William Paxton (born May 17, 1955) is a Golden Globe-nominated American actor and film director.
Paxton was born in Fort Worth, Texas to John Lane Paxton, a businessman, lumber wholesaler, museum executive, and occasional actor, and Mary Lou (Gray). Paxton was raised in his mother's Catholic religion. Paxton attended Texas State University (called Southwest Texas State at that time) in San Marcos, TX and then moved to Los Angeles and began working for director Roger Corman as a set designer on his films. Exposure to films and actors at that age influenced his decision to pursue acting and led Paxton to relocate to New York City, where he studied with Stella Adler.
Paxton has played some distinctive and memorable characters including the sneering older brother Chet in John Hughes' Weird Science; Hudson, the loud-mouthed Colonial Marine in James Cameron's Aliens ("Game over, man! Game over!"); astronaut Fred Haise in Ron Howard's Apollo 13; the sadistic vampire Severen in Kathryn Bigelow...
Created by dipity on Jan 24, 2008
Last updated: 11/18/09 at 11:30 AM
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Haven is a 2004 feature film set in the Cayman Islands, a British tax haven. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2004. It is written and directed by native Caymanian Frank E. Flowers and filmed entirely in the 100-square mile West Indies dependency. Haven is an ensemble film in which unconnected lives intersect and result in a violent chain of events that turns tranquility into chaos. Haven was released in limited theaters in the United States on September 15, 2006.A corrupt and greedy businessman, Carl Ridley (Bill Paxton), is running from the government, with his 18 year old daughter Pippa (Agnes Bruckner) in tow. Pippa is not happy to leave her friends and comfortable life in Miami for the Cayman Islands.Arriving in the islands, Ridley is preoccupied. Banks are rapidly closing and he must find a clean place to store his stolen money. Meanwhile, Pippa finds native Caymanian Fritz (Victor Rasuk) sleeping off a late night in her bed, and when she walks in...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386504
Club Dread (also known as Broken Lizard's Club Dread) is a 2004 comedy / horror film, written by the comedy group Broken Lizard, who also created Super Troopers. It is directed by Jay Chandrasekhar, one of the group members.
Club Dread follows a familiar plot that stems from the novel And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. In the movie, Coconut Pete (played by Paxton) is a has-been rock star who runs a non-stop party on his private island, which may be a parody of Sammy Hagar's club / bar in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, Cabo Wabo, but it's probably more of a Jimmy Buffett parody, as many of the selected songs in the movie are similar to those of Buffett; more evidence is the "Margaritaville scene." Dead bodies begin to turn up, and the staff try to solve the murder mystery without any of the guests learning of the murderer. The staff also have to try to avoid becoming the next victim, as the killer can only be one of them.
...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0331953
Ghosts of the Abyss is a 2003 documentary film released by Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media. It was directed by Academy Award winning filmmaker James Cameron after his Oscar winning film Titanic. It consists of Cameron and a group of scientists sailing out to the wreck of the Titanic, and then going down to get closer than anyone has before. With the help of specially created cameras, Jake and Elwood, the audience too can see inside the Titanic and with the help of CGI people can see how it would have originally looked. Also along for the ride Cameron invites friend and actor Bill Paxton who played Brock Lovett in the 1997 film. He narrates the event through his eyes. The film itself was produced for IMAX 3D during the Summer of 2003. It was also nominated for a BFCA award for Best Documentary.
The submersibles Mir 1 and Mir 2 carried the Ghosts of the Abyss team
on twelve dives.Academy Award® winning director and master storyteller James Cameron journeys back to the site of his...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0297144
Frailty is a 2001 psychological thriller film, directed by Bill Paxton and starring Bill Paxton and Matthew McConaughey. The score was composed by Brian Tyler.
A man enters the Dallas, Texas FBI office one rainy night, and introduces himself as Fenton Meiks (Matthew McConaughey). He wants to speak to Agent Doyle (Powers Boothe) about his belief that his brother Adam (Levi Kreis) is the notorious "God's Hand Killer" serial killer. As the detective probes for more information a shocking story unfolds of the disturbing childhood of the two brothers and their strange relationship with their father (played by Paxton); who claims their family has been chosen by God to become demon hunters.
