BILL PAXTON
May 17, 1955 – February 25, 2017 (age 61)
Cause of Death: Complications following surgery
Bill Paxton always reminded me of a grittier John Ritter and I always mistook him and Bill Pullman for some reason (they both starred in the film Brain Dead). Paxton rode the line between good guy and villain and could fill either role with ease. You could love him as the polygamous patriarch in the television series Big Love or you could dislike his villainous nature in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. He was the man getting the story from the elderly Rose in Titanic but he was also the less than likable Joe Loder in Nightcrawler. The man was in everything from James Cameron’s The Terminator, Aliens, and True Lies to Ron Howard’s Apollo 13. He even directed a few films, including Frailty, his directorial debut, co-starring Matthew McConaughey, and The Greatest Game Ever Played, starring Shia LaBeouf as a young golfer in 1913. But to me, he will always be Bill Harding, the retired storm chaser who was just trying to get his wife to sign divorce papers, alongside Helen Hunt and Phillip Seymour Hoffman (as deceased) in 1996’s Twister.
BILL PAXTON’S FILMOGRAPHY
| 1975 | Crazy Mama | John (uncredited) |
| 1981 | Stripes | Soldier |
| 1982 | Night Warning | Eddie |
| 1983 | Taking Tiger Mountain | Billy Hampton |
| 1983 | The Lords of Discipline | Gilbreath |
| 1983 | Mortuary | Paul Andrews |
| 1984 | Streets Of Fire |
Clyde the Bartender |
| 1984 | Impulse |
Eddie |
| 1984 | The Terminator |
Punk Leader |
| 1985 | Weird Science |
Chet Donnelly |
| 1985 | Commando |
Intercept Officer |
| 1986 | Aliens |
Private William Hudson |
| 1987 | Near Dark |
Severen |
| 1988 | Pass The Ammo |
Jesse Wilkes |
| 1989 | Slipstream |
Matt Owens |
| 1989 | Next Of Kin | Gerald Gates |
| 1989 | Back To Back |
Bo Brand |
| 1990 | Brain Dead |
Jim Reston |
| 1990 | The Last Of The Finest |
Howard ‘Hojo’ Jones |
| 1990 | Navy SEALs |
Dane |
| 1990 | Predator 2 | Jerry Lambert |
| 1991 | The Dark Backward |
Gus |
| 1992 | The Vagrant | Graham Krakowski |
| 1992 | One False Move |
Dale ‘Hurricane’ Dixon |
| 1992 | Trespass | Vince |
| 1993 | Monolith |
Tucker |
| 1993 | Indian Summer |
Jack Belston |
| 1993 | Boxing Helena |
Ray O’Malley |
| 1993 | Tombstone | Morgan Earp |
| 1994 | True Lies |
Simon |
| 1994 | Frank & Jesse |
Frank James |
| 1994 | Future Shock |
Vince |
| 1995 | Apollo 13 |
Fred Haise |
| 1995 | The Last Supper |
Zachary Cody |
| 1996 | Twister |
Bill “The Extreme” Harding |
| 1996 | The Evening Star |
Jerry Bruckner |
| 1997 | Traveller |
Bokky |
| 1997 | Titanic | Brock Lovett |
| 1998 | A Simple Plan |
Hank |
| 1998 | Mighty Joe Young |
Professor Gregory O’Hara |
| 2000 | U-571 |
Lieutenant Commander Mike Dahlgren |
| 2000 | Vertical Limit |
Elliot Vaughn |
| 2001 | Frailty |
Dad Meiks (also Director) |
| 2002 | Spy Kids 2: Island Of Lost Dreams |
Dinky Winks |
| 2003 | Ghosts Of The Abyss |
Himself / Narrator |
| 2003 | Resistance |
Major Theodore ‘Ted’ Brice |
| 2003 | Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over |
Dinky Winks |
| 2004 | Club Dread |
Coconut Pete |
| 2004 | Thunderbirds |
Jeff Tracy |
| 2004 | Haven |
Carl Ridley |
| 2005 | Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D (short) |
Edgar Mitchell |
| 2005 | The Greatest Game Ever Played | (Director) |
| 2007 | The Good Life |
Robbie |
| 2011 | Haywire | John Kane |
| 2012 | Shanghai Calling |
Donald |
| 2013 | The Colony |
Mason |
| 2013 | 2 Guns |
Earl |
| 2013 | Red Wing |
Jim Verret |
| 2014 | Million Dollar Arm |
Tom House |
| 2014 | Edge Of Tomorrow |
Master Sergeant Farell |
| 2014 | Nightcrawler | Joe Loder |
| 2015 | Pixies | Eddie Beck (voice) |
| 2016 | Term Life | Detective Keenan |
| 2016 | Mean Dreams |
Wayne Caraway |
| 2017 | The Circle |
Mia’s Father |
BILL PAXTON’S TELEVISION
| 1983 | Deadly Lessons | Eddie Fox | Television film |
| 1985 | An Early Frost | Bob Maracek | Television film |
| 1985 | The Atlanta Child Murders | Campbell | Television film |
| 1986 | Fresno | Billy Joe Bobb | Television miniseries |
| 1986 | Miami Vice | Detective Vic Romano | Episode: “Streetwise” |
| 1987 | The Hitchhiker | Trout | Episode: “Made for Each Other” |
| 1993 | Tales from the Crypt | Billy DeLuca | Episode: “People Who Live in Brass Hearses” |
| 1998 | A Bright Shining Lie | John Paul Vann | Television film |
| 2003 | Frasier | Ernie | Episode: “Analyzed Kiss” |
| 2006-2011 | Big Love | Bill Henrickson | Lead role, 53 Episodes |
| 2012 | Hatfields & McCoys | Randolph McCoy | 3 Episodes |
| 2013 | JFK: The Day That Changed Everything | Narrator | Documentary |
| 2014 | Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | John Garrett | Recurring role, 6 episodes |
| 2015 | Texas Rising | Sam Houston | Television miniseries |
| 2015 | The Gamechangers | Jack Thompson | Television film |
| 2017 | Training Day | Detective Frank Roarke | Lead Role |
