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Damn. I JUST listened to his interview on WTF with Marc Maron. It was a great interview, and he sounded so full of life and energy.

Terrible news. He was always a welcome presence in films and just seeing him pop up in dreck like Term Life last year made me long for Tarantino or some other auteur to offer him a late-period revival. Unfortunately it looks like that stupid Tom Hanks / Dave Eggers movie will be his swan song. Also, though I know it is divisive here, Frailty was a terrifically accomplished film for a first-time director, though I never caught his other efforts behind the camera

He just started that Training Day series on CBS; probably too soon for the producers to comment on how that will affect things.

I've been a fan of his since Aliens (and even earlier; I remember how much I loved the video he directed for Barnes & Barnes' "Fish Heads" back in the day). This one hurts.

domino harvey wrote:Terrible news. He was always a welcome presence in films and just seeing him pop up in dreck like Term Life last year made me long for Tarantino or some other auteur to offer him a late-period revival. Unfortunately it looks like that stupid Tom Hanks / Dave Eggers movie will be his swan song. Also, though I know it is divisive here, Frailty was a terrifically accomplished film for a first-time director, though I never caught his other efforts behind the camera

Big Love (though it began to flag in the final year or two) is still one of the best HBO series that hardly anyone's actually watched. Would recommend it to anyone who wants to see Paxton at his peak.

I started watching it a few years ago and always mean to come back to it. I didn't love it, but I felt it had promise

I think I've seen Paxton in at least one new film or show every single year. Off the top of my head, I think my favorites were Near Dark, One False Move and A Simple Plan. I finally saw Haywire last year and he was indeed a welcome presence - the role seemed like a fitting tip of the hat to some of his past films, and now here he was playing a parent verging on his senior years.

Paxton also had a pretty good late turn in Haywire as well.

Really good in Nightcrawler as well.

This is a shock, though he did seem awfully reflective in that WTF interview.

I like him in Near Dark. Especially the bar scene is way cool.

That's a very funny spoiler tag because I can't imagine anyone who hasn't seen the film even remotely being troubled by seeing those three words, which reveal nothing. Must be some scene!

It's the centerpiece of the film. However, if you knew going in that it was, it might lose some of its impact. Not sure it's really a spoiler though

Sorry mods if the use of spoiler tag wasn't good.

Better to err on the side of using one than not!

Not to derail but I don't think spoiler tags are bad and they don't bother me, but after the Inception thread i can see why some might roll their eyes at them if they're used for not-so-major spoilers.

Edit: but still, I agree with domino above.

This seems like as good a place as any to say that I always had a soft spot for Twister. I was always fascinated by storms, and while I won't defend much about that film on the merits, I think it really did capture that feeling of seeing a particularly ominous-looking storm heading your way, and the tornadoes themselves were really cutting-edge special effects at the time, and still hold up reasonably well.

And as far as Paxton goes, it's one of the few outright lead roles he had, and I think he was the right guy for a role like that. He really provided a solid center for the film - he had the gravitas to take it seriously without being *too* serious about it, and generally gave the movie a human presence that it desperately needed among a bunch of typically "colorful" supporting characters and poor Helen Hunt, who seemed vaguely embarrassed to be there.

In short, it was a good example of how I saw him in general - a versatile, professional actor's-actor who made his films better.

Also I saw him introduce a screening of Frailty and do a Q&A afterwards down in Dallas years ago leading up to the movie's release. Seemed really proud of the film and interested in directing in general. I'd have guessed then that he'd transition much more into a directorial career than how it turned out.

hearthesilence wrote:I think I've seen Paxton in at least one new film or show every single year. Off the top of my head, I think my favorites were Near Dark, One False Move and A Simple Plan. I finally saw Haywire last year and he was indeed a welcome presence - the role seemed like a fitting tip of the hat to some of his past films, and now here he was playing a parent verging on his senior years.

A great actor. A Simple Plan is a terrific film, one of my favorites. Frailty was also very strong.

I would be remiss not to clarify that I was amused by the specific implementation of the spoiler tag, not scolding anyone for its use

I think the first time I really noticed Paxton as someone I would recognize in future appearances was his fantastically sleazy car salesman in True Lies, which I saw (with my mom, to her growing horror) at eleven or twelve. I was thrilled when I realized he was in Nightcrawler a few years ago. A true shame he's gone, but a ton of great appearances to remember him by.

I'd certainly recommend anyone to watch A Simple Plan and One False Move for some of Paxton's best performances (though be warned about the harrowing multiple murder sequence that starts off One False Move)

There are the celebrated James Cameron performances in Aliens ("Game Over, Man. Game Over!"), wooing Jamie Lee Curtis in True Lies and cajoling a granny to tell her life story in Titanic. But he was also great in a tiny role as the spiky blue haired punk in The Terminator too! (That was part of what made replaying that scene in Terminator: Genisys not really work, as despite all the work put in to have a eerily de-aged Schwarzenegger in there, the illusion was lost as soon as the recognisable Paxton wasn't recreated for that small role!)

Apparently (though I may be wrong about this as it has been a few years since I listened to the commentary track) James Cameron and Bill Paxton met on Galaxy of Terror (aka Mindwarp) (NSFW), in which Cameron was a production designer and Paxton was building the (very Aliens-anticipating!) sets!

While I know I should be celebrating Apollo 13 and so on, I'll probably more strongly remember his part as the older brother from hell in Weird Science! (Literally transformed into a pile of faeces!), or his surprisingly memorable little supporting turn in Predator 2. I haven't seen it yet, but I'm also curious about Brain Dead in which Bill Paxton stars with his father John, as well as Bill Pullman and George Kennedy(!!)

He's also has a great, strange supporting role in the bizarre comedy The Dark Backward.

I loved, loved, loved Big Love, specially the two first seasons. I did not he was so old. He looked 40 something in the show.

colinr0380 wrote:I'd certainly recommend anyone to watch A Simple Plan and One False Move for some of Paxton's best performances (though be warned about the harrowing multiple murder sequence that starts off One False Move)

There are the celebrated James Cameron performances in Aliens ("Game Over, Man. Game Over!"), wooing Jamie Lee Curtis in True Lies and cajoling a granny to tell her life story in Titanic. But he was also great in a tiny role as the spiky blue haired punk in The Terminator too! (That was part of what made replaying that scene in Terminator: Genisys not really work, as despite all the work put in to have a eerily de-aged Schwarzenegger in there, the illusion was lost as soon as the recognisable Paxton wasn't recreated for that small role!)

Apparently (though I may be wrong about this as it has been a few years since I listened to the commentary track) James Cameron and Bill Paxton met on Galaxy of Terror (aka Mindwarp) (NSFW), in which Cameron was a production designer and Paxton was building the (very Aliens-anticipating!) sets!

While I know I should be celebrating Apollo 13 and so on, I'll probably more strongly remember his part as the older brother from hell in Weird Science! (Literally transformed into a pile of faeces!), or his surprisingly memorable little supporting turn in Predator 2. I haven't seen it yet, but I'm also curious about Brain Dead in which Bill Paxton stars with his father John, as well as Bill Pullman and George Kennedy(!!)

Paxton and Pullman together would freak Homer Simpson out for sure

https://frinkiac.com/gif/S12E09/1134216 ... 9VIEZPT0wh

I hope this isn't the beginning of an "Alien" curse. First John Hurt, now Bill Paxton. Fingers crossed that the cast of "Alien 3" are all in good health!