William "Bill" Paxton is an American actor and film director. He gained popularity after starring roles in the films Apollo 13

Apollo 13 (film)

Apollo 13 is a 1995 American drama film directed by Ron Howard. The film stars Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, Kathleen Quinlan and Ed Harris. The screenplay by William Broyles, Jr...

, Twister, Aliens

Aliens (film)

Aliens is a 1986 science fiction action film directed by James Cameron and starring Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, William Hope, and Bill Paxton...

, True Lies

True Lies

True Lies is a 1994 American action-comedy film directed by James Cameron and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Bill Paxton, Tia Carrere, Charlton Heston, and Art Malik. Eliza Dushku also appears in the film in one of her first major film roles...

, and Titanic

Titanic (1997 film)

Titanic is a 1997 American epic romance and disaster film directed, written, co-produced, and co-edited by James Cameron. A fictionalized account of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, it stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson, Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater and Billy Zane as Rose's fiancé, Cal...

. Paxton starred in the HBO series Big Love

Big Love

Big Love is an American television drama that aired on HBO between March 2006 and March 2011. The show is about a fictional fundamentalist Mormon family in Utah that practices polygamy...

(2006-2011).

Early life

Paxton was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas

Fort Worth, Texas

Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...

, to Mary Lou (née Gray) and John Lane Paxton, a businessman, lumber wholesaler, museum executive, and occasional actor. He was raised Roman Catholic, his mother's religion. He attended St. Anne's Catholic School, and Arlington Heights High School

Arlington Heights High School

Arlington Heights High School is a secondary school located in Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.A.. The school, which serves grades 9 through 12, is a part of the Fort Worth Independent School District...

 (Fort Worth, Texas), and Southwest Texas State University (San Marcos, Texas

San Marcos, Texas

San Marcos is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, and is the seat of Hays County. Located within the metropolitan area, the city is located on the Interstate 35 corridor—between Austin and San Antonio....

).

Career

After graduation, Paxton moved to Los Angeles and began working for the film director Roger Corman

Roger Corman

Roger William Corman is an American film producer, director and actor. He has mostly worked on low-budget B movies. Some of Corman's work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and in 2009 he won an Honorary Academy Award for...

 as a set designer. His experiences working behind the camera influenced Paxton's decision to pursue acting, which led him to relocate to New York City where he studied under Stella Adler

Stella Adler

Stella Adler was an American actress and an acclaimed acting teacher, who founded the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City and the The Stella Adler Academy of Acting in Los Angeles with long-time protege Joanne Linville, who continues to teach and furthers Adler's legacy...

.

Paxton has appeared in such films as Weird Science

Weird Science (film)

Weird Science is a 1985 American teen comedy film written and directed by John Hughes and starring Anthony Michael Hall, Ilan Mitchell-Smith, and Kelly LeBrock...

, Aliens

Aliens (film)

Aliens is a 1986 science fiction action film directed by James Cameron and starring Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, William Hope, and Bill Paxton...

, Apollo 13

Apollo 13

Apollo 13 was the seventh manned mission in the American Apollo space program and the third intended to land on the Moon. The craft was launched on April 11, 1970, at 13:13 CST. The landing was aborted after an oxygen tank exploded two days later, crippling the service module upon which the Command...

, Near Dark

Near Dark

Near Dark is an American vampire/Western horror film, written by Eric Red and Kathryn Bigelow, and directed by Bigelow. The story follows a young man in a small midwestern town who becomes involved with a family of nomadic American vampires...

, Twister, Titanic

Titanic (1997 film)

Titanic is a 1997 American epic romance and disaster film directed, written, co-produced, and co-edited by James Cameron. A fictionalized account of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, it stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson, Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater and Billy Zane as Rose's fiancé, Cal...

and True Lies

True Lies

True Lies is a 1994 American action-comedy film directed by James Cameron and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Bill Paxton, Tia Carrere, Charlton Heston, and Art Malik. Eliza Dushku also appears in the film in one of her first major film roles...

