BILL PAXTON - dies aged 61 - R.I.P.

William 'Bill' Paxton, passed away following complications from recent heart surgery on Saturday 25th February. He was just 61 years of age. Born on 17th May 1955 in Fort Worth, Texas to mother Mary Lou Gray and father John Lane Paxton who worked as a businessman, timber wholesaler, museum executive and occasional Actor, the young lad was never far from the spotlight. At age eight he was in the crowd of onlookers and well wishers lining the streets to greet President John F. Kennedy just hours before he was shot and killed on that ill fated day in Dallas on November 22nd 1963. Official photographs taken on the day show a young Bill Paxton being lifted above the heads of the crowd for a better view of the passing cavalcade, which is on display at the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas. In another twist of fate, Paxton attended Arlington Heights High School, in Fort Worth with Lee Harvey Oswald - the alleged assassin of Kennedy, who was in turn shot and killed by Jack Ruby on 24th November 1963 while in Police custody for the murder of the President.

At age eighteen Paxton moved to Los Angeles and landed a job working for Roger Corman's film production company, New World Pictures, as a set dresser. He landed his big screen debut in a Corman picture - 1975's 'Crazy Mama' in an uncredited role Directed by Jonathan Demme. He later moved to New York where he studied acting under Stella Adler at New York University. From there he landed a bit part in Ivan Reitman's 1981 'Stripes' with Bill Murray, John Candy, Harold Ramis and Warren Oates. From this point on he was never out of work finding small parts on film and television series which kept him busy as a jobbing Actor. He even Directed and Wrote a couple of short films himself - 'Fish Heads' and 'Barnes & Barnes : Love Tap'. His rights of passage included a bunch of B-Grade horror films including 'Night Warning' in 1982, 'Deadly Lessons' and 'Mortuary' both in 1983, and 'Impulse' in 1984.

1984 also gave rise to his first collaboration with Director James Cameron and action hero star Arnold Schwarzenegger in 'Terminator' as a young punk in an early scene as the T-800 Terminator arrives naked in a downtown side street and his first contact with the human race is three knife wielding deadbeats who aren't long for this world. 'Weird Science' followed for John Hughes in 1985 which also starred a young Robert Downey Jnr., and then 'Commando' with Arnie again and then in 1986 in 'Aliens' for Director James Cameron as Private Hudson who uttered those immortal words 'stop yer grinnin' and drop yer linen'! A bunch of television show appearances and films including Katherine Bigelow's 'Near Dark', 'Slipstream' and 'Next of Kin' with Patrick Swayze saw out the '80's.

The new decade launched with 'Brain Dead' in 1990, and the next ten years saw the likes of 'Navy Seals' with Charlie Sheen, 'Predator 2' with Danny Glover, 'One False Move' which reunited him with Writer and Co-Star Billy Bob Thornton, the controversial 'Boxing Helena' with Julian Sands, Western 'Tombstone' with an all star cast that included Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp with Paxton playing Morgan Earp, and then in 1994 a reuniting with Cameron and Schwarzenegger in 'True Lies'.



The following year saw saw Paxton portray real life astronaut Fred Haise in Ron Howard's critically acclaimed retelling of the 'Apollo 13' mission with Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Gary Sinise and Ed Harris, and the following year saw Jan de Bont's equally acclaimed 'Twister' with Paxton in the lead role as over zealous tornado chaser Bill Harding opposite Helen Hunt. 'Traveller' came next in 1997 followed by another reteaming with James Cameron on his epic 'Titanic', with 'A Simple Plan' for Director Sam Raimi and Co-Star once again Billy Bob Thornton, and 'Mighty Joe Young' with Charlize Theron seeing out the decade in 1998.

