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Born in Fort Worth, Texas
May 17, 1955
Paxton was born in Fort Worth, Texas, the son of Mary Lou (née Gray) and John Lane Paxton, who was a businessman, lumber wholesaler, museum executive, and occasional actor.[1] Paxton was raised in his mother's Catholic religion.[2][3][4] Paxton attended Arlington Heights High School in Fort Worth, Texas and then Texas State University (called Southwest Texas State at that time) in San Marcos, TX and then moved to Los Angeles.
Married to Kelly Rowan
October 2, 1979 - July 22, 1980
Paxton was married to Kelly Rowan from 19719 to 1980.
Weird Science
August 2, 1985
Paxton has played many distinctive and memorable characters including the sneering older brother Chet in John Hughes' Weird Science a popular 1980s teen film written and directed by John Hughes and starring Kelly LeBrock.
Aliens
July 18, 1986
Aliens is a 1986 science fiction/action film starring Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, and Bill Paxton. A sequel to the 1979 film Alien, Aliens is set fifty-seven years after the first film and is regarded by many film critics as a benchmark for the action and science fiction genres.[2][3] In Aliens, Weaver's character Ellen Ripley returns to the planet where she first encountered the hostile Alien; this time she is accompanied by a unit of Colonial Marines.
Married to Louise Newbury
January 1, 1987 - Now
Paxton married Louise Newbury in 1987.
Near Dark
October 2, 1987
Paxton played the sadistic vampire Severen in Kathryn Bigelow's film Near Dark.
One False Move
May 8, 1992
Notable is the performance Paxton delivered in Carl Franklin's critically acclaimed One False Move. 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. Ray and Pluto commit six brutal murders over the course (Fantasia set up a few friends who became victims) 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.
Son James Born
January 1, 1993
Paxton's son James, with wife Louise Newbury was born in 1993.
Apollo 13
June 30, 1995
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 his wish for a moon landing of his own.
A few months later, Jim, who's expecting to fly Apollo 14, is giving a VIP tour of NASA’s towering Vehicle Assembly Building while Apollo 13’s massive Saturn V rocket is being assembled. As the Congressmen among the VIPs question the possibility of any further moon landings after beating the Soviet Union to the moon, he is informed by Deke Slayton (Chris Ellis) that he and his crew have been bumped up to be prime crew of Apollo 13. After informing his family of his new flight assignment, Lovell and his crew, Fred Haise (Bill Paxton) and Ken Mattingly (Gary Sinise) begin training for Apollo 13's mission instead of 14's. As the launch date approaches, Marilyn’s fears for her husband’s fourth space mission manifest in her unwillingness to go to the Launch.
Twister
May 10, 1996
Paxton starred as a tornado researcher opposite Helen Hunt in the blockbuster Twister. In the movie, a team of "storm chasers" try to perfect a data-gathering instrument, designed to be released into the funnel of a tornado, while competing with another better-funded team with a similar device during a tornado outbreak across Oklahoma.
Titanic
December 19, 1997
Titanic is a 1997 romance film directed, written, produced and edited by James Cameron about the sinking of the RMS Titanic. It features Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as Jack Dawson and Rose DeWitt Bukater, two members of different social classes who fall in love aboard the ill-fated 1912 maiden voyage of the ship. The main characters and the central love story are fictional, but some supporting characters (such as members of the ship's crew) are based on real historical figures. Gloria Stuart plays the elderly Rose, who narrates the film in a modern day framing device.
Daughter Lydia Paxton Born
December 19, 1997
Paxton's Daughter with wife Louise Newbury, Lydia Paxton, was born on December 19, 1997.
Big Love
March 12, 2006 - Now
Paxton is performing in the HBO drama Big Love as Bill Henrickson, the head of a polygamous family in Utah. He was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Television Drama in 2007 for the role.
The series revolves around Bill Henrickson, his three wives Barb (legal wife/first wife), Nicki (second wife) and Margene (third wife), and their combined family of seven children. Henrickson lives with his family in three neighboring houses in Sandy, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City.
