Acclaimed actor Bill Paxton left the world way to soon on February 25, 2017 due to a stroke during surgery. His death at the age of 61 was noted on the Oscar ceremony for that year, which was held the next day. Let’s celebrate his great career with a look back at his 15 greatest movies.
As a young boy in Texas, Paxton was in the crowd and can be seen in photographs the day JFK left his hotel to begin the motorcade in which he would eventually be assassinated.
Paxton struggled for nearly 10 years as an actor before he finally got noticed for a small but memorable role in the surprise science fiction hit “The Terminator” in 1984. In addition to launching his career Paxton formed an important working relationship on the film with its director James Cameron. As both of their careers rose in importance in the movie world the two of them would often work together again, and Cameron provided Paxton with some of the juiciest roles of his career as well as tremendous exposure in “Titanic,” which became the top all-time blockbuster in 1997.
After a long film career, Paxton would turn to TV in 2006 with a regular role on the TV series “Big Love” which featured him as a polygamist with three wives. He would earn three Golden Globe nominations for the show but was oddly always excluded when the Emmy nominations were announced each year. He would receive his only Emmy nomination in 2012 though for his role in the TV miniseries “Hatfields & McCoys” as the leader of the McCoy clan of in the story of two feuding families. He would lose that Emmy though to Kevin Costner, who played the leader of the Hatfields.
Tour our photo gallery featuring Paxton’s 15 greatest film performances, ranked from worst to best. Our list includes “Aliens,” “Apollo 13,” “Twister” and more.
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15. STREETS OF FIRE (1984)
Image Credit: Courtesy of Universal Pictures Director: Walter Hill. Writer: Walter Hill, Larry Gross. Starring Michael Pare, Diane Lane, Willem Dafoe.
“Streets of Fire” is an underrated, little seen gem of a movie. Walter Hill creates a dynamic universe with outstanding art direction and elaborate musical numbers which reflected the then current national obsession with MTV. The film provided early star turns from Amy Madigan, Rick Moranis, Willem Dafoe and Diane Lane as a rock star kidnapped by a group of motorcycle hoodlums. Paxton also had one of his early film roles among the excellent ensemble.
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14. THE EVENING STAR (1996)
Image Credit: Ron Phillips/Rysher/Kobal/Shutterstock Director and writer: Robert Harling. Starring Shirley MacLaine, Marion Ross, Juliette Lewis.
“Terms of Endearment” was one of the most beloved Oscar winners of the eighties with 11 total nominations and five wins for Best Picture, Best Actress (Shirley MacLaine), Best Supporting Actor (Jack Nicholson), and Best Director and Adapted Screenplay for James L. Brooks. Brooks didn’t participate in this sequel so the magic didn’t quite carryover from the other film despite continuing strong performances from MacLaine and Nicholson as well as cast addition Marion Ross who earned a Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe nomination. Paxton plays MacLaine’s psychiatrist and younger lover in the continuing story of the seemingly always tempestuous life of Aurora Greenway as she raises the grandchildren of her late daughter played by Debra Winger in the first film.
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13. WEIRD SCIENCE (1985)
Image Credit: Universal/Kobal/Shutterstock Director and writer: John Hughes. Starring Anthony Michael Hall, Ilan Mitchell-Smith, Kelly LeBrock.
“Weird Science” marked the third feature directorial effort from John Hughes after his too highly successful high school set films “Sixteen Candles” and “The Breakfast Club.” This film also is set among teenagers but throws in a science fiction element also. The film depicts two high school nerds who create the perfect woman by using a computer. The woman brings a surprising amount of chaos into the lives of the two young men. Paxton had a stand out role as the oafish bullying brother of one of the boys.
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12. ONE FALSE MOVE (1992)
Image Credit: Irs Media/Kobal/Shutterstock Director: Carl Franklin. Writers: Billy Bob Thornton, Tom Epperson. Starring Billy Bob Thornton, Cynda Williams, Jim Metzler.
Paxton starred in Billy Bob Thornton’s first screenplay which was haled by critic’s as one of the first major achievements in the independent film movement which started heavily around this time. The movie was also praised by film noir fans since it features Paxton as a small-town sheriff preparing for the arrival of three criminals coming to his town. Thornton plays one of the criminals.
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11. THE TERMINATOR (1984)
Image Credit: Courtesy of Orion Pictures Director: James Cameron. Writers: James Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd. Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn.
Paxton is billed only as “punk leader” in the credits of this landmark science fiction film but he clearly made a strong impression on director James Cameron and the two would go on to collaborate quite frequently with Paxton having prominent roles in most of Cameron’s major films. As his character description says Paxton plays a leader of a group of street punks who choose to mess with the wrong guy when they take on Arnold Schwarzenegger as the time travelling killing machine known as “The Terminator.”
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10. FRAILTY (2001)
Image Credit: Snap Stills/Shutterstock Director: Bill Paxton. Writer: Brent Hanley. Starring Matthew McConaughey, Powers Boothe, Luke Askew.
Paxton made his feature film debut as a director with this psychological thriller. The plot is a bit complicated to summarize but it features Matthew McConaughey as a young man who wanders into an FBI office claiming his brother is involved in a series of serial killings. Paxton plays the boys father in flashbacks. The father is convinced that an angel has visited him and assigned him the tasks of killing various people who are really demons. Paxton does well directing himself as the menacing and increasingly insane father.
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9. NEAR DARK (1987)
Image Credit: Moviestore/Shutterstock Director: Kathryn Bigelow. Writers: Kathryn Bigelow, Eric Red. Starring Adrian Pasdar, Lance Henriksen, Jenette Goldstein.
