We’ve been enjoying his new show. It’s not really great, but not really bad, either. My wife visibly startled when she turned on the news this afternoon. Way too young to go. 
He was iconic in Aliens, yes, but I’ll always remember him for Indian Summer.
I do wonder if Bill Pullman’s wife has been getting mournful phone calls all day.
Much like Keanu will always and forever be Ted Theodore Logan to me, Bill Paxton was always Chet. Every time he’d come on screen for the first time, I’d go “Chet!” and think about his offering of a greasy pork sandwich served in a dirty ashtray.
I loved him most in A Simple Plan.
Man. What a bummer.
I didn’t key on this when I first read this thread, but reading an obituary today it suddenly clicked. Great, great performance from Paxton in a superior film. The more I remember, the more of a loss this seems. He really was a fine actor.
According to Wikipedia, it was a post-surgical stroke. Which I suppose is a known risk, when the surgeon is tinkering with plaqued-up arteries in the heart; it sounds like a chunk of plaque came loose and traveled to his brain. I understand this is an important part of why some patients are kept in the hospital for observation after such surgeries, so that hospital staff can respond quickly in the event of a stroke - but if it’s a real big/bad one, then there may not be much recourse.
Paxton always seemed to me like he was best suited for goofball roles. He was perfect as the asshole older brother in Weird Science, and as the scammy used car salesman in True lies. Fit well in Aliens, too. But A Simple Plan? Twister? Titanic? I just couldn’t take him seriously.
Subject, Merricheck, John J., died during the procedure … they killed him taking it off.
I can’t believe Hudson is dead! I have thoroughly enjoyed every movie I’ve ever seen Bill Paxton in. In addition to the roles we discussed above, he has a bit part as a radio operator in Commando with Arnold Schwarzenegger, he’s Dane, the sniper in Navy SEALs with Charlie Sheen and fellow Aliens cast member Michael Biehn, and Sergeant Ferrell in [del]All You Need Is Kill[/del] [del]Edge of Tomorrow[/del] Live. Die. Repeat. with Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt.
RIP
Even as a young kid it struck me how his voice had unsual projection. Maybe it’s just me? Regardless, RIP, dude.
Damn, I see he was set to direct an adaptation of Joe Lansdale’s novel The Bottoms. The “Edgar Award winning, racially-themed novel is set in East Texas and follows an adolescent boy, his little sister, and their father who stumble across the body of a black woman who has been savagely mutilated and left to die in the bottom of the Sabine River. The townsfolk cover up the crime until the body of a white woman is found in similar circumstances and it falls to the family to unearth the truth.” From Deadline Hollywood. (The article dates from 2014 but a check with Bill Paxton’s filmography on IMDB confirms that the movie was still in the pipeline.)
I think he would have done a brilliant job. It would have been his third time out directing apart from a short. Haven’t seen the second (a golf movie) but his work on Frailty was superb. If he’d been blessed with Clint Eastwood’s longevity I think he would only have grown as a director and may well have turned out a couple of Oscar-winners.
Now we’ll never know.
I saw an article that described his specialty as “cocky macho doofus.” He was so great in Edge of Tomorrow because that is exactly what that role was:
I agree with you. Rose seemed to me to be a selfish person. I don’t disagree with her running away, but even if her mother was bitchy Rose could have dropped a note saying she was doing well, and not to worry.
In other words, the doctor fucked up. :rolleyes:
RIP Bill, loved ya man.
Today I was listening to the replay of a 2002 interview with Paxton on NPR and they were discussing A Simple Plan. Bill said that it was his most personal performance, and that he leaned heavily, in building his relationship with Billy Bob Thorton, on his real life relationship with his own brother, whom he was very close to and whom had had a troubled life. He took it to the point of arranging for Thorton to have several phone calls with his brother to help capture the character.
Yeah, I got some dust in my eye, just about then.
It’s called “being a character actor”. They don’t rake in the big bucks, they’re never the headliner, they’re not part of the red carpet openings for the movies they’re in, but they get steady work. Voice actors, the same, with the plus that for some people (such as David Bowie) the possible anonimity of not being on screen can be a plus.
One time SDMB poster Jim Beaver wrote this on his Facebook page:
“When you’re a guest actor on someone else’s series, you’re like a guest in their home, and you can only hope they treat you like a guest and not an interloper. Rarely does one get to make a connection in those brief encounters, even more rarely does a friendship grow out of it. I only had three episodes with Bill Paxton on BIG LOVE, yet the connection was strong. I saw him rarely – actors are always on the move, on the road, on the lam – but the connection stayed. The last time I saw Bill, I accidentally ran into him as I, a mere pedestrian at the time, walked past the red carpet at a premiere he was attending and he grabbed me and pulled me into the photo line with him. He was a joyous, dedicated, talented, friendly, deeply human man. I loved him.”
…Shit Kicker Heaven!
(that was him, right?)
rip
Loved him in True Lies as a used car salesman/lothario/fake spy.
Always thought they could’ve made a great spin-off with him.
Ambivalent about True Lies. The first half, with Arnold paranoid about Jamie Lee and Bill Paxton, is creepy and stupid. The second half, where Arnold and Jamie Lee are fighting the terrorists, is totally awesome.
I get the feeling that at some point James Cameron said to Bill Paxton, “As long as I’m working, you’re working.” Terminator, True Lies, Aliens, Titanic…I’m probably missing some.
Bumped.
Paxton’s family has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against his surgeon and hospital: https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/13/entertainment/bill-paxton-death-lawsuit/index.html