An actor, director and producer, BILL PAXTON recently made his feature directorial debut with the Gothic thriller, FRAILTY, in which he also starred with Matthew McConaughey, Powers Boothe and Matt O’Leary. His work received the National Board of Review’s Special Mention for Excellence in Filmmaking. He also appeared this year in James Cameron’s groundbreaking, critically acclaimed 3D film GHOSTS OF THE ABYSS, an unscripted adventure exploring the wreck of the Titanic. Using state-of-the-art technology developed expressly for the expedition, Cameron, Paxton and a crew of experts explored inside and out of the doomed ship, as never seen before.
Paxton first emerged as a leading man with his critically lauded performance as the small town sheriff in Carl Franklin’s ONE FALSE MOVE. In 1998, critic Roger Ebert cited Paxton as his choice for best actor for his turn as Hank Mitchell in Sam Raimi’s A SIMPLE PLAN. In addition, he received a Golden Globe nomination that year for his performance as Colonel John Paul Vann in HBO’s A BRIGHT SHINING LIE. Paxton’s credits also includeTRAVELLER, a film he produced and starred in with Mark Wahlberg and Julianna Margulies.
Paxton has appeared in several blockbusters, accumulating worldwide box office numbers that surpass three billion dollars. In addition to TITANIC, he starred with Tom Hanks and Kevin Bacon in Ron Howard’s APOLLO 13 and in Jan de Bont’s natural disaster thriller TWISTER. Paxton also appeared as a tough Texan billionaire trapped at 26,000 feet on K2 in the action-thriller VERTICAL LIMIT, directed by Martin Campbell, and portrayed the captain in the WWII submarine hit U-571, co-starring Matthew McConaughey and Harvey Keitel.
Moving to Hollywood from Fort Worth, Texas, Paxton began his career as a set dresser on Roger Corman’sBIG BAD MAMA. After working in the art department on several features, he decided to move to New York to study acting. Returning to Los Angeles in 1980, he met James Cameron while moonlighting as a set dresser on the low budget sc-fi movie GALAXY OF TERROR. He subsequently started landing acting jobs, first in B-horror movies (MORTUARY, NIGHT WARNING) and later in studio films (THE LORDS OF DISCIPLINE WEIRD SCIENCE). Paxton’s filmography also includes Walter Hill’s STREETS OF FIRE and TRESPASS, Kathryn Bigelow’s NEAR DARK, PASS THE AMMO, TOMBSTONE AND INDIAN SUMMER. In 1980, he directed the classic short film FISH HEADS for “Saturday Night Live.”
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