If you were to ever ask me what actors/actresses I would miss the most when they depart from this world, it’s a pretty narrowed down list to about three people. I only have that list to about three because those three actors were people that’s had an impact on me the most from watching movies at a very young age. They seem to be actors that I think are undervalued by Hollywood, but always give a great performance no matter what they do. But with the heaviest of hearts, one of these actors on my list went first.
Bill Paxton is an actor that I would have loved to have met once in my lifetime. He might not have been active as a main character in recent years, but as a supporting actor he does a phenomenal job. Even for a brief moment, he finds a way to take the spot light off the main characters on a film to only make those scenes the most memorable in any film he is in. As a supporting character, his goofy demeanor makes the strongest impact in any scene he’s in, which has lead me to have a strong impression on him for many years.
Bill earliest acting roles were as background characters in films like Stripes and Lords of Discipline, where he would play a hard core military senior cadet in a military school to break down weaker cadets from finishing their training. Keeping up with his goofball persona, he played a disgruntled youth gang member who gets murdered by Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator, and as a Bartender who gets punched out in Streets of Fire (starting to see a pattern forming here). Although these were minor roles, these scenes always have stood out to me the most when I see these films. Of course, Paxton wasn’t going to stay a loud minor role in these films, since his most memorable supporting role was to come in the next few years.
Paxton persona on screen formed in the role of the older brother Chet in Weird Science, who was a rude, egotistical, nerd hatting jerk towards the main nerdy protagonists. With this role being a brighter light to his early career, director James Cameron found that Paxton would be perfect for the role of Private Hudson in Aliens. Aliens is a film that every character had a unique personality, and the spot light couldn’t have been brighter than on Paxton who played the goofy, smart mouthed private in this colonial marine unit. To the people who know Bill Paxton, they can easily and full heartedly quote his lines from Aliens for being the most memorable part of that film.
Since the 1990’s Paxton has mostly been a supporting character in the films he stars, wither he was an astronaut in Apollo 13, or storm chasing tornados in Twister with Helen Hunt, his roles to me were always memorable and fun to watch. Paxton might not have been in every major Hollywood blockbuster film, but the man always found work, and people were able to work with him. Now with his role in the Training Day television series just starting, I wonder how the series will write off his character, or would that be the end of the show?
So with that I say a sorrowful farewell to one of my favorite actors, you will be missed.