. Four years after appearing in Titanic, he joined James Cameron on an expedition to the actual Titanic. A film about this trip, Ghosts of the Abyss

Ghosts of the Abyss

Ghosts of the Abyss is a 2003 documentary film released by Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media. It was Disney's first film produced in 3-D and was directed by Academy Award winning filmmaker James Cameron after his Oscar winning film Titanic...

, was released in 2003.

Paxton has also directed a number of short films, including Fish Heads

Fish Heads (song)

"Fish Heads" is a novelty song by comedy rock duo Barnes and Barnes, featured on their 1980 album Voobaha. It has often been played on the Dr...

, which aired during Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...

's low-rated 1980-1981 season. He directed the feature films Frailty

Frailty (film)

Frailty is a 2002 psychological thriller film directed by and starring Bill Paxton, and co-starring Matthew McConaughey. This film is the directorial debut for Paxton. The plot focuses on the strange relationship between two young boys and their father, who believes that he has been commanded by...

and The Greatest Game Ever Played

The Greatest Game Ever Played

The Greatest Game Ever Played is a 2005 biographical sports film based on the early life of golf champion Francis Ouimet. The film was directed by Bill Paxton; Shia LaBeouf plays the role of Ouimet. It is distributed by Walt Disney Pictures...

.

Paxton was cast in a music video for the 1982 Pat Benatar

Pat Benatar

Pat Benatar is an American singer and four-time Grammy winner. She had considerable commercial success particularly in the United States...

 song "Shadows of the Night," in which he appeared as a Nazi radio officer. He appears in Limp Bizkit

Limp Bizkit

Limp Bizkit is an American rock band from Jacksonville, Florida. Formed in 1995, the group's lineup consists of Fred Durst , Wes Borland , Sam Rivers , John Otto and DJ Lethal . The band achieved mainstream success with their second studio album Significant Other, released in 1999...

 video Eat You Alive

Eat You Alive

"Eat You Alive" is a song by the band Limp Bizkit from their fourth studio album Results May Vary. It is the band's first single from the album....

.

In 1988, Paxton and the vocalist/guitarist Andrew Todd Rosenthal formed a short-lived rock duo Martini Ranch

Martini Ranch

Martini Ranch is a new wave band conceived in 1982 by Andrew Todd Rosenthal. The band was composed of Andrew and actor Bill Paxton , and featured a similar sound to late 1980s Devo. The Martini Ranch track "How Can the Labouring Man Find Time for Self-Culture?" featured three members of Devo...

. They recorded and released an album entitled Holy Cow, which included input from Devo

Devo

Devo is an American band formed in 1973 consisting of members from Kent and Akron, Ohio. The classic line-up of the band includes two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs and the Casales . The band had a #14 Billboard chart hit in 1980 with the single "Whip It", and has maintained a cult...

 members Mark Mothersbaugh

Mark Mothersbaugh

Mark Allen Mothersbaugh is an American musician, composer, singer and painter. He is the co-founder of the new wave band Devo and has been its lead singer since 1972. His other musical projects include work for television series, films, and video games....

, Bob Casale, and Alan Myers, all of whom contributed to the album's modest hit, "How Can the Labouring Man Find Time For Self-Culture?"

Personal life

Paxton married Louise Newbury in 1987, and they have two children. His son James is also an actor.

Paxton was in the crowd waving when President John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

 emerged from the Hotel Texas in Ft. Worth, Texas, on the morning of his assassination, November 22, 1963. There are pictures at the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas where 8-year-old Paxton can be seen astride the shoulders of an unidentified man.

