The Game-Over Man: Remembering Bill Paxton, 1955-2017

Paxton helps Tom Cruise through a very bad day in 2014's Edge of Tomorrow. (Warner Bros.)

For NPR, I wrote this fond remembrance of the actor Bill Paxton, a man who lived but one colorful life but who died onscreen an absurd stupid lot of times, in some of my all-time favorite film. He was in great big movies like Aliens and Titanic, he was in not-great big movies like Twister, he was great in little movies like One False Move and Traveler and A Simple Plan. He was great, basically.

I strongly endorse the episode of WTF with Marc Maron on which Paxton appeared only three weeks ago. He spoke at least as much about his upbringing in Texas as about his 40-year career in movies, but it was a wonderful interview, warm and revealing. But please read my piece, too. I literally ripped a sleeve from emphatic typing while working on it.

Here's one of his monologues as PFC Hudson, deleted from ALIENS' 1986 theatrical release but restored in the home video "special edition" some years later. We'll miss you, Bill.