RIP Bill Paxton

What a fricking pisser to wake up to and see on the news within the first five minutes of my morning. I thought last year took away too many beloved people and now ’17 is trying to outdo ’16 by killing Bill Paxton. Poor dude died from surgery complications (heart).

As the numerous obituaries will tell, he had a long and varied career. Hell he was co-starring on the currently airing show Training Day so he worked up until the end like all the greats. I may even give Agents of SHIELD some more rope to watch his arc.

Meanwhile, I want to focus on how Bill was special to me because his body of work has a special place in my heart.

  • He was awesome as Chet, the horrible big brother in Weird Science.
  • He brought much needed levity in James Cameron’s very tense Aliens as Hudson and Gale Anne Hurd’s Severen in Near Dark.
  • He is one of two actors “killed” by a Xenomorph, a Predator and a Terminator, the other is Lance Henrikson.
  • He was creepy as the first victim in The Last Supper, a racist Iraq war vet.
  • Even in shallow movies (Tombstone, True Lies, Thunderbirds and Commando), he was always memorable thanks to his A-game.
  • Despite his long resume in the Sci-Fi genre, Bill could do Comedy and Drama.
  • He was a good sport about the joke involving him and Bill Pullman.
  • Directed Barnes & Barnes video “Fish Heads.”
  • Lastly, and here I’m incredibly fortunate, I have a physical copy of his band’s only album, Holy Cow by Martini Ranch. You can get it on iTunes and Amazon which is a miracle in this day and age. I highly recommend it. Bill has cameos from Cindy Wilson, Judge Reinhold and Mark Mothersbaugh. The best song was made into a long video by James Cameron, “Reach.” Check it out below, it’s pretty date yet worth watching.

Thanks for everything Bill! You made my young adult years enjoyable, especially when I was living in North Dakota and playing tunes on WMUR.

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