Bill Paxton
William Paxton (May 17, 1955 – February 25, 2017) was an American actor and filmmaker. He starred in films such as Aliens (1986), Near Dark (1987), Tombstone (1993), True Lies (1994), Apollo 13 (1995), Twister (1996), Titanic (1997), Mighty Joe Young (1998), and A Simple Plan (1998). He had supporting roles in Weird Science (1985), Edge of Tomorrow (2014), and Nightcrawler (2014).
For the computer scientist, see Bill Paxton (computer scientist).
Bill Paxton
February 25, 2017 (aged 61)
Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills, California, U.S.
- Actor
- filmmaker
- musician
1975–2017
-
Kelly Rowan(m. 1979; div. 1980)
-
Louise Newbury(m. 1987)
2, including James
- Vocals
- samples
Paxton starred in the HBO drama series Big Love (2006–2011), for which he earned three Golden Globe Award nominations during the show's run. He was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for portraying Randall McCoy in the History Channel miniseries Hatfields & McCoys (2012).
Personal life[edit]
Paxton married Kelly Rowan in 1979 and they divorced a year later.[24] He later met Louise Newbury on the Number 37 bus in Twickenham, London, where she was a student, and they were married in 1987.[2] They lived in Ojai, California, and had two children: son James (born 1994), who also became an actor, and daughter Lydia (born 1997).[2]
Death[edit]
In early 2017, Paxton stated in an interview on WTF with Marc Maron that he had a damaged aortic heart valve, resulting from rheumatic fever that he contracted as a child.[25] On February 14, 2017, he underwent open-heart surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles to repair the damaged valve and correct an aortic aneurysm.[26][27] A day later, he underwent an emergency second surgery to repair a damaged coronary artery.[28] His condition deteriorated over the following 10 days, and he died of a stroke on February 25 at the age of 61.[2][8][29][30][31] He was cremated and his ashes were buried at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park of Hollywood Hills.[32]
One year after Paxton's death, his family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Ali Khoynezhad, the surgeon who performed his operation, alleging that Khoynezhad used "high-risk and unconventional" methods and that he was not present in the operating room when Paxton developed complications such as ventricular dysfunction, tachycardia, and a compromised right coronary artery, which they claim contributed to the coronary artery damage that necessitated a second surgery and ultimately led to Paxton's death.[28] The case was set for trial in Los Angeles Superior Court in March 2022.[33] In February 2022, Paxton's family reached a partial settlement with General Anesthesia Specialists Partnership for $1 million.[34] In August 2022, the case was settled against Cedars-Sinai and Khoynezhad under undisclosed terms.[35]
Tributes[edit]
Public figures[edit]
Many dozens of filmmakers and actors across the entertainment spectrum paid tribute to Paxton in the aftermath of his death.[36][37]
On February 26, 2017, while introducing the annual In Memoriam segment at the 89th Academy Awards the day after Paxton's death, a visibly emotional Jennifer Aniston paid tribute to him.[38] His Big Love co-star Chloë Sevigny remembered him as "one of the less cynical, jaded people [she'd] ever met in the business" and said, "He believed in entertainment being transportive and transformative. He believed in the magic of what we can bring to people. That was really a gift that he gave to me."[39] The television show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. paid tribute at the end of its season-four episode "What If...", and a number of storm chasers paid tribute to his role in Twister by spelling out his initials "BP" via the Spotter Network.[40]
Films[edit]
The 2017 film Call Me by Your Name was dedicated to Paxton's memory. The film's producer, Peter Spears, explained that his husband Brian Swardstrom, who was also Paxton's best friend and agent, once visited the set with Paxton during filming and befriended the film's director Luca Guadagnino, who ultimately decided to dedicate the film "in loving memory of Bill Paxton". Close friend and frequent collaborator James Cameron wrote a tribute in an article for Vanity Fair, detailing their 36-year friendship and expressing regret over the projects they would not be able to make together.[41] The 2019 John Travolta film The Fanatic, which co-starred Paxton's son James, was dedicated to Paxton. James would later play a younger version of Paxton's S.H.I.E.L.D. character in the final season, which served as a tribute to his role in the show. Cameron's 2022 film, Avatar: The Way of Water was dedicated to Paxton's memory, as well as to James Horner's, who previously worked with Cameron on Aliens, Titanic and the first Avatar. Paxton worked with both Cameron and Horner on the former two films. Cameron had hoped to cast Paxton in the Avatar sequels before his death.[42]