Bill Paxton

When Bill Paxton was a teenager, he caddied for the golf giant, Ben Hogan, in Fort Worth.

He shared an extremely close bond with film director James Cameron. He even went on a deep-sea dive in the Atlantic Ocean to the real ‘wreckage’ of the Titanic during an expedition conducted by Cameron.

He was married to Louise Newbury, with whom he had two children: James and Lydia Paxton.

William ‘Bill’ Paxton was born to Mary Lou and John Lane Paxton in Fort Worth, Texas.

His father worked in the family’s wood business and young Paxton’s first love affair with the movies began because his father was an ardent supporter of the arts and would often take him and his siblings to the movies frequently.

Young Paxton was among the crowd of onlookers during President John F. Kennedy’s assassination on November 22, 1963. There are pictures that show young Paxton lifted above the crowd to watch the rally.

He studied at Arlington Heights High School and graduated from the school in 1973. He subsequently joined Richmond College in England, where he began experimenting with filmmaking with his friends, Danny Martin and Tom Huckabee.

In 1974, he moved to Los Angeles in the hope of becoming a part of the Hollywood industry. He initially began as a production assistant on an industrial film and then went on to become a set-dresser for Roger Corman. He debuted in films with a small role in ‘Crazy Mama’, the following year.

In 1980, he gained a cult following for a short film that he made called ‘Fish Heads’, which was featured on Saturday Night Live. The following year, he appeared in the movie, ‘Stripes’, in a small role as a soldier.

From 1983 to 1986, he appeared in a string of films including ‘Taking Tiger Mountain’, ‘Deadly Lessons’, ‘The Lords of Discipline’, ‘The Terminator’, ‘The Atlanta Child Murders’, ‘Weird Science’ and the first instalment of ‘Aliens’. During this time, he also co-authored the short, ‘Scoop’.

During this period, he was also cast as ‘Detective Vic Romano’ in an episode of ‘Miami Vice’, followed by an episode in ‘The Hitchhiker’ in 1987.

In 1988, he and his vocalist/guitarist friend, Andrew Todd Rosenthal formed the rock twosome, ‘Martini Ranch’, for a brief period of time. The next year, he appeared in three important films in his career; ‘Near Dark’, ‘Slipstream’ and ‘Next of Kin’.

In 1990, he appeared in the second instalment of the ‘Predator’ series titled, ‘Predator 2’, and also appeared in numerous other films including ‘Brain Dead’, ‘Navy SEALs’ and ‘The Last of the Finest’.

In 1995, he was seen in the docudrama film, ‘Apollo 13’, which cemented his position as a bankable star in Hollywood. The movie went on to become a huge hit at the box-office and collected $355,237,933, grossing in millions worldwide. Paxton’s critically-acclaimed performance in the movie even earned him an important award.

He was seen in 53 episodes of the popular television series, ‘Big Love’, which was aired on HBO from 2006 to 2011. His performance in the film as ‘Bill Henrickson’ was lauded and he went on receive a number of nominations and awards for his role. The series was so popular that it was rated as one of the ‘Top 10 Returning series of 2007’.