William Paxton (May 17, 1955 â€" February 25, 2017) was an American
actor and director. He appeared in films such as Stripes (1981), The
Terminator (1984), Commando (1985), Weird Science (1985), Aliens
(1986), Near Dark (1987), Predator 2 (1990), Tombstone (1993), True
Lies (1994), Apollo 13 (1995), Twister (1996), Titanic (1997), Mighty
Joe Young (1998), U-571 (2000), Vertical Limit (2000), Frailty (2001),
Broken Lizard's Club Dread (2004), Thunderbirds (2004), Edge of
Tomorrow (2014), and Nightcrawler (2014). He also starred in the HBO
drama series Big Love (2006â€"2011), earning 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) and
as Detective Frank Roarke in the TV series Training Day (2017). His
final film appearance was in The Circle (2017), released two months
after his death.Paxton was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, the
son of Mary Lou (née Gray) and John Lane Paxton (1920-2011). His
father was a businessman, lumber wholesaler, museum executive and,
later, during his son's career, an occasional actor, most notably
appearing in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films, as well as alongside Bill
in A Simple Plan (1998). Paxton was of English, Scotch-Irish,
Scottish, Austrian, German, French, Swiss and Dutch descent, and also
had distant Welsh and Norwegian ancestry. His great-great-grandfather
was Elisha Franklin Paxton, a brigadier general in the Confederate
States Army during the Civil War, who was killed commanding the
legendary Stonewall Brigade at the Battle of Chancellorsville.
Paxton's mother was Roman Catholic and he and his siblings were raised
in her faith. Paxton was in the crowd when President John F. Kennedy
emerged from the Hotel Texas in Fort Worth on the morning of his
assassination on November 22, 1963. Photographs of an eight-year-old
Paxton being lifted above the crowd are on display at the Sixth Floor
Museum at Dealey Plaza in Dallas. He later co-produced the film
Parkland, about the assassination. Paxton is distantly related to
actress Sara Paxton and great nephew of Mary Paxton Keeley, prominent
journalist and close friend of Bess Wallace Truman.Paxton graduated
from Arlington Heights High School in Fort Worth in 1973, after which
he studied at Richmond College in England, alongside his old high
school friend Danny Martin. Here, they met fellow Texan Tom Huckabee,
with whom they made Super 8 short films for which they built their own
sets. Paxton subsequently moved to Los Angeles, where he worked in
props and art departments, and after being rejected by film schools in
southern California, he switched his ambitions from directing to
acting.
actor and director. He appeared in films such as Stripes (1981), The
Terminator (1984), Commando (1985), Weird Science (1985), Aliens
(1986), Near Dark (1987), Predator 2 (1990), Tombstone (1993), True
Lies (1994), Apollo 13 (1995), Twister (1996), Titanic (1997), Mighty
Joe Young (1998), U-571 (2000), Vertical Limit (2000), Frailty (2001),
Broken Lizard's Club Dread (2004), Thunderbirds (2004), Edge of
Tomorrow (2014), and Nightcrawler (2014). He also starred in the HBO
drama series Big Love (2006â€"2011), earning 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) and
as Detective Frank Roarke in the TV series Training Day (2017). His
final film appearance was in The Circle (2017), released two months
after his death.Paxton was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, the
son of Mary Lou (née Gray) and John Lane Paxton (1920-2011). His
father was a businessman, lumber wholesaler, museum executive and,
later, during his son's career, an occasional actor, most notably
appearing in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films, as well as alongside Bill
in A Simple Plan (1998). Paxton was of English, Scotch-Irish,
Scottish, Austrian, German, French, Swiss and Dutch descent, and also
had distant Welsh and Norwegian ancestry. His great-great-grandfather
was Elisha Franklin Paxton, a brigadier general in the Confederate
States Army during the Civil War, who was killed commanding the
legendary Stonewall Brigade at the Battle of Chancellorsville.
Paxton's mother was Roman Catholic and he and his siblings were raised
in her faith. Paxton was in the crowd when President John F. Kennedy
emerged from the Hotel Texas in Fort Worth on the morning of his
assassination on November 22, 1963. Photographs of an eight-year-old
Paxton being lifted above the crowd are on display at the Sixth Floor
Museum at Dealey Plaza in Dallas. He later co-produced the film
Parkland, about the assassination. Paxton is distantly related to
actress Sara Paxton and great nephew of Mary Paxton Keeley, prominent
journalist and close friend of Bess Wallace Truman.Paxton graduated
from Arlington Heights High School in Fort Worth in 1973, after which
he studied at Richmond College in England, alongside his old high
school friend Danny Martin. Here, they met fellow Texan Tom Huckabee,
with whom they made Super 8 short films for which they built their own
sets. Paxton subsequently moved to Los Angeles, where he worked in
props and art departments, and after being rejected by film schools in
southern California, he switched his ambitions from directing to
acting.
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