits at the box office came with Alien ($187M at the BO) winning the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and Aliens (~157M at the BO) with two Academy wins for Best Sound Effects Editing and Best Visual Effects. Before all of his success in Hollywood, Carroll graduated from Princeton University Summa Cum Laude and joined the U.S. Army as an officer. He served during the Korean War as a First Lieutenant and left the Army to go into advertising in Manhattan. He worked for Foote, Cone and Belding through the 1950s and left in the latter part of the decade to work in Hollywood. Carroll being a lifelong lover of books and began his film career as an executive producer on How to Murder Your Wife.

Sigourney Weaver speaking at the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con International, for “Aliens: 30th Anniversary”, at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and Greg Skidmore.

The Alien franchise has spawned, no pun intended, nine feature films with the most recent being an interquel film, Alien: Romulus, which has earned $315M in the BO, which is pretty good for Carroll as the franchise he helped start has continued well beyond his lifetime. Carroll started Brandywine Productions with David Glier and Walter Hill in 1969, which is now 55 years old, to produce movies. Brandywine is still a lead production company on the franchise. His Alien films were one of the first to feature a strong female protagonist, Ellen Ripley portrayed by the excellent Sigourney Weaver, in a sci-fi franchise, which has endured for decades. Ripley is an icon in sci-fi lore and has set the standards for such leadership roles across the sci-fi genre. Ridley Scott, probably one of the greatest living directors, directed the first film and has returned to direct prequel films Prometheus and Alien: Covenant and has produced Alien: Romulus.

Director Ridley Scott participates in a question and answer session about NASA’s journey to Mars and the film ”The Martian,” Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015, at the United Artist Theater in La Cañada Flintridge, California. NASA scientists and engineers served as technical consultants on the film. The movie portrays a realistic view of the climate and topography of Mars, based on NASA data, and some of the challenges NASA faces as we prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet in the 2030s. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Director Ridley Scott participates in a question and answer session about NASA’s journey to Mars and the film ”The Martian,” Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015, at the United Artist Theater in La Cañada Flintridge, California. NASA scientists and engineers served as technical consultants on the film. The movie portrays a realistic view of the climate and topography of Mars, based on NASA data, and some of the challenges NASA faces as we prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet in the 2030s. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls) and Wikimedia Commons. NASA/Bill Ingalls

The Alien film set the standard for sci-fi and horror as the creature that has stowed away on the giant spaceship the Nostromo is rarely seen. It stalks its prey on the ship with such precision and surprise that the entire crew is taken out by the creature leaving Ripley and her cat to finally destroy it. Scott superbly directed the film which stands the test of time. The next iteration Carroll produced was Aliens, which again starred Weaver as Ripley, but this time was directed by the Hollywood genius and mogul James Cameron. Gale Anne Hurd, of The Walking Dead fame, produced the film with Cameron and they put together an ensemble cast of Space Marines with Michael Biehn, Bill Paxton, Jennette Goldstein and Al Matthews, a real Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War, who starred as the platoon sergeant, Sgt Apone. Cameron made the film into a sci-fi war epic with strong Vietnam War undertones throughout. The characters, equipment and situation is very Vietnamesque. Even at the beginning of the film with Ripley having been away so long, life has moved on without her, which is like many Vietnam stories of the soldier being away so long that life has moved on without him or her. Aliens feature top-notch directing, storytelling, acting and special effects. It is a must-watch of one of Carroll’s best.

Aliens Producer Gale Anne Hurd and Writer/Director James Cameron. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Carroll pressed forward with producing five more Alien franchise films with Alien 3, directed by David Fincher and featuring Ripley now stranded on a prison colony with aliens infecting and killing prisoners. The movie is cutting-edge sci-fi with a more dystopian sense at the penal colony. Charles S. Dutton and Charles Dance provide standout performances alongside Weaver, however, the film was not as critically successful as its predecessors, although a hit at the BO with $159M in receipts. The fourth film, Alien: Resurrection followed in the later 1990s and did well at the BO with $161M earned, however, it also received mixed reviews. The movie featured Weaver, Winona Ryder and Ron Perlman with Ripley being clonned in the future after she died in Alien 3. It had strong action and special effects, such as a swimming alien, but was not a match for the first two films. The final film Carroll produced in the franchise was the first crossover film, AVP: Alien vs. Predator in 2004, which did fine at the BO with $177M but was panned by critics. It places the Predator from the Predator film franchise against the alien with humans mixed in to get slaughtered.

The Alien franchise has earned billions to date and has proven to be a strong performer across six decades with movies, short films, video games, comics, a TV series and a web series to its credit. Carroll placed great trust in two legendary directors and an equally legendary actress to build the franchise. His gambles paid off and he helped to create a new pathway for science fiction to explore alien life forms with a strong female leader to trailblaze the path. Gordon passed away in 2005 at the age of 77.