Everyman actor brought humanity to characters Retired judge and star of ‘The People’s Court’
LOSANGELES— Bill Paxton, the prolific and charismatic actor whose many memorable roles included an astronaut in “Apollo 13” and a treasure hunter in “Titanic,” has died fromcomplications due to surgery. Hewas 61.
A family representative issued a statement Sunday on the death but provided no further details.
Paxton, a FortWorth, Texas, native, appeared in dozens ofmovies and TV shows and seemed to be around when historywas made both on and off screen. Hewas in the crowd thatwelcomed President John F. Kennedy in Texas on the morning of Nov. 22, 1963, hours before Kennedywas 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’smovie credits included some of the signatureworks of the past 40 years, from“Titanic” and “Apollo 13” to “The Terminator” and “Aliens.” Television fans knew him for his role as the polygamist, with three wives who expected the best fromhim, inHBO’s “Big Love,” for which he received three Golden Globe nominations.
“Bill Paxtonwas a bighearted, thoughtful and honorable 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 hiswonderful stories of his many amazing years inHollywood.”
Paxtonwas currently starring in the CBS drama “TrainingDay,” which premiered Feb. 2. The network has not yet announced whether it will continue to air the completed episodes.
Paxton brought a reliably human dimension to bigbudget action adventures and science fiction. Hewas, sci-fi fans like to point out, the only actor killed by a Predator, a Terminator and an Alien.
But Paxton, famously genial andwell-liked throughoutHollywood, defined his career less by his marquee status than as a character actor whose regular Joes appeared across the likes of “One FalseMove,” “A Simple Plan” and “Nightcrawler.”
“I’m a frustrated romantic actor,” he told The Associated Press 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.”
“I feel like I’m a regionalist and a populist who’s never fit in among the intellectuals,” he added. “I think there’s where the heart of American art is. My greatest roles have been in regional films, whether it was ‘One FalseMove’ or ‘Frailty’ or ‘Simple Plan’ or ‘Traveller.’ ”
Paxton once said the hardest part of his career wasn’t thework itself but the time in between.
“You knowall the time I’ve been in this business, which is a long, long time now, I go fromhaving incredible days like shooting the part of SamHouston and then all of a sudden I’m home and I’m out ofwork and it’s two o’clock in the afternoon, I’m inmy boxer shortswatching Turner ClassicMovies,” he told the AP in 2015. “And all I can tell you is, thank God for Turner ClassicMovies and Robert Osborne.”
AP film writer Jake Coyle, AP national writerHillel Italie and AP television writer Lynn Elber contributed.
LOS ANGELES Joseph Wapner, the retired Los Angeles judge who presided over “The People’s Court” with steady force during the heyday of the reality courtroom show, died Sunday at age 97.
Son David Wapner told The Associated Press that his father died at home in his sleep. Joseph Wapner was hospitalized aweek ago with breathing problems and had been under home hospice care.
“The People’s Court,” on whichWapner decided real small-claims from 1981 to 1993, was one of the granddaddies of the syndicated reality shows of today. His affable, no-nonsense approach attractedmany fans, putting “The People’s Court” inthe top five in syndication at its peak.
Before auditioning for the show, Wapnerhadspent more than 20 years on the bench in Los Angeles, first in Municipal Court and then in Superior Court. At one time he was presiding judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court, the largest court in the United States. He retired as judge in November 1979, the day after his 60th birthday.
“Everything on the show is real,” Wapner told the AP in a1986 interview. “There’s no script, no rehearsal, no retakes. Everything from beginning to end is like a real courtroom, and I personally consider each case as a trial.”
“Sometimes I don’t even deliberate,” he added. “I just decide from the bench, it’s so obvious. The beautiful part is that I have carte blanche.”
“The People’s Court” cases were tried without lawyers by the rules of Small Claims Court, which has adamagelimit of$1,500. Researchers for the producer, Ralph Edwards Productions, checked claims filed in Southern California for interesting cases.
The plaintiff and defendant had to agree to have the case settled on the show and sign a binding arbitration agreement; the show paid for the settlements.
In some metropolitan counties, the number of small claims cases more than tripled during the 1980s; some cited Wapner as a cause.
Johnny Carson invited Wapner him to come on “The Tonight Show” and settle a dispute between himself and David Letterman. Carson wanted to do it as a skit, butWapner said no and conducted it like a trial.
The dispute was over an old truck that Letterman kept parked by his property in Malibu. Carson said it was an eyesore and had it hauled away. When Letterman got it back, the headlights had been broken.
“I awarded Letterman $24.95,” saidWapner.
By the time Wapner left the show, in1993, interest in the genre had cooled, but trials such as the Simpson trial and the courtroomtheatrics of “Judge Judy” revived the TV-court craze starting in 1997.
Wapner returned to “The People’s Court” show in 2000 to help celebrate its 3,000th episode, judging the case of a man suing over a piece of sports memorabilia. He said he had seen snippets of Judge Judy’s work, but generally never watched such shows.
“Ineverwatchedmyself,” he said. “Why should I watch them?”
He also had a series on the Animal Planet cable channel called “JudgeWapner’s Animal Court.”
Wapner was a Los Angeles native and received a law degree from the University of Southern California. He is survived by his wife of 70 years, Mickey, and by two sons, both of whom joined the legal profession. A daughter, Sarah, died in 2015.
During his days as presiding Superior Court judge, Wapnerwas credited with innovations aimed at saving time for trial participants. A 1971 Los Angeles Times article described his steps to streamline jury selection or even dispense with juries altogether by increasing the number of cases heardsolelyby a judge chosen to be acceptable to both sides in the case.
His courtroom was also used in 1971 in a brief test of a system to videotape trials to save on the cost of making a trial transcript.