Filmography

Film and television roles

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1975	Crazy Mama	John
1980	Fish Heads Fish Heads (song) "Fish Heads" is a novelty song by comedy rock duo Barnes and Barnes, featured on their 1980 album Voobaha. It has often been played on the Dr...	Main Character	Short
1981	Stripes Stripes (film) Stripes is a 1981 American comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman, starring Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Warren Oates, P. J. Soles, and John Candy. It also featured several actors in their first significant film roles, including John Larroquette, Sean Young, John Diehl, and Judge Reinhold. It was one...	Soldier
1983	Night Warning Night Warning Night Warning is a 1982 exploitation horror film directed by William Asher; it was nominated for a Saturn Award for the Best Horror Movie of 1982 by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror...	Eddie
1983	Taking Tiger Mountain	Billy Hampton
1983	Deadly Lessons Deadly Lessons (1983 film) Deadly Lessons is a 1983 made-for-TV movie starring Larry Wilcox, Academy Award winner Donna Reed, David Ackroyd, Diane Franklin, future Brat Packer Ally Sheedy and Nancy Cartwright, later the voice of Bart Simpson.-Plot:...	Eddie Fox	Television film
1983	Mortuary Mortuary (1983 film) Mortuary was a 1983 slasher film/horror movie which starred Bill Paxton, Mary Beth McDonough, David Wallace, Lynda Day George, with Michael Berryman and Christopher George in one of his final roles...	Paul Andrews
1983		Gilbreath
1984	Impulse Impulse (1984 film) Impulse is a 1984 science fiction thriller film about the residents of a small rural town, that after a small earthquake ruptures the seal on a toxic waste burial site, start to exhibit strange and violent behavior. The film was directed by Graham Baker, and stars Tim Matheson, Meg Tilly, and Hume...	Eddie
1984	Streets of Fire Streets of Fire Streets of Fire is a 1984 film directed by Walter Hill and co-written by Hill and Larry Gross. It was described in previews, trailers, and posters as "A Rock & Roll Fable." It is an unusual mix of musical, action, drama, and comedy with elements both of retro-1950s and 1980s...	Clyde the Bartender
1984		Punk Leader
1985		Bob Maracek
1985		Campbell	Television miniseries
1985	Commando Commando (film) Commando is a 1985 American action film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Vernon Wells, Rae Dawn Chong, Alyssa Milano, Bill Duke, Dan Hedaya and James Olson. It was directed by Mark L...	Intercept Officer
1985	Weird Science Weird Science (film) Weird Science is a 1985 American teen comedy film written and directed by John Hughes and starring Anthony Michael Hall, Ilan Mitchell-Smith, and Kelly LeBrock...	Chet Donnelly
1986	Fresno	Billy Joe Bobb
1986	Aliens Aliens (film) Aliens is a 1986 science fiction action film directed by James Cameron and starring Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, William Hope, and Bill Paxton...	Private Hudson
1987	Near Dark Near Dark Near Dark is an American vampire/Western horror film, written by Eric Red and Kathryn Bigelow, and directed by Bigelow. The story follows a young man in a small midwestern town who becomes involved with a family of nomadic American vampires...	Severen
1989	Slipstream Slipstream (1989 film) Slipstream is a 1989 post-apocalyptic science fiction adventure film. The plot has an emphasis on aviation and contains many common science-fiction themes, such as taking place in a dystopian future in which the landscape of the Earth itself has been changed and is windswept by storms of great power...	Matt Owens
1989	Next of Kin Next of Kin (1989 film) Next of Kin is a 1989 American action film directed by John Irvin and starring Patrick Swayze and Liam Neeson. The screenplay was based on a story of the same title, both written by Michael Jenning.-Plot:...	Gerald Gates
1989	Back to Back	Bo Brand	Main role
1990	Brain Dead Brain Dead (1990 film) Brain Dead is a 1990 horror/psychological thriller starring Bill Pullman, Bill Paxton and George Kennedy and written by Charles Beaumont.-Plot:...	Jim Reston	Main Role
1990		Howard 'Hojo' Jones