2000 brought 'U-571' for Director Jonathan Moscow and Co-Starring Matthew McConaughey, Harvey Keitel, and Jon Bon Jovi, then K2 mountain rescue drama 'Vertical Limit' for Director Martin Campbell, and in 2001 Paxton made his Directorial debut with the well received 'Frailty' in which he also starred alongside Matthew McConaughey again. 2004 saw the live action big screen adaptation of the classic '60's Jerry and Sylvia Anderson series 'Thunderbirds' with Paxton playing Jeff Tracy, the founder of International Rescue. Paxton turned this hand to Directing again in 2005 with historical biographical golf sports film 'The Greatest Game Ever Played' with Shia LaBeouf in the lead role of champion of the modern game Francis Ouimet. The decade played out with Paxton starring in 55 episodes of HBO's television series 'Big Love' with Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloe Savigny, Bruce Dern and Harry Dean Stanton. The show garnered Paxton several award nominations including Golden Globe and Satellite Awards over successive years.

Action thriller 'Haywire' for Steven Soderbergh came next in 2011 with an ensemble cast and in 2012 the acclaimed three part post American Civil War mini-series 'Hatfields and McCoys' with Paxton starring alongside Kevin Costner. Paxton was again nominated for several awards including a Primetime Emmy and a Screen Actors Guild. 'The Colony' with Laurence Fishburne, '2 Guns' with Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg, 'Million Dollar Arm' with Jon Hamm, Doug Liman's Sci-Fi action adventure 'Edge of Tomorrow' with Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt, Dan Gilroy's excellent 'Nightcrawler' with Jake Gyllenhaal, and then 'The Gamechangers', 'Term Life' and 'Mean Dreams' bring us up to date in terms of movie releases. In the meantime, there had also been six episodes on Marvel's television series 'Agents of 'S.H.I.E.L.D.' the acclaimed five part mini-series 'Texas Rising' - the story of how the Texas Rangers were formed, and most recently on seven episodes of Season One of television series 'Training Day' as Detective Frank Rourke following up the the acclaimed 2001 film of the same name about a rookie cop who buddies up with a corrupt partner.

Due for release in April is 'The Circle' a Sci-Fi thriller with Tom Hanks, Emma Watson and John Boyega. All up Paxton had 93 acting credits to his name, seven as Producer, five as Director, and several for his early work as Production Designer, Set Decorator, and Art Director. He was nominated for four Golden Globes, a Primetime Emmy, three Satellite Awards, two SAG Awards and in total accumulated six award wins and another thirteen nominations throughout his career. He was also an early musician, having formed a new wave band in 1982 'Martini Ranch' similar in ilk to 'Devo' - they released one album in 1987 - 'Holy Cow'. He was married to Kelly Rowan for a brief time form 1979 to 1980 and then in 1987 he married Louise Newbury with whom he had two children - James born in 1994, and Lydia born in 1997.

Bill Paxton - laid claim to being killed off by a Terminator, an Alien and and a Predator; starred in some of the most iconic films of the '80's and '90's; he played policemen, storm chasers, an astronaut, alien hunters, historical figures, punks, low-life's and men of questionable conduct and standing. Whatever the role, whatever the genre Paxton was convincing, watchable and the consummate character actor who leaves behind a legacy of great films, memorable characters and quotable one liners. He will be missed!


Bill Paxton - Rest In Peace
1955 - 2017

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

Birthday's to share this week : 9th - 15th November 2014.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week? Leonardo DiCaprio does, on 11th November - check out the tribute to this Birthday Boy at the end of this feature.

Do you also share your birthday with a well known, highly regarded & famous Actor or Actress; share your special day with a Director, Producer, Writer, Cinematographer or Singer/Songwriter or Composer of repute; or share an interest in whoever might notch up another year in the coming seven days? Then, look no further! Whilst there will be too many to mention in this small but not insignificant and beautifully written and presented Blog, here are the more notable and noteworthy icons of the big screen, and the small screen, that you will recognise, and that you might just share your birthday with in the week ahead. If so, Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online!

