Ash (Alien) Ash (Alien) Ash is a fictional character in the movie "Alien", who was portrayed by actor Ian Holm, who, although known in the U.K. as a stage actor, was at the time unknown to American audiences. Ash serves as an antagonist of the first film. The character is the science officer of the "Nostromo", who breaks quarantine by allowing Kane, a member of the crew, back on board after he has been infected by an alien life form. It is later discovered that Ash is not human at all, as he appears, but is in fact a Hyperdyne Systems 120-A/2
Ian Holm appeared with Kenneth Branagh in "Henry V" (1989) and as Polonius to Mel Gibson's "Hamlet" (1990). Holm was reunited with Kenneth Branagh in "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" (1994), playing the father of Branagh's Victor Frankenstein. Holm raised his profile in 1997 with two prominent roles, as the stressed but gentle priest Vito Cornelius in "The Fifth Element" and the tormented plaintiff's lawyer in "The Sweet Hereafter". In 2001 he starred in "From Hell" as the physician Sir William Withey Gull. The same year he appeared as Bilbo Baggins in the blockbuster film "", having previously played Bilbo's nephew Frodo Baggins in