The Hollywood community was saddened to learn, on the same day as the Academy Awards, that Bill Paxton had died from complications following heart surgery at age 61. He was one of the most underrated actors in the business, so underrated in fact, that he never even made it onto any lists of underrated actors! A-list stars tend to get all the attention, and we don't pay enough of it to the dozens of solid B players that make all those marquee names look as good as they do. Paxton was a utility guy, he never got carried off the field with the crowd cheering, but he played on championship teams. Nobody ever made a movie by themselves, the great ones require a lot of skilled labor. Paxton is perhaps best known for the color he brought to four James Cameron movies, forging a firm forty-year friendship with his frequent collaborator(the pair first met while working for Roger Corman in the late '70s). You may not have known that he directed two movies("Frailty", "The Greatest Game Ever Played"), and they were good enough to make me wish he had done it more. As a child in Texas, Bill was among a crowd gathered to greet President Kennedy as he arrived in Dallas on November 22, 1963. He was destined to be in the thick of things. Let's learn more about one of industry's good guys.
"The Terminator"(1984)
"I think this guy's a couple cans short of a six-pack". There are no small roles, only small actors. Bill Paxton proves that old adage to be true in the opening scene of James Cameron's career-making classic. The great directors realize that every speaking role should be played by a quality performer because there can be no weak links in the chain(case in point- Paul Winfield and Lance Henriksen's cop duo, Earl Boen's Dr. Silberman, Dick Miller's gun-shop clerk and Rick "I'm gonna bust you up, man" Rossovich). Blonde punk Brian Thompson("Wash day tomorrow...") didn't do too bad, either. Not sure about the guy actually wearing Arnie's clothes, though.
"Weird Science"(1985)
Writer-director John Hughes was practically patenting the teen movie in 1985, and Paxton had a funny way of finding himself at the center of film history. His older brother Chet memorably antagonizes our Kelly LeBrock-creating high school heroes Anthony Michael Hall and Ilan Mitchell-Smith. "Science" is an extraordinarily silly movie(not necessarily a bad thing) that could have only been successfully launched in the mid-'80s. Robert Downey Jr. landed his big break here as well. He did alright for himself.
"Aliens"(1986)
I'm sure you've heard that Bill Paxton is the only actor to be killed by an Alien, a Predator and a Terminator. Who needs an Academy Award with those credentials? Cameron didn't have to search too far to fill out a supporting cast for Sigourney Weaver, and Paxton's Private Hudson is a consistently quotable crowd-pleaser in the best "Alien" movie there ever was or ever will be(with all due respect to Sir Ridley Scott). He's very eager to fight aliens. That is, until aliens actually show up. Game over, man.
"True Lies"(1994)
We all know a guy that knows every line of Bill Paxton's dialogue in "True Lies". Maybe you ARE that guy. Bill's sleazy used-car salesman wants to bang Jamie Lee Curtis. After her sexy hotel room striptease, I sympathize with his plight. His elaborate attempts to do so sidetracks 'the plot' for about a half-hour, and we don't mind one bit. Some of us may have even missed Simon during Arnie's third act Arab-killing spree. I almost bought a Corvette because of this guy. So don't feel guilty about that married MILF that you've been hitting on. Her husband doesn't appreciate her.
"Apollo 13"(1995)
Bill was definitely at the height of his career when he was invited into orbit in Ron Howard's masterpiece. I know that Tom Hanks' face is on the poster, but this is very much an ensemble and Paxton's inclusion says something about his position in the industry at the time. The riveting tale of the aborted 1970 moon mission may be the greatest movie about astronauts on the planet, just don't tell "The Right Stuff" I said that. "Apollo" earned nine Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, and was the third biggest moneymaker of 1995, behind "Toy Story" and "Batman Forever".
"Twister"(1996)
Another huge hit, Jan de Bont's natural disaster flick kicked the summer of '96 off right. I'll bet you didn't know that storm-chasing was an actual profession. Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt's divorcing couple are the reason you do, as they pursue a mythical F5 tornado all over Oklahoma. This movie definitely loses something on the small screen, but if you were lucky enough to be alive when everyone was dancing the Macarena, it was a mind-blowing theatrical experience. Fun fact- "Twister" was the first movie EVER released on DVD in March '97.
"Titanic"(1997)
The scenes that bookend "Titanic" shouldn't work. At 3 hours and 14 minutes, the movie is long enough, right? Wrong. The highest-grossing film of the 1990s was #1 at the box office for four straight months, crushing everything in it's path and completely dispelling with the popular notion that a movie's length had to be kept under control. Bill's role as a deep sea treasure hunter obsessed with the underwater wreck adds weight and levity to 1997's Best Picture winner, and he's arguably the most important guy in the movie NOT named Leonardo DiCaprio. As usual, Cameron knew exactly what he was doing(Paxton joined Jim on an expedition to the REAL Titanic for the 2003 documentary "Ghosts of the Abyss").