Fenton claims that one night in the late seventies their father entered their room and told them that he had been tasked by God to root out and destroy demons whose names were to be provided for him by an angel. Soon he discovers tools that are also to aid him: gloves to protect his hands (when he touches...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0264616
Vertical Limit (2000) is an action movie/thriller directed by New Zealander Martin Campbell (Casino Royale, The Mask of Zorro) starring, among others, Chris O'Donnell, Bill Paxton, Robin Tunney and Scott Glenn. It narrates the attempted ascent of K2 by a group of alpinists, led by an ambitious billionaire. But the climbing party gets into serious jeopardy after an avalanche occurs, killing some of the members and trapping others inside a crevasse. At the base, a rescue team is formed to rediscover their buried mates. The undertaking soon becomes a race against time as the victims run out of supplies and medicine against altitude sickness.Tagline:Hold your breath.Despite receiving mixed critical reaction, one supporter of the film at the time of its release was film critic David Manning who gave the film critical praise. In late 2001, however, Manning was revealed to be fictitious, created by Sony to fake publicity for the film....,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0190865
U-571 is a 2000 movie directed by Jonathan Mostow, and starring Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Harvey Keitel, Jon Bon Jovi, Jack Noseworthy, Will Estes, and Tom Guiry. In the movie, a German submarine is boarded in 1942 by disguised American submariners seeking to capture its Enigma cipher machine. This movie was shot in and around Rome and Malta. The film attracted criticism for its portrayal of an Enigma capture by an American, as opposed to a British crew, early in the war.
A German U-Boat, designated U-571, torpedoes and sinks a freighter. Seconds later, however, the sonar man reports to have detected high speed screws. The captain turns the periscope to sight a British destroyer moving in, forcing U-571 to dive. The destroyer drops depth charges; unfortunately for the submarine, the depth charging caused a fuel leak near the engine crew is now working which ignites, setting them all ablaze. Due to the amount of damage sustained, the captain orders U-571 to resurface. The...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0141926
Mighty Joe Young is a 1998 Disney family film starring Bill Paxton and Charlize Theron and directed by Ron Underwood. It is a remake of the 1949 film Mighty Joe Young. In this version, the ape is somewhat larger and astonishingly realistic looking, very closely resembling a male mountain gorilla.
Charlize Theron plays Jill Young who as a child witnesses the death of her mother and the mother of Joe, a baby ape, by poachers, led by Andrei Strasser as played by Rade Šerbedžija. 12 years later, Jill has raised Joe (because of his size, the other gorillas won't accept him) and both are living in relative peace and solitude until a wildlife refuge director Gregg O'Hara Bill Paxton convinces Jill that they would be safer from poachers if they relocated to the States.
The pair go to Hollywood, California (as in the original film) and win the hearts of the refuge staff. Jill is approached by Strasser, who saw a news spot of Joe and wants revenge because Joe bit off his thumb and trigger...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120751
A Simple Plan is a 1998 film starring Bill Paxton as Hank Mitchell, Billy Bob Thornton as Jacob, Brent Briscoe as Lou, and Bridget Fonda as Sarah. The plot of this low-key thriller turns on a bag of money found in a crashed airplane. It was based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Scott Smith (who also wrote the screenplay). Several prominent critics praised the film for its complexity and taut suspense (4 stars from Roger Ebert and Critic's Choice from The New York Times).The film was filmed in Delano, Minnesota. Billy Bob Thornton was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Scott B. Smith was nominated for the Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay.The screenplay made numerous changes to the plot, particularly to events in the second half of the novel. In the movie, after Lou and Nancy are killed, Hank does not kill Sonny or shoot Jacob; rather, he constructs a domestic dispute situation involving just Nancy and Lou, with he and Jacob walking in...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120324
Titanic is a 1997 romantic drama film directed, written, and co-produced by James Cameron about the sinking of the RMS Titanic. It stars Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio as Rose DeWitt Bukater and Jack Dawson respectively, members of different social classes who fall in love aboard the ill-fated 1912 maiden voyage of the ship. Bill Paxton plays Brock Lovett, the leader of a treasure hunting expedition, while Gloria Stuart has the role of the elderly Rose, who narrates the story in 1996. The film was both a critical and commercial success, winning eleven Academy Awards including Best Film, and became the highest grossing film of all time, with a total worldwide gross of US$1.8 billion. In 1996, treasure hunter Brock Lovett and his team explore the wreck of the RMS Titanic searching for a necklace called “Heart of the Ocean”. They discover a drawing of a young woman reclining nude, wearing the Heart of the Ocean, dated the day the Titanic sank. News of this drawing on television...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120338
Traveller is an American film released in 1997, starring Bill Paxton, Mark Wahlberg, and Julianna Margulies. The plot centers around a man joining a group of gypsy-like con artists in rural North Carolina.