Way before vampires became overexposed in excessive portrayals in recent film and television series there was this wonderfully stylized film from director Kathryn Bigelow who would go on to be the first and to date still only woman to win the Oscar for Best Director. (She won for “The Hurt Locker.”) The film centers on a group of vampires and the young man who joins their group after being bit by one of the female vampires. Paxton has a showy role as the most violent and unhinged members of the vampire’s group.
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8. NIGHTCRAWLER (2014)
Image Credit: Films/Kobal/Shutterstock Director and writer: Dan Gilroy. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Riz Ahmed.
Jake Gyllenhaal seemed destined for a Best Actor Oscar nomination after receiving nominations for the Golden Globe, SAG, and BAFTA awards. Strangely he lost out in the final Oscar tally and wasn’t nominated. That was too bad since he’s quite good as a freelance news photographer who crawls the streets of LA at night looking for video to sell to the local news stations. Paxton has a key supporting role as one of the other freelancers who gives Gyllenhaal the idea to also start working as a freelance videographer.
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7. TRUE LIES (1994)
Image Credit: Moviestore/Shutterstock Director and writer: James Cameron. Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold.
James Cameron always seemed to find roles for Paxton that stretched him as an actor and showed him in a different light than his previous performances. In this film Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a covert government operative who pretends to be a computer salesman to his wife and daughter. Paxton plays your stereotypical used car salesman who is bigger on bravado than he is on the truth. The film is a bit problematic in the way Jamie Lee Curtis is presented as Schwarzenegger’s wife and though she won the Golden Globe as Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Curtis admitted during the #metoo movement that she wasn’t completely comfortable with her role in this film.
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6. TOMBSTONE (1993)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock Director: George P. Cosmatos. Writer: Kevin Jarre. Starring Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, Sam Elliott.
This year saw two competing films both telling the story of Wyatt Earp and the gunfight at the OK Corral. Kevin Costner’s film “Wyatt Earp” was anticipated to be the bigger more praiseworthy film but this lower budget version beat Costner to the box-office and stole some of the other film’s thunder. Paxton plays Morgan Earp the brother of Wyatt Earp. While all the actors in the film received praise it was Vil Kilmer as Doc Holliday who received the best reviews and a bit of Oscar buzz.
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5. TITANIC (1997)
Image Credit: Moviestore/Shutterstock Director and writer: James Cameron. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Kathy Bates.
“Titanic” almost is two separate movies. One part is the story of how Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose (Kate Winslet) meet and fall in love on the doomed ocean liner. The other part is the story of the elderly Rose (Gloria Stewart) and her telling her story to a man (Paxton) searching for wreckage of the Titanic. Paxton once again teamed with James Cameron playing the mercenary man searching mostly for the Titanic for financial reasons but gradually becoming aware of the immense human tragedy involved in the ship’s sinking. As Paxton’s character famously proclaims towards the end of the film, he “never got it.” The film won a record 11 Oscars including Best Picture.
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4. TWISTER (1997)
Image Credit: Amblin/Universal/Warners/Kobal/Shutterstock Director: Jan de Bont. Writers: Michael Crichton, Anne-Marie Martin. Starring Helen Hunt, Cary Elwes, Jami Gertz.
Spectacular special effects highlight this suspenseful story of two storm chasers (Paxton and Helen Hunt) who try to understand and predict tornado activity by placing themselves in the center of the storms. The plot involving the two character’s disintegrating marriage is as well-developed as the tornado sequences but the film is still a highly exciting one. It received two Oscar nominations for Best Sound and Best Visual Effects.
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3. A SIMPLE PLAN (1998)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock Director: Sam Raimi. Writer: Scott B. Smith. Starring Bridget Fonda, Billy Bob Thornton, Gary Cole.
Having worked together early in their careers on “One False Move” Paxton and Thornton reunited as brothers who find millions of dollars in cash but instead of enhancing their lives the money virtually destroys them. Paxton plays the more socially confident brother while Thornton is the more awkward one. Thornton earned Oscar, Golden Globe and SAG nominations as Best Supporting Actor and the Los Angeles Film Critics Circle award as well as awards from a few other critic’s circles.
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2. APOLLO 13 (1995)
Image Credit: Universal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Ron Howard. Writers: William Broyles Jr., Al Reinert. Starring Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Ed Harris.
Paxton joins Tom Hanks and Kevin Bacon as one of the three astronauts who were trapped in space when their spacecraft is heavily damaged. The three have to work closely with people at ground control to figure out how to repair their ship and attempt to return to earth. The film received 9 Oscar nominations including Best Picture. Its director Ron Howard was surprisingly left off the list. The theory was that people just didn’t want to honor a former sitcom star turned director (Penny Marshall had similar issues at this time.) The Academy would eventually honor Howard with an Oscar for Best Director for “A Beautiful Mind” in 2001.
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1. ALIENS (1986)
Image Credit: Shutterstock Director and writer: James Cameron. Starring Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Paul Reiser.
Once again Paxton and Cameron collaborated to great effect in this sequel to the 1979 surprise blockbuster “Alien.” Cameron created one of the rare sequels that rose to nearly the same level as the acclaimed original, something that is rarely accomplished with sequels. He did that in part by changing the genre of the filmmaking. This film is more of an action adventure story than the first film which was more of a whodunit murder mystery horror story set in outer space. Paxton has one of the films showiest and at times irritating roles as the loud, hysterical and at times even cowardly Private Hudson who argues and complains his way throughout the film though eventually finds his way into our hearts. Whereas Sigourney Weaver as Ripley is all calm determination Hudson is often out of control and frightened. It is an interesting role reversal since in most films up until then it was the woman who lacked control and the man who was heroic. As Ripley firmly tells him at one point “you better start dealing with it.”
