his characters weren’t guaranteed a happy
ending: He was the rare Hollywood actor
killed on screen by a Terminator, a Predator,
and a Wahlberg. Cameron in particular loved
to cast Paxton as a goofy thug deserving swift
comeuppance. That was the initial gag in
1992’sOne False Move—the actor played a
country policeman, as excitable as a kid and
as cornpone as a rooster—but that transfor-
mative role let Paxton reveal his tricky emo-
tional depth and moral toughness.
“One False Move was the movie Ron How-
ard had seen me in that led toApollo 13,”
Paxton told EW in 2015. “It was also the
movie Jan de Bont saw me in that led to me
being cast inTwister.” For the ’90s movie-
goer, Paxton was a steady presence and a
trusted friend, whether he was lost in space,
chasing tornadoes, or (in Cameron’s megahit
Titanic) exploring the ocean floor.
That trustworthy persona went beyond
acting. “Everything positive you felt aboutzenegger, who tormented him inThe Termina-
tor andTrue Lies, posted a video declaring him
“one of the greatest actors...and also a very,
very good friend.” FellowApollo 13astronaut
Tom Hanks tweeted that he was “a wonderful
man.” AndTwin Peaks co-creator Mark Frost,
a close friend, tells EW, “He made every set he
was on a better place, and he made every pic-
ture he was in a better picture.”
Like many young men with filmmaking
aspirations, Paxton first found steady work
with cult film legend Roger Corman, doing
odd jobs in the art department and debuting
on screen inCrazy Mama, a 1975 film pro-
duced by Julie Corman, Roger’s wife. It was
through Roger Corman that Paxton met his
friend James Cameron, who would later cast
him in a slew of films, including 1984’sThe
Terminator and 1986’sAliens, in which he
played Private Hudson, a wannabe badass
dissolving into flop-sweating terror.
Paxton didn’t immediately play heroes, and
(Clockwise from
top left)Bill
Paxton directing
Frailty; with
wife Louise and
children Lydia
and James in
2011; with Chloë
Sevigny in 2007He was a model for
what a person in
our business should
be. You won’t talk
to anyone who
ever worked with
him who wouldn’t
say the same thing.”
—MARK FROSTMARCH 10, 2017 EW.COM 13PAXTON: CPI SYNDICATION; WITH SEVIGNY: MICHAEL BUCKNER/GETTY IMAGES;
FRAILTY
:
EVERETT COLLECTION; PAXTON FAMILY: JEFF KRAVITZ/FILMMAGIC