<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

Bill Paxton was born in Fort Worth, Texas, on May 17, 1955. He moved to Los Angeles at age 18 and worked as a set dresser for Roger Corman's New World Pictures. He made his film debut in the Corman film Crazy Mama (1975), which was directed by Jonathan Demme. He studied acting under Stella Adler at New York University. He had a small role in Stripes (1981). He produced short films including Fish Heads (1982), which aired on Saturday Night Live.

His first appearance in a James Cameron film was a small role in The Terminator (1984), and shortly thereafter he gave a memorable performance as the perpetually whining Private Hudson in Aliens (1986). He also played the nomadic vampire Severen in Kathryn Bigelow's Near Dark (1987). He appeared in John Hughes' Weird Science (1985), as Wyatt's sadistic older brother Chet, and in Predator 2 (1990). His big break was his lead role in the critically acclaimed film noir One False Move (1992), which was written by Billy Bob Thornton. He had a strong supporting role as Wyatt Earp's naive younger brother Morgan in Tombstone (1993); and another in James Cameron's True Lies (1994).

Since then, he has starred in such big-budget, special-effects extravaganzas as Mighty Joe Young (1998), Twister (1996), and Apollo 13 (1995). Most recently, he has had the lead role in a new HBO series, Big Love, which premiered in early 2006.