Irish Traveller – nomadic or itinerant people of Irish origin living in Ireland, Great Britain and the United States
...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120366
Twister is a 1996 disaster film starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton as storm chasers researching tornadoes. It was directed by Jan de Bont. The film was based upon a script by Michael Crichton and his wife, former actress Anne-Marie Martin.
In the movie, a team of "storm chasers" try to perfect their new instrument, while competing with another team.
Twister also has a famous scene of a flying cow, a scene that was the subject of many parodies. The film also became the theme of a ride at Universal Orlando Resort called Twister... Ride it Out.
According to IMDb, Twister was the first movie commercially released on DVD.
Taglines:Jo Harding: The leader of her storm team. When she was five, Jo's father was killed in an F5 tornado because of a less-than-perfect warning system. Ever since then, she's dedicated her life to creating the advanced warning system. During the film she is in the process of divorcing from Bill Harding, but because she still loves him, she is hesitant to do so. Jo...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117998
Apollo 13 is a 1995 film portrayal of the ill-fated Apollo 13 lunar mission in 1970. The movie was adapted by William Broyles Jr. and Al Reinert from the book Lost Moon by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger. It was directed by Ron Howard.
The film was modified and re-released as an IMAX film in 2002. The IMAX film cuts approximately 24 minutes from the original movie and cuts some minor language.
In 2005, a 10th anniversary DVD of the film was released; this version included both the theatrical version and the IMAX version, along with several extras.The film opens with a flashback of the Apollo 1 fire incident, accompanied by a narration by Walter Cronkite. As Cronkite’s monologue ends, the film moves on to July 20, 1969 where veteran astronaut Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks) is on his way home to a party for the Apollo 11 moon landing. After witnessing Neil Armstrong’s historic first steps on the moon, an inebriated Lovell stares up at the moon and tells his wife, Marilyn (Kathleen Quinlan), of...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112384
The Last Supper is a 1995 black comedy and satirical thriller. It is the second film to be directed by Stacy Title. It stars Cameron Diaz, Ron Eldard, Annabeth Gish, Jonathan Penner and Courtney B. Vance as five left-wing grad school liberals who share a house and discuss social issues over Sunday supper.The movie was written by Dan Rosen.Tagline(s):Eat... drink... and be buried...Love... Sex... Life... Death. In this house it's all on the table.A group of liberal friends have a regular dinner date which they occasionally invite guests to. When a racist, child-molesting, murdering redneck and terrifying dinner guest (played by Bill Paxton) attempts to kill one of them they kill him in self defence. In the wake of these events they are inspired to improve the world through radical means -- by killing those who make the world a worse place to live. The friends invite a variety of people whose political and social agendas they find offensive, from a priest who considers AIDS to be the...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113613
True Lies is a 1994 action/comedy remake of the 1991 French film La Totale!. It was directed by James Cameron, and stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Bill Paxton, Tia Carrere, Charlton Heston and Art Malik. Eliza Dushku makes an early career appearance.
The movie begins, James Bond-style, as secret agent Harry Tasker (Schwarzenegger) infiltrates the alpine chateau of an international arms smuggler. Harry's mission is to track down nuclear warheads stolen from Kazakhstan. He is aided by his fellow Omega Sector agents, Albert "Gib" Gibson (Arnold) and Faisil (Grant Heslov), who communicate with him from a computerized van. Inside the chateau, Tasker meets Juno Skinner (Carrere), an antiquities dealer, and the two dance the tango (over the song "Por Una Cabeza" - William Schimmel's version [1]) while Harry arranges an explosive escape.
In a twist for an action hero, Tasker has an ordinary home life. His wife, Helen (Curtis), is unaware that her husband is a spy...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111503
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 (played by Randy Travis) and Bob Younger (Todd Field), Bob Ford (Jim Flowers) and Charlie Ford (Alexis Arquette), Clell Miller (John Pyper-Ferguson), and Arch Clements (Nick Sadler), begin to feel oppressed by the Chicago railroad investors. They set off on a trail of bank robberies, train heists, and stage holdups while evading the dogged pursuit of Allan Pinkerton (William Atherton) and his detective agency.