Sunday 9th November

• Lou Ferrigno - Born 1951, turns 63 - Actor | Bodybuilder
• Tony Slattery - Born 1959, turns 55 - Actor | Writer | Television Personality

Monday 10th November

• Walton Goggins - Born 1971, turns 43 - Actor | Producer
• Roland Emmerich - Born 1955, turns 59 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Ennio Morricone - Born 1928, turns 86 - Composer

Tuesday 11th November

• Leonardo DiCaprio - Born 1974, turns 40 - Actor | Producer | Writer
• Stanley Tucci - Born 1960, turns 54 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer
• Scoot McNairy - Born 1977, turns 37 - Actor | Producer
• Demi Moore - Born 1962, turns 52 - Actress | Producer
• Calista Flockhart - Born 1964, turns 50 - Actress

Wednesday 12th November

• Anne Hathaway - Born 1982, turns 32 - Actress | Singer
• Radha Mitchell - Born 1973, turns 41 - Actress | Producer
• Ryan Gosling - Born 1980, turns 34 - Actor | Producer | Writer
• Neil Young - Born 1945, turns 69 - Singer | Songwriter | Composer | Writer | Producer | Actor

Thursday 13th November

• Gerard Butler - Born 1969, turns 45 - Actor | Producer
• Steve Zahn - Born 1967, turns 47 - Actor
• Jimmy Kimmel - Born 1967, turns 47 - Television Personality | Writer | Producer | Actor
• Whoopi Goldberg - Born 1955, turns 59 - Actress | Producer | Writer

Friday 14th November

• Olga Kurylenko - Born 1979, turns 35 - Actress
• Josh Duhamel - Born 1972, turns 42 - Actor
• Patrick Warburton - Born 1964, turns 50 - Actor

Saturday 15th November

• Jonny Lee Miller - Born 1972, turns 42 - Actor
• Edward Asner - Born 1929, turns 85 - Actor
• Yaphet Kotto - Born 1939, turns 75 - Actor
• Sam Waterston - Born 1940, turns 74 - Actor
• Shailene Woodley - Born 1991, turns 23 - Actress

Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio was born in Los Angeles, California to mother Irmelin Indebirken and father George Paul Di Caprio with German/Russian ancestry on his mothers side and German/Italian on his fathers. Raised as an only child his parents divorced when he was just a year old - his father was a renowned underground comic/graphic novel artist who produced and distributed such material too, and his mother was a legal secretary.

Growing up he attended the Los Angeles Centre for Enriched Studies, then Seeds Elementary School and John Marshall High School which he dropped out of having completed his third year. Some of his childhood was spent in Germany with his maternal grandparents, and as a result he speaks fluent German. His parents recognised early on that that young Leonardo had some talent in performance art, and so signed him up with a talent agent. From this DiCaprio gained some exposure on television commercials and educational programmes. In 1990 he landed a spot on the TV Series spin-off of the movie of the same name 'Parenthood' which brought some critical acclaim and a couple of award nominations. He also gained exposure on other TV shows including 'The New Lassie', 'Roseanne' and on the short-lived soap opera 'Santa Barbara'.

His film debut came in 1993 in the direct-to-video comedy Sci-Fi horror offering 'Critters 3' which was followed by a regular stint on the short-lived ABC Sit-Com 'Growing Pains'. This in turn led to DiCaprio being singled out in a casting call by Robert De Niro to star alongside him in the 1992 film 'This Boys Life', which then gave rise to 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape' in 1993 playing the mentally handicapped brother to Johnny Depp's lead character. This role brought critical acclaim and DiCaprio's first Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations.

