Early life

Paxton was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, the son of Mary Lou (née Gray) and John Lane Paxton, a businessman, lumber wholesaler, museum executive, and occasional actor. His 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 on the morning of his assassination on November 22, 1963. There are pictures at the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas, where an eight-year-old Paxton can be seen being lifted above the crowd by his father.

Career

Some of Paxton's earliest roles include a minor role as a punk thug in The Terminator (1984) and a supporting role as the lead protagonist's bullying older brother in John Hughes' Weird Science (1985). He also appeared in Aliens (1986) as the sarcastic Private Hudson: Except for Lance Henriksen, Paxton is the only actor to play characters confronted by a Terminator (The Terminator), a Xenomorph (Aliens), and a Predator (Predator 2). Paxton collaborated with director James Cameron on True Lies (1994) and Titanic (1997), which was the highest grossing film of all time at its release. Four years after appearing in Titanic, he joined James Cameron on an expedition to the actual Titanic. A film about this trip, Ghosts of the Abyss, was released in 2003.

Some of Paxton's notable performances include playing Morgan Earp in Tombstone (1993), Fred Haise in Apollo 13 (1995), the lead role in the successful Twister (1996), lead roles in dark dramas such as One False Move (1992) and A Simple Plan (1998), and, more recently, a supporting role in Edge of Tomorrow (2014).

Paxton received acclaim for some of his television performances. Most notably, he had the lead role in HBO's Big Love (2006-2011), for which Paxton received three Golden Globe nominations. Paxton also received attention for his performance in the History Channel's miniseries Hatfields & McCoys (2012), for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award, alongside co-star Kevin Costner. He directed a number of short films, including Fish Heads, which aired during Saturday Night Live's low-rated 1980-1981 season. He directed the feature films Frailty (2001), in which he starred, and The Greatest Game Ever Played (2005).

He was cast in a music video for the 1982 Pat Benatar song "Shadows of the Night", in which he appeared as a Nazi radio officer. He appears in the Limp Bizkit video Eat You Alive. In 1988, he and vocalist/guitarist Andrew Todd Rosenthal formed a short-lived rock duo Martini Ranch. In 2014, he played the role of the villainous John Garrett in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. He stars alongside Jon Bernthal, Rose McGowan, and John Malkovich as a playable character in the 2014 video game Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (downloadable "Exo Zombies" mode).