Based on the story of Jesse James, the movie follows more the myth of the man than the reality.
...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109835
Tombstone is a 1993 Western movie written by Kevin Jarre and directed by George P. Cosmatos. The story involves Wyatt Earp and his brothers moving to Tombstone, Arizona where they and Doc Holliday face off against a band of criminals called the Cowboys.
The movie is loosely based on the 1957 classic, Gunfight At The O.K. Corral.
Wyatt Earp (played by Kurt Russell), a retired peace officer with quite a reputation, re-unites with his brothers Virgil (Sam Elliott) and Morgan (Bill Paxton) in Tucson, Arizona, where they venture on towards Tombstone, a small but growing mining town, to settle down. There they encounter Wyatt's longtime friend Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer), a southern rogue who seeks relief from his tuberculosis in Arizona's drier environment.
All is not perfect however. Wyatt's wife, Mattie Blaylock (Dana Wheeler-Nicholson) , is slowly becoming dependent on laudanum (opium) which she acquired to treat her headaches. Just as Wyatt and his brothers begin to benefit from the...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108358
Boxing Helena is the 1993 debut feature film by Jennifer Lynch, daughter of David Lynch. The film stars Sherilyn Fenn as the titular Helena and Julian Sands.Nick Cavanaugh (Sands) is a lonely Atlanta surgeon obsessed with Helena (Fenn). After she is injured in a grievous hit-and-run motor vehicle accident in front of his home, he kidnaps and treats her in his house surreptitiously, medically amputating both of her legs. Later, he amputates her healthy arms as well.Though Helena is the victim of Nick's kidnapping and mutilation, she dominates the dialogue with her constant emasculating ridicule of him for all of his shortcomings. After some time living together she becomes lonely and returns his affection.At the end, it is revealed that everything from the time of Helena's accident is merely a dream that Nick has been having.The film was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival. However, the media critically mauled it on its release. Helena is also...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106471
Trespass was a 1992 movie directed by Walter Hill. Notable actors featured in the movie include Ice Cube, Ice T, Bill Paxton and William Sadler.
Two Arkansas firemen, Vince (Bill Paxton) and Don (William Sadler) meet a hysterical old man in a building on fire. The old man hands them a map, prays for forgiveness, then allows himself to be engulfed in flames. Outside of the fire and away from everyone else, Don does a little research and finds out that the man was a thief who stole a large amount of gold valuables from a church and hid them in a building in East St. Louis. The two decide to drive there, thinking they can get there, get the gold and get back in one day.
While they're looking around at the abandoned building they need to be in, though, they spot a gang, led by King James (Ice-T), who is there to execute an enemy of theirs. Vince and Don witness the shooting, but give themselves away, and only manage to force a stalemate when they grab Lucky (De'voreaux White), King James'...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105636
One False Move is a 1992 movie 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 mouth, convincing the distributor to send it to theaters. Film critic Gene Siskel voted this film as his favorite film of 1992.
The film opens with three criminals - Ray (Billy Bob Thornton), an immoral and slightly neurotic thief. Fantasia (Cynda Williams) Ray's less violent girlfriend. And Pluto (Michael Beach) an intelligent yet psychotic killer. The three commit six brutal murders over the course of one night in Los Angeles, all to find a cache of money and cocaine. The trio leave town for Houston to sell the cocaine to a friend of Pluto's.