"A Simple Plan"(1998)
Paxton secured a rare starring role in Sam Raimi's snow-covered morality tale. Bill and Billy Bob Thornton star as middle-aged brothers in rural Minnesota that stumble upon an airplane crash and a bag filled with $4 million dollars. Will their lives be irreparably altered by greed? "Plan" underperformed in theaters, but a 90% score on RT indicates that it's more worthy of your time than those Netflix shows you've been hooked on. Billy Bob(hot off "Sling Blade") received a well-deserved Best Supporting Actor nomination, and Raimi ended up on the short list of potential "Spider-Man" directors. In typical fashion, Paxton would benefit the least.
"Frailty"(2001)
Bill displayed his skill BEHIND the camera as well as in front of it in his directorial debut. This undervalued chiller finds Paxton plotting murders with his two preteen sons(one of them grows up to be Mathew McConaughey) after a series of disturbing premonitions. Is he ridding the world of pure evil or just a raving religious zealot? The public probably wasn't in the mood to watch Bill Paxton hack people to death in the name of God a mere six weeks after 9/11, so "Frailty" only made a small profit. But if you're in the market for some morbid fun, you can do a lot worse.
"The Greatest Game Ever Played"(2005)
Paxton was resembling a polished old pro in his second directing effort, the pleasingly old-fashioned story of a young underdog golfer in the early 1900s. Shia LaBeouf was still sane when he played Frances Ouimet, the U.S. Open winner that defeated his celebrated rival Harry Vardon in 1913. This is the kind of movie that you can safely gather your whole family in front of on a Saturday night. We need more of those. Unfortunately, Disney didn't see enough money when "Game" was released in the fall of '05. In fact, they lost about $10 million on it. Despite putting the ball in the hole, Bill would never direct again.
"Nightcrawler"(2014)
For some reason, good roles in good movies stopped coming Bill Paxton's way during the Bush/Obama administrations despite his rep for raising the quality of nearly everything he appeared in(he did star in the HBO show "Big Love" from 2006-2011). I think that says more about the industry than anything else, but there was an inexplicably long cinematic dry spell. We got to see Bill shine one last time as a freelance photojournalist opposite a fantastic Jake Gyllenhaal in Dan Gilroy's dark thriller. It turns out that the TV new business is a haven for heartless opportunists that never feel too bad when tragedy strikes. Who knew? "Nightcrawler" is a low-budget triumph that was overlooked at awards season, but I have a feeling this movie's reputation will grow.
The film world needs more guys like Bill Paxton. Based on the outpouring of grief among his many colleagues, the world in general needs more people like him, too. R.I.P.
Complete filmography(60 films in total, the highly successful ones are darkened)
"Crazy Mama"(1975)
"Stripes"(1981)
"Night Warning"(1982)
"The Lords of Discipline"(1983)
"Mortuary"(1983)
"Streets of Fire"(1984)
"Impulse"(1984)
"The Terminator"(1984)
"Weird Science"(1985)
"Commando"(1985)
"Aliens"(1986)
"Near Dark"(1987)
"Pass the Ammo"(1988)
"Slipstream"(1989)
"Next of Kin"(1989)
"Brain Dead"(1990)
"The Last of the Finest"(1990)
"Navy SEALs"(1990)
"Predator 2"(1990)
"The Dark Backward"(1991)
"The Vagrant"(1992)
"One False Move"(1992)
"Trespass"(1992)
"Indian Summer"(1993)
"Boxing Helena"(1993)
"Tombstone"(1993)
"True Lies"(1994)
"Frank and Jesse"(1994)
"The Last Supper"(1995)
"Apollo 13"(1995)
"Twister"(1996)
"The Evening Star"(1996)
"Traveler"(1997)
"Titanic"(1997)
"A Simple Plan"(1998)
"Mighty Joe Young"(2000)
"U-571"(2000)
"Vertical Limit"(2000)
"Frailty"(2001)
"Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams"(2002)
"Ghosts of the Abyss"(2003)
"Resistance"(2003)
"Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over"(2003)
"Club Dread"(2004)
"Thunderbirds"(2004)
"Haven"(2004)
"Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D"(2005)
"The Greatest Game Ever Played"(2005)
"The Good Life"(2007)
"Haywire"(2012)
"Shanghai Calling"(2012)
"The Colony"(2013)
"2 Guns"(2013)
"Million Dollar Arm"(2014)
"Edge of Tomorrow"(2014)
"Nightcrawler"(2014)
"Pixies"(2015)
"Term Life"(2016)
"Mean Dreams"(2016)
"The Circle"(2017)
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