Cultural references

In the American Dad! episode "Francine's Flashback", Bill Pullman is portrayed as a forgettable actor who confuses himself with Bill Paxton.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1975	Crazy Mama	John	Uncredited
1980	Fish Heads	Main Character	Short film
1981	Stripes	Soldier
1982	Night Warning	Eddie
1983	Taking Tiger Mountain	Billy Hampton
1983	Lords of Discipline, TheThe Lords of Discipline	Gilbreath
1983	Mortuary	Paul Andrews
1984	Streets of Fire	Clyde the Bartender
1984	Impulse	Eddie
1984	Terminator, TheThe Terminator	Punk Leader
1985	Weird Science	Chet Donnelly
1985	Commando	Intercept Officer
1985	Early Frost, AnAn Early Frost	Bob Maracek
1986	Aliens	Private William Hudson
1986	Fresno	Billy Joe Bobb
1987	Near Dark	Severen
1989	Slipstream	Matt Owens
1989	Next of Kin	Gerald Gates
1989	Back to Back	Bo Brand
1990	Brain Dead	Jim Reston
1990	Last of the Finest, TheThe Last of the Finest	Howard 'Hojo' Jones
1990	Navy SEALs	Dane
1990	Predator 2	Jerry Lambert
1991	Dark Backward, TheThe Dark Backward	Gus
1992	Vagrant, TheThe Vagrant	Graham Krakowski
1992	One False Move	Dale 'Hurricane' Dixon
1992	Trespass	Vince
1993	Monolith	Tucker
1993	Indian Summer	Jack Belston
1993	Boxing Helena	Ray O'Malley
1993	Tombstone	Morgan Earp
1994	True Lies	Simon
1994	Frank and Jesse	Frank James
1994	Future Shock	Vince
1995	Last Supper, TheThe Last Supper	Zachary Cody
1995	Apollo 13	Fred Haise
1996	Twister	Bill Harding
1996	Evening Star, TheThe Evening Star	Jerry Bruckner
1997	Traveller	Bokky
1997	Titanic	Brock Lovett
1998	Simple Plan, AA Simple Plan	Hank
1998	Mighty Joe Young	Professor Gregory O'Hara
2000	U-571	Lieutenant Commander Mike Dahlgren
2000	Vertical Limit	Elliot Vaughn
2001	Frailty	Dad Meiks	Director
2002	Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams	Dinky Winks
2003	Ghosts of the Abyss	Narrator
2003	Resistance	Major Theodore 'Ted' Brice
2003	Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over	Dinky Winks
2004	Club Dread	Coconut Pete
2004	Thunderbirds	Jeff Tracy
2004	Haven	Carl Ridley
2005	Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D	Edgar Mitchell	Short film
2005	Greatest Game Ever Played, TheThe Greatest Game Ever Played		Director
2007	Good Life, TheThe Good Life	Robbie
2011	Haywire	John Kane
2011	Tattoo		Director
2012	Shanghai Calling	Donald
2013	The Colony	Mason
2013	2 Guns	Earl
2013	Red Wing	Jim Verret
2014	Million Dollar Arm	Tom House
2014	Edge of Tomorrow	Master Sergeant Farell
2014	Nightcrawler	Joe Loder
2016	Mean Dreams	Wayne Caraway	Post-production
2016	The Circle		Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1983	Deadly Lessons	Eddie Fox	Television film
1985	Atlanta Child Murders, TheThe Atlanta Child Murders	Campbell	Television film
1986	Miami Vice	Detective Vic Romano	Episode: "Streetwise"
1987	The Hitchhiker	Trout	Episode: "Made for Each Other"
1993	Tales from the Crypt	Billy DeLuca	Episode: "People Who Live in Brass Hearses"
1998	Bright Shining Lie, AA Bright Shining Lie	John Paul Vann	Television film
2003	Frasier	Ernie	Episode: "Analyzed Kiss"
2006-11	Big Love	Bill Henrickson	Lead role, 53 episodes
2012	Hatfields & McCoys	Randolph McCoy	3 episodes
2013	JFK: The Day That Changed Everything	Narrator	Documentary
2014	Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.	John Garrett	Recurring role, 6 episodes
2015	Texas Rising	Sam Houston	Television miniseries
2015	The Gamechangers	Jack Thompson	Television film

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2015	Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare	Kahn	Exo Zombies

Music videos

Year	Title	Artiste	Role
2003	"Eat You Alive"	Limp Bizkit	Sheriff

Awards and nominations

Year	Association	Category	Title	Result
1987	Saturn Awards	Best Supporting Actor	Aliens	Won
1988			Near Dark	Nominated
1995			True Lies	Nominated
1995	CableACE Awards	Best Actor in a Dramatic Series	Tales from the Crypt	Nominated
1996	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture	Apollo 13	Won
1997	Saturn Awards	Best Actor	Twister	Nominated
1998	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture	Titanic	Nominated
1999	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film	A Bright Shining Lie	Nominated
2003	Saturn Awards	Best Director	Frailty	Nominated
2006	Satellite Awards	Best Actor - Television Series Drama	Big Love	Nominated
2007				Nominated
	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actor - Television Series Drama		Nominated
2008				Nominated
2009	Satellite Awards	Best Actor - Television Series Drama		Nominated
2010	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actor - Television Series Drama		Nominated
2012	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie	Hatfields & McCoys	Nominated
2013	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie		Nominated

[ Source: Wikipedia ]