1990	Navy SEALs Navy SEALs (film) Navy SEALs is a 1990 action film, directed by Lewis Teague, written by Chuck Pfarrer and Gary Goldman, and produced by Brenda Feigen and Bernard Williams with consultant William Bradley.-Plot:...	Dane
1990	Predator 2 Predator 2 Predator 2 is a 1990 science fiction action film starring Danny Glover, Gary Busey, María Conchita Alonso, Rubén Blades, and Bill Paxton. Written by Jim and John Thomas and directed by Stephen Hopkins, the film is a sequel to 1987's Predator, with Kevin Peter Hall again playing the role of the...	Jerry Lambert
1991		Gus
1992		Graham Krakowski	Main role
1992	One False Move One False Move One False Move is a 1992 thriller film co-written by Billy Bob Thornton. The film, also starring Thornton, Bill Paxton and Cynda Williams was directed by Carl Franklin. The low-budget B-movie was to be released straight to home video when it was finished. The film became popular through word of...	Dale 'Hurricane' Dixon	Main role
1992	Trespass	Vince	Main role
1993	Monolith	Tucker	Main role
1993	Indian Summer Indian Summer (1993 film) Indian Summer is a 1993 comedy drama film written and directed by Mike Binder. The movie was filmed and set on-location at Camp Tamakwa, a summer camp located in Ontario, Canada, where Binder himself had attended in his childhood...	Jack Belston
1993	Boxing Helena Boxing Helena Boxing Helena is a 1993 romantic drama film and the debut feature film by Jennifer Chambers Lynch, daughter of David Lynch. The film stars Julian Sands and Sherilyn Fenn as the eponymous Helena.-Plot:...	Ray O'Malley	Supporting role
1993	Tombstone Tombstone (film) Tombstone is a 1993 American action film set in the Old West directed by George P. Cosmatos, along with uncredited directorial efforts by actor Kurt Russell and writer Kevin Jarre. The storyline was conceived from a screenplay written by Jarre....	Morgan Earp Morgan Earp Morgan Seth Earp was the younger brother of Deputy U.S. Marshals Virgil and Wyatt Earp. Morgan was a deputy of Virgil's and all three men were the target of repeated death threats made by outlaw Cowboys who were upset by the Earps' interference in their illegal activities. This conflict eventually...	Supporting role
1994	Frank and Jesse Frank and Jesse -Plot:Frank & Jesse is a 1994 western starring Rob Lowe as Jesse James and Bill Paxton as Jesse's brother Frank James. Following the Civil War the two brothers, along with the Younger brothers - Cole Younger and Bob Younger , Bob Ford and Charles Ford , Clell Miller , and Arch Clements...	Frank James	Main role
1994	True Lies True Lies True Lies is a 1994 American action-comedy film directed by James Cameron and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Bill Paxton, Tia Carrere, Charlton Heston, and Art Malik. Eliza Dushku also appears in the film in one of her first major film roles...	Simon
1994	Future Shock Future Shock Future Shock is a book written by the futurist Alvin Toffler in 1970. In the book, Toffler defines the term "future shock" as a certain psychological state of individuals and entire societies. His shortest definition for the term is a personal perception of "too much change in too short a period of...	Vince
1995		Zachary Cody
1995	Apollo 13 Apollo 13 (film) Apollo 13 is a 1995 American drama film directed by Ron Howard. The film stars Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, Kathleen Quinlan and Ed Harris. The screenplay by William Broyles, Jr...	Fred Haise Fred Haise Fred Wallace Haise, Jr. is an engineer and former NASA astronaut. He is one of only 24 people to have flown to the Moon. Having flown on Apollo 13, Haise was to be the sixth human to walk on the Moon, but the mission did not land due to a failure aboard the spacecraft.-Early life and...	Main role
1996	Twister	Bill Harding	Main role
1996		Jerry Bruckner	Main role
1997	Titanic Titanic (1997 film) Titanic is a 1997 American epic romance and disaster film directed, written, co-produced, and co-edited by James Cameron. A fictionalized account of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, it stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson, Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater and Billy Zane as Rose's fiancé, Cal...	Brock Lovett	Supporting role
