From a bartender in Streets Of Fire, a gang leader in The Terminator and Chet in Weird Science and graduating to bigger parts in Aliens,Bill Paxton has had a career long connected to nerd culture.
Playing everything From a punk gang leader that takes on Schwarzenegger to Private “Game Over” Hicks, fandom has a deep and abiding love and respect for Mr. Paxton.
His most endearing quality throughout his genre roles was his ability to embed a sense of the average joe into how roles. Whether an evil vampire in Near Dark or a manipulative businessman in Brain Dead he had an uncanny ability to bring to side with his character good, evil, or in between.
In recent roles his turn as S.H.I.E.L.D./Hydra agent John Garrett in ABC’s Agents of SHIELD tv series played off his capabilities. Mentor and trainee to good/bad guy Grant Ward (Brett Dalton) and long time buddy of fan favorite character Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), Agent Garrett was a lovable tough guy that became a much liked character. That is until his story arc he began to kill SHIELD agents and superiors as part of Hydra’s plan to take over the world. This was a solid role that showed depth in a comic book based TV show.
Mr. Paxton was also a big draw at comic conventions and was regarded as one of the nicer celebrities to meet and greet his fans. From sitting on a Q and A panel for the anniversary of his blockbuster Aliens to lending his voice to trailers for graphic novels from Arcana Press, Bill Paxton was a proud part of nerd culture. We will all miss him, but those of us in the nerd community will always remember when a formerly gung-ho Space Marine Hudson decided it was smarter not engage the monsters. It was game over for us to, Mr. Paxton.