William Paxton was an American actor and director. He appeared in films such as The Terminator, Commando, Weird Science, Aliens, Near Dark, Predator 2, Tombstone, True Lies, Apollo 13, Twister, Titanic, Mighty Joe Young, U-571, Vertical Limit, Frailty, Broken Lizard's Club Dread, Thunderbirds, Edge of Tomorrow, and Nightcrawler. He also starred in the HBOdrama seriesBig Love, earning three Golden Globe Award nominations during the show's run. He was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for portraying Randall McCoy in the History channel miniseries Hatfields & McCoys and as Detective Frank Roarke in the TV series Training Day . His final film appearance was in The Circle, released two months after his death.
Among Paxton's earliest roles were a minor role as a punk in The Terminator, a minor role as a bartender in Streets of Fire, a supporting role as the lead protagonist's bullying older brother Chet Donnelly in John Hughes's Weird Science, and Private W. Hudson in Aliens. He directed several short films, including the music video for Barnes & Barnes's novelty song "Fish Heads," which aired during Saturday Night Live's low-rated 1980–81 season and was in heavy rotation during the early days of Canadian music channelMuchMusic. He was cast in a music video for the 1982 Pat Benatar song "Shadows of the Night" in which he appeared as a Nazi radio officer.
Music career
In 1982, Paxton and his friend, Andrew Todd Rosenthal, formed a new wave musical band called Martini Ranch. The band released its only full-length album, Holy Cow, in 1988 on Sire Records. The album was produced by Devo member Bob Casale, and featured guest appearances by two other members of that band. The music video for the band's single "Reach" was directed by James Cameron.
He and Cameron collaborated again on True Lies and Titanic, the latter of which was the highest-grossing film of all time at its release. In his other roles, Paxton played Morgan Earp in Tombstone, Fred Haise in Apollo 13, Bill Harding in Twister, and lead roles in dark dramas such as One False Move and A Simple Plan. In 1990, he co-starred with Charlie Sheen and Michael Biehn in Navy Seals.
2000s–2010s
Paxton directed the feature films Frailty, in which he also starred, and The Greatest Game Ever Played. Four years after appearing in Titanic, he joined Cameron on an expedition to the actual Titanic. A film about this trip, Ghosts of the Abyss was released in 2003. He also appeared in the music video for Limp Bizkit's 2003 song "Eat You Alive" as a sheriff. In addition, Paxton was also a character in both and, with his appearance in a scene of the two movies being a . His highest profile television performances received much positive attention, including his lead role in HBO's Big Love, for which Paxton received three Golden Globe Award nominations. Paxton also received good reviews for his performance in the History Channel's miniseries Hatfields & McCoys, for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award alongside co-star, Kevin Costner. In 2014, he played the role of the villainous John Garrett in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and a supporting role in Edge of Tomorrow. He starred alongside Jon Bernthal, Rose McGowan and John Malkovich as a playable character in the 2014 video game . In February 2016, Paxton was cast as Detective Frank Rourke for Training Day, a crime-thriller television series set 15 years after the events of the eponymous 2001 movie; it premiered a year later.
Personal life
Paxton was married to Kelly Rowan from 1979 to 1980. In 1987 he married Louise Newbury and they had two children: James and Lydia.
Death
In early 2017, Paxton stated in an interview with Marc Maron that he had a damaged heart valve, which resulted from rheumatic fever in his youth. Paxton underwent open heart surgery to repair the damaged heart valve and his aorta on February 14, 2017. Eleven days later, on February 25, 2017, at age 61, Paxton died of a stroke. less than three months before his 62nd birthday. He was cremated, and is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park of Hollywood Hills.
Tributes
Upon learning of his death, a number of storm chasers paid tribute to his Twister role by spelling out his initials via the Spotter Network. Book authors also paid tribute, such as Dennis E. Taylor The TV show Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. paid tribute at the end of the Season 4 Episode 16 titled "What if..."
Film dedications
The film Call Me by Your Name, released in November 2017, is dedicated to Paxton's memory. Peter Spears, producer of the film, explained that this was because his husband, Brian Swardstrom, who was also Paxton's best friend and agent, visited the set with Paxton during filming and befriended the film's director, Luca Guadagnino, who ultimately decided to dedicate the movie "in loving memory of Bill Paxton." Close friend and frequent collaborator James Cameron wrote a tribute to Paxton in an article for Vanity Fair detailing their 36-year friendship and expressing remorse over the projects they wouldn't be able to make together. Numerous other filmmakers and actors also paid tribute, including Rob Lowe, Tom Hanks, Charlize Theron, former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, Jordan Peele, William Shatner, Jamie Lee Curtis, as well as his years-long Big Love co-stars Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloë Sevigny and Ginnifer Goodwin. Sevigny remembered Paxton as: The 2019 John Travolta film, The Fanatic, was dedicated to Paxton. The film co-starred Paxton's son James.