1997	Traveller Traveller (film) Traveller is an American film released in 1997, starring Bill Paxton, Mark Wahlberg, and Julianna Margulies. The plot centers on a man joining a group of nomadic con artists in rural North Carolina.-See also:...	Bokky	Main role
1998		John Paul Vann	Television film
1998		Hank	Main role
1998	Mighty Joe Young Mighty Joe Young (1998 film) The Music was composed and conduced by James Horner. The Soundtrack was released on December of the year 1998.- Tracklist :...	Professor Gregory 'Gregg' O'Hara
2000	U-571 U-571 (film) U-571 is a 2000 film directed by Jonathan Mostow, and starring Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Harvey Keitel, Thomas Kretschmann, Jon Bon Jovi, Jack Noseworthy, Will Estes, and Tom Guiry...	Lt. Commander Mike Dahlgren
2000	Vertical Limit Vertical Limit Vertical Limit is a 2000 thriller action film directed by New Zealander Martin Campbell starring, among others, Chris O'Donnell, Bill Paxton, Robin Tunney and Scott Glenn...	Elliot Vaughn
2001	Frailty Frailty (film) Frailty is a 2002 psychological thriller film directed by and starring Bill Paxton, and co-starring Matthew McConaughey. This film is the directorial debut for Paxton. The plot focuses on the strange relationship between two young boys and their father, who believes that he has been commanded by...	Dad Meiks	Director
2002	Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams	Dinky Winks
2003	Ghosts of the Abyss Ghosts of the Abyss Ghosts of the Abyss is a 2003 documentary film released by Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media. It was Disney's first film produced in 3-D and was directed by Academy Award winning filmmaker James Cameron after his Oscar winning film Titanic...
2003	Resistance Resistance (film) Resistance is a war movie released in 2003. It was written by Todd Komarnicki and Anita Shreve, stars Bill Paxton, Julia Ormond, Philippe Volter, Sandrine Bonnaire, and Victor Reinier, and was directed by Todd Komarnicki. Resistance, with a 16 million euro budget, was the most expensive Dutch...	Major Theodore 'Ted' Brice
2003	Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over is a 2003 American action-adventure family film directed by Robert Rodriguez and the third film in the Spy Kids series. It was released in the United States on July 25, 2003. The film featured the return of many cast members from the past two films, although most were in...	Dinky Winks
2004	Club Dread Club Dread Club Dread is a 2004 comedy horror film written by the comedy group Broken Lizard, who also created Super Troopers...	Coconut Pete
2004	Haven Haven (film) Haven is a 2004 feature film set in the Cayman Islands, a British offshore financial centre. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2004. It is written and directed by native Caymanian Frank E...	Carl Ridley
2004	Thunderbirds Thunderbirds (film) Thunderbirds is a 2004 science-fiction adventure film loosely based upon the television series of the same name of the 1960s, directed by Jonathan Frakes....	Jeff Tracy Jeff Tracy Jeff Tracy is a fictional character from Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's Supermarionation television show Thunderbirds and the subsequent films Thunderbirds Are GO and Thunderbird 6. The voice for the character in these shows was supplied by Peter Dyneley. The character also appeared in the live...
2005			Director
2006–11	Big Love Big Love Big Love is an American television drama that aired on HBO between March 2006 and March 2011. The show is about a fictional fundamentalist Mormon family in Utah that practices polygamy...	Bill Henrickson Bill Henrickson William Orville "Bill" Henrickson is the fictional protagonist husband in a polygamous family in the HBO series Big Love, portrayed by Bill Paxton. He is married to three wives, Barbara Henrickson, Nicolette Grant and Margene Heffman...
2007		Robbie
2011	Haywire Haywire (film) Haywire is an upcoming action film directed by Steven Soderbergh, starring Gina Carano, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas, Ewan McGregor, Channing Tatum and Michael Fassbender.-Plot:...
2011	Tattoo		Director

External links

• Bill Paxton and Bill Paxton - Movie Director at The Numbers in 2005 in 2002