Credit to his name
LATE ACTOR BILL PAXTON REMEMBERED FOR A DIVERSE CAREER ON THE BIG AND SMALL SCREENS
BILL Paxton, a prolific and charismatic actor who had memorable roles in such blockbusters as Apollo 13 and Titanic while also cherishing his work in One False Move and other low-budget movies and in the HBO series Big Love, died from complications due to surgery. He was 61.
A family representative issued a statement Sunday on the death but provided no further details.
Paxton, a Fort Worth, Texas, native, appeared in dozens of movies and television shows and seemed to be around when history was made both on and off screen.
As a boy, he was in the crowd that welcomed President John F. Kennedy in Texas on the morning of November 22, 1963, hours before Kennedy was killed in Dallas. As a young man, he worked in the art department for “B” movie king Roger Corman, who helped launch the careers of numerous actors and filmmakers.
Paxton’s movie credits included some of the signature works of the past 40 years, from Titanic and Apollo 13 to The Terminator and Aliens. Television fans knew him for his role as a polygamist in the HBO series Big Love, for which he received three Golden Globe nominations.
“Bill Paxton was a bighearted, thoughtful and honourable person,” his Big Love co-star Chloe Sevigny said in a statement.
“He always had a smile on his face and could entertain any room with his wonderful stories of his many amazing years in Hollywood.”
Paxton was currently starring in the CBS drama Training Day, which premiered this month.
Paxton is survived by his wife of 30 years, Louise Newbury, and their two children.
His death added a sad note to Sunday night’s Academy Awards ceremonies. Paxton was never nominated but appeared in several Oscar-winning movies and was beloved and respected throughout Hollywood and beyond.
“On this Oscar Sunday, watch One False Move or A Simple Plan to see this lovely leading man, at his finest,” Paxton’s friend Rob Lowe tweeted.
Paxton brought a reliably human dimension to big-budget action adventures and science fiction. He was, sci-fi fans like to point out, the only actor killed by a Predator, a Terminator and an Alien. But Paxton, famously genial and approachable, defined his career less by his marquee status than as a character actor whose regular Joes appeared across the likes of One False Move, A Simple Plan and Nightcrawler.
“I’m a frustrated romantic actor,” he said in 2006. “I wanted to play the Bud part in Splendor in the Grass, I wanted to play Romeo — the great, unrequited, tragic love stories. I’ve gotten to mix it up a bit with the ladies but the romance has been a subplot, running from the tornado or whatever.”