1996 brought further attention with Baz Luhrmann's modern retelling of 'Romeo+Juliet' with Claire Danes. Made for a modest US$10M it raked in almost ten times that amount, and started to polarise DiCaprio as the young heart-throb actor of the moment. This was further reinforced a year later when James Cameron cast him as the young Jack Dawson in 'Titanic' - a role he was reluctant to take on at first. Made for US$200M it grossed US$2.2B almost globally and until 2010 was the highest grossing film of all time, and turned DiCaprio into a bonafide commercial film superstar and global heart-throb phenomenon. For his role in 'Titanic' DiCaprio earned US$2.5M.

As the decade closed out starring roles followed, now that he had proved himself in the 'Titanic' blockbuster - but these were to less critical acclaim than those aforementioned, and included 'The Man in the Iron Mask' and 'The Beach'. The first half of the new century brought new and diverse roles, challenging characters, rich stories and acclaimed acting and Directing talent with which to work.  Notable outings included 'Catch Me if You Can' with Steven Spielberg in 2002, 'Gangs of New York' with Martin Scorsese that same year, 'The Aviator' in 2004 again with Scorsese, 'Blood Diamond' in 2006 with Edward Zwick and also that year 'The Departed' again with Scorsese. All of these were critically and financially successful, and garnered DiCaprio further award nominations and wins.

The years that followed brought other high profile Directors and opportunities with which to stretch his talents - 'Body of Lies' with Sir Ridley Scott, 'Revolutionary Road' with Sam Mendes, and in 2010 with Scorsese again on 'Shutter Island', and later that year with Christopher Nolan on 'Inception' - the latter turning in US$825M worldwide off a US$160M budget. Clint Eastwood also beckoned next Directing him in his Bio-Pic of J. Edgar Hoover in 'J.Edgar' in 2011, and this was followed up in 2012 with his turn as Calvin Candy in Quentin Tarrantino's 'Django Unchained', and then Baz Luhrmann once again in 2013 for 'The Great Gatsby'. These latter two were also financially successful earning US$425M and US$350M respectively. Next up was his fifth collaboration with Martin Scorsese playing Jordan Belfort in 'The Wolf of Wall Street' released early in 2014 and to date has grossed almost US$400M with further accolades bestowed. Next up is 'The Reverant' for a 2015/16 release and is filming now and Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.

DiCaprio has 37 acting credits thus far to his name and 16 credits as a Producer. His other films include 'The Quick and The Dead', 'The Basketball Diaries', 'Total Eclipse', 'Marvin's Room', 'Celebrity' and 'Don's Plum'.  He has 51 worldwide awards wins and 122 other nominations, and these include : Academy Award nominations for 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape', 'The Aviator', 'Blood Diamond' and 'The Wolf of Wall Street' as well as a Best Picture nomination for 'The Wolf of Wall Street' on which he was also Producer. He won the Golden Globe Award too for 'The Wolf of Wall Street' and 'The Aviator' plus eight other nominations, and he has received to date three BAFTA nominations for 'The Wolf of Wall Street', 'The Departed' and 'The Aviator'.

He is environmentally very active advocating that global warming is 'the number one environmental challenge'. He was appointed in September this year as the United Nations Representative on Climate Change. He donated US$1M to earthquake relief in Haiti in 2010, and later that same year a further US$1M to the 'Wildlife Conservation Society'. He is also an activist for the 'Animal Legal Defence Fund' and actively supports gay rights. He is unmarried but his dating exploits with models and actresses is well documented in the media.

Starting out DiCaprio earned US$75K for 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape' in 1993, compared to the US$20M price tag he received for each of 'The Beach', 'Catch Me if You Can', 'The Aviator', 'The Departed', 'Blood Diamond' and 'The Great Gatsby'. By comparison he earned all up US$59M from 'Inception'. Clearly with such a filmic pedigree, the pulling power he has to open and establish a movie, and his Production capability and earnings too he is a Hollywood force to contend with - and he turns only 40 today, on 11th November 2014.

Leonardo DiCaprio - diverse and exciting film career, huge pulling power, Scorsese collaborator, extensive emotional range, talented beyond question, and a man on an environmental mission - Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-