Bill Paxton:
The Terminator
Aliens
True Lies
Titanic
and to a slightly less extent
Michael Bein:
The Terminator
Aliens
The Abyss
What dark secret must these actors hold over director/producer James Cameron to get roles in nearly all his movies?
Well, Bill Paxton has been friends with Cameron since the days when they both worked for Roger Corman. Paxton once told a story about Cameron describing his idea for the Terminator to him while they were painting sets for some low budget Corman film.
And Michael Biehn and him just became friends during the first Terminator film, so he offered him roles in later films (he’s a pretty decent actor). He was in T2 (in a dream sequence) but it was cut.
Feh, I’m just wondering what’s up with George Lucas and Harrison Ford. I mean, they did all those lousy Star Wars films together…
I don’t know if Michael Biehn’s got anything on James Cameron, but all I can say is:
Michael Biehn, mmmmmmmm…
Paxton was in Terminator? I must have missed it.
Paxton was one of the punks who have a run-in with the just-arrived and still naked “Ahnold” near the beginning of the film. I think he’s the one who actually gives up his clothes after one of his buddies has had his heart ripped out.
I’ll join in on the Michael Biehn love.
I was so disappointed to find out his character was killed off in Aliens[sup]3[/sup].
Well, there’s nothing unusual here. LOTS of directors form relationships with actors early in their careers, and like to use those actors regularly.
Woody Allen had his own posse (Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Julie Kavner).
Martin Scorsese has HIS posse (Deniro, Keitel, Pesci).
Clint Eastwood has a steady team of co-stars (Geoffrey Lewis, Harry Guardino, John Vernon).
If you go back a ways, John Ford regularly used the same stars (John Wayne, Ward Bond, Maureen O’Hara, Victor McLaglen), as did David Lean (Trevor Howard and Alec Guinness) and a host of others.
It can be tough for a director to find actors he can work with easily. Once he finds a circle who are comfortable working with him, that he knows can and will do what he asks of them, why WOULDN’T he re-use those actors again and again?
Lynch seems to have a crush on McLaughlin and Jack Nance. McLaughlin doesn’t get enough play, and poor Nance is dead. 
“I think this guy’s a couple cans short of a six pack!”
“Laundry day - nothing clean, right?”
“Nahthing kleen. Your cloaz. Give dem to me. Now.”
Another interesting bit of trivia is that Michael Biehn gets bitten on the arm / hand in every James Cameron movie he’s in.
Lance Henriksen:
Pirahna II: The Spawning
The Terminator
ALIENS
Jeannette Goldstein:
ALIENS
Terminator 2
Titanic
Trisha O’Neil:
Pirahna II
Titanic
I don’t know if any of these have popped up yet on Dark Angel.
What can I say? The guy’s a taskmaster, but people keep coming back for more. Henriksen, by the way, was JC’s original choice to play the Terminator (and I was hip to this well before the insipid E! True Hollywood Story). He was also slated to play the Admiral in The Abyss, but had a scheduling conflict.
What was he bitten by? I remember Aliens he was splashed by Alien acid blood, blow’d up in Terminator and implod’d in The Abyss. I don’t remember him being bitten.
Well, I recall that when Michael Biehn first abducts Sarah Connor, and tells her that a Terminator is stalking her, she thinks he’s crazy. She bites him on the hand, in an attempt to escape. Biehn responds, “Terminators don’t feel pain. I do. Don’t do that again.”
astorian is right about Terminator - that’s the scene in which he gets bitten.
In The Abyss, Ed Harris bites him during their fight scene.
In Aliens, Newt bites him on the hand.
Michael Biehn’s greatest role was in Megiddo, as the antichrist’s brother. (and the Presisdent was R. Lee Ermey! How cool is that? “Saddam! What is your major malfunction?”)
What role did Bill Paxton play in Titanic?
Brock Whatever, the guy who was looking for the diamond.
:smack: DOH!
I knew that. I was just testing others.
Biehn also seems to have been typecast as a “special forces” guy:
Aliens: Colonial Space Marine
Navy Seals: Navy S.E.A.L. (duh?)
The Rock: Navy S.E.A.L.
The Abyss: [crazed] Navy S.E.A.L.
… and we was a soldier (although of no official military affiliation other than the Human Race) in The Terminator as well.
Henriksen, Paxton, and Goldstein also reunited for the vampire movie Near Dark, which is much better than Knights, an awful vampirish movie featuring Henriksen and Chris Kristofferson.