The LAPD start investigating the case, with two detectives taking the helm. After getting a few good leads, they discover that the criminal trio are possibly...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102592
Predator 2 (1990) is a science fiction horror film starring Danny Glover and Gary Busey. It is a sequel to the successful 1987 film Predator starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Apart from actor Kevin Peter Hall in the role of the Predator and a very brief cameo appearance by Elpidia Carrillo, the film has an entirely new cast. The movie has received mostly negative reviews, with Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert calling it "angry and ugly."Predator 2 takes place during the year 1997, with Los Angeles suffering from a vicious street war between rival Jamaican and Colombian drug cartels. Police officers Leona Cantrell (Maria Conchita Alonso) and Danny Archuleta (Ruben Blades) await the aid of veteran Lieutenant Michael Harrigan (Danny Glover). After an intense firefight with the officers, criminals withdraw into a nearby building. A series of explosions rock the structure, followed by mysterious gunfire. Harrigan and his team investigates, only to find all but one of the criminals...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100403
Near Dark (1987) is a vampire Western film, written by Eric Red and Kathryn Bigelow, and directed by Bigelow. The movie has a sizable cult following.Kathryn Bigelow wanted to film a Western movie that departed from cinematic convention, which at the time was strongly identified with the films of John Wayne and John Ford. When she and co-writer Eric Red found financial backing for a Western difficult to obtain, it was suggested to them that they try mixing a Western with another, more popular genre. Her interest in revisionist interpretation of cinematic tradition led her and Red to the idea of combining two genres that they regarded as ripe for reinterpretation: the Western movie, and the vampire movie, whose conventions largely derived from Bela Lugosi's performance in Dracula. The film was scored by the German electronic music group Tangerine Dream.Caleb Colton is a young man in a small Oklahoma town who flirts one night with Mae, an attractive young drifter. Shortly before sunrise,...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093605
Aliens is a 1986 science fiction/action film starring Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, Carrie Henn, Bill Paxton and Paul Reiser and is regarded by many as a benchmark for the action and science fiction genres. It is a sequel to Ridley Scott's 1979 film Alien and takes place 57 years after the events of the first film. In Aliens, Weaver's character Ellen Ripley returns to the planet where she first encountered the hostile Alien "xenomorph." This time she is accompanied by a unit of Colonial Marines.Directed by James Cameron from a story written by Cameron, David Giler and Walter Hill, Aliens is a high-paced action-adventure film which is in stark contrast to the atmospheric Sci-Fi horror of the original Alien. Following The Terminator, the film helped to establish Cameron as a major action director. Sigourney Weaver received her first Best Actress Academy Award nomination for her leading role in Aliens. Like its predecessor, the film was shot in England, this time at ...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090605
Weird Science (1985) is a popular 1980s teen film written and directed by John Hughes and starring Kelly LeBrock.The title song was written and performed by American New Wave stalwarts Oingo Boingo.Taglines:The title "Weird Science" was taken from the famous pre-Comics Code 1950s EC Comics magazine Weird Science.Two pubescent nerds, Gary (Anthony Michael Hall) and Wyatt (Ilan Mitchell-Smith), unpopular and unable to meet girls on their own, use a computer to design the perfect woman. They feed various data (images mostly) into Wyatt's computer. Lacking sufficient processing power, they hack into a US Government mainframe and use its power to create a computer simulation of "the perfect woman" in order to place her in "real life sexual situations" and see how she reacts. A bizarre electrical storm (à la Frankenstein, their inspiration) follows, and they find themselves unable to shut the computer off.Mysteriously, the result is "Lisa" (Kelly LeBrock), a real-life woman (who emerges...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090305
Weird Science may refer to:...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090305
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 retro 1950's and the 1980's. The film stars Michael Paré as a soldier of fortune who returns home to rescue his ex-girlfriend (Diane Lane) who has been kidnapped by Raven (Willem Dafoe) as his motorcycle gang, the Bombers. Some of the film was shot on the backlot of Universal Studios in California on two large, elaborate sets covered in tarp 1,240 feet long by 220 feet so that night scenes could be filmed during the day.The film was promoted as a summer blockbuster but was not well-received critically or commercially, grossing only $8 million in North America, well below its $14.5 million budget. Its dynamic music score by the likes of Jim Steinman, Ry Cooder and others, however, has helped it attain something of a cult following...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088194
Stripes is a 1981 American comedy film starring Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, and Warren Oates. The director was Ivan Reitman.
Stripes also featured several noted actors in their first significant movie roles, including John Larroquette, Sean Young, and Judge Reinhold. It was one of Canadian comedian John Candy's earliest film appearances. Bill Paxton and Timothy Busfield are also in one scene apiece. It was also among Oates's last films, as he died of a sudden heart attack the year after it was released.
This film is number 18 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies".
John Winger (Bill Murray) is a cab driver in his late 20s who experiences the worst day of his life. In the span of just a few hours, he loses his job, his car is repossessed, he drops his pizza, and his girlfriend dumps him. Realizing that his life is a failure, he decides he needs a new direction. At that moment, a recruiting ad for the United States Army plays on the television, and he decides that is just what he needs to get...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083131
Bill Paxton was born in Fort Worth, Texas, Tarrant County
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