Bill Paxton

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Bill Paxton
Birth name William Paxton
Born May 17, 1955
Fort Worth, Texas,
United States

William "Bill" Paxton (born May 17, 1955 in Fort Worth, Texas) is a Golden Globe award nominated American actor and film director. He is a son of John Lane Paxton (an occasional actor) and Mary Lou Paxton. Paxton has been married to Louise Newbury since 1985, and they have two children, James (born 1994) and Lydia (born 1997).

Distinctive and memorable characters that Paxton has played include the sneering older brother Chet in John Hughes' Weird Science; Hudson, the loud-mouthed space soldier in James Cameron's Aliens ("Game over, man! Game over!"); astronaut Fred Haise in Ron Howard's Apollo 13; the sadistic vampire Severen in Kathryn Bigelow's film Near Dark; and a tornado researcher opposite Helen Hunt in the blockbuster Twister and the sleazy car salesman in True Lies. Notable is the performance Paxton delivered in Carl Franklin's critically acclaimed One False Move.

Paxton moved to Los Angeles at 18 and began working for director Roger Corman as a set designer on his films. Exposure to films and actors at that age influenced his decision to pursue acting and led Paxton to relocate to New York City, where he studied with Stella Adler.

In addition to his acting career, Paxton has directed a number of short films, including Fish Heads, which aired during Saturday Night Live's low-rated 1980-1981 season on the episode hosted by Ellen Burstyn (with musical guests Aretha Franklin and Keith Sykes). He has also moved into directing feature films with Frailty and The Greatest Game Ever Played. He was also a member of the band Martini Ranch.

Paxton is currently performing in the HBO drama Big Love as the head of a polygamous family in Utah.

Contents

[edit] Trivia

  • Paxton has the dubious distinction of being the first actor to play characters which have been killed by an Alien (as Private Hudson in Aliens), a Predator (as Jerry Lambert in Predator 2), and a Terminator (as the punk leader in The Terminator). Since the 2004 film Alien vs. Predator, Lance Henriksen can also claim this particular honor.
  • James Cameron gave Paxton the nick name "knuckles." This was due to Paxton settling a dispute in a local bar during the filming of True Lies, Paxton warned off a disgruntled local who had taken issue with the disruption caused by filming. Paxton had donned an iron knuckleduster given to him by Lance Henriksen and persuaded the man to back down.
  • Paxton appeared as a treasure hunter searching for a diamond among the wreckage of the Titanic in the 1997 film. Four years later, he joined James Cameron on an expedition to the Titanic, based from the Russian research vessel Akademik Mstislav Keldysh, in Ghosts of the Abyss, which was released in 2003.
  • In 1988, he and vocalist/guitarist Andrew Todd formed the short-lived rock duo Martini Ranch. They recorded and released an album entitled "Holy Cow" (the band's only release), which included input from Devo members Mark Mothersbaugh, Bob Casale and Alan Myers (all of whom contributed to the the album's modest hit How Can the Labouring Man Find Time For Self-Culture?), along with Cindy Wilson of the B-52's as a back-up vocalist and actor Judge Reinhold is credited as a whistler on Reach.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Interviews

[edit] External links

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