James Cameron and Ron Howard Pay Moving Tribute to Bill Paxton
Yesterday we were met with the devastating news that actor Bill Paxton passed away due to heart surgery complications. This was a huge blow to a lot of people. He's been one of my favorite actors ever since I first saw him in Aliens. I'm sure many people are feeling the sting of his passing, and it's hard to think that we'll never see him take any new movie roles.
Directors James Cameron and Ron Howard both released moving tributes to the actor. As you know, they both had the privilege of working with him over the course of his career. This is the statement that Cameron made to Vanity Fair:
"I've been reeling from this for the past half hour, trying to wrap my mind and heart around it. Bill leaves such a void. He and I were close friends for 36 years, since we met on the set of a Roger Corman ultra-low budget movie. He came in to work on set, and I slapped a paint brush in his hand and pointed to a wall, saying "Paint that!" We quickly recognized the creative spark in each other and became fast friends. What followed was 36 years of making films together, helping develop each others projects, going on scuba diving trips together, watching each others kids growing up, even diving the Titanic wreck together in Russian subs. It was a friendship of laughter, adventure, love of cinema, and mutual respect. Bill wrote beautiful heartfelt and thoughtful letters, an anachronism in this age of digital shorthand. He took good care of his relationships with people, always caring and present for others. He was a good man, a great actor, and a creative dynamo. I hope that amid the gaudy din of Oscar night, people will take a moment to remember this wonderful man, not just for all the hours of joy he brought to us with his vivid screen presence, but for the great human that he was. The world is a lesser place for his passing, and I will profoundly miss him."
Ron Howard released his statement to THR:
"Unlike the Twisters he famously chased in the movies, Bill Paxton was the kind of force of nature you ran toward and never away from. He energized every situation with his humor, his intelligence and his appreciation of the moment he was inhabiting and the people he was inhabiting it with.
"He had charm and an admirable joie de vivre — Texas-style. He was both down-home and a serious fine-art enthusiast and collector. Bill was playful — yet dutiful — in his work as an actor, and likewise capable of being a strong and serious leader when directing a challenging scene on a movie set.
"He loved adventure, and no one was happier than Bill when we were filming our zero-G scenes for Apollo 13 out over the Gulf of Mexico in NASA's KC-135, nicknamed The Vomit Comet. For the record, Bill never lost his lunch through all those weightless scenes. But when a floating camera operator shooting a close up of Bill got sick and projectiled, Bill floated over to me at my director's monitor wearing an unimaginably huge grin and said, "You gotta see this, Ron. I got puke in my hair, man! Cool!"
"He knew production time on the plane was precious, so within seconds he had toweled off his head and was 100 percent focused on the next take and his job playing an astronaut who was giving his all to help his compatriots survive and get home.
"Bill will be agonizingly missed by friends and fans alike."
These two gentleman obviously had a great love for the actor and knew him in a way that none of us ever did. It's nice to learn that Paxton was such a great guy from the people that knew him best.
Paxton left behind a legacy of awesome film and TV projects that we can always revisit. He also completed his work on the upcoming TV series Training Day, so we'll also get to see him in that, which I'm looking forward to.