This person died in 2017 at age 61. He was described as good-natured in assessing his status in Hollywood. In a 1998 interview he said, “I haven’t had a role that’s propelled me into major stardom. I’ve had roles that put me on the playing field.” From 2006 to 2011, he played the lead role of Bill Henrickson on the HBO show “Big Love”. Early in his career, he had small parts in “The Terminator” and “Aliens”, both directed by James Cameron. He played a car salesman who cheated Jamie Lee Curtis’s character in the movie “True Lies”, a treasure hunter in “Titanic”, an “Apollo 13” astronaut, and a heroic storm-chaser in “Twister”. Today’s dead celebrity is Bill Paxton.

Famous & Gravy is created and co-hosted by Amit Kapoor and Michael Osborne. This episode was produced by Jacob Weiss. Visit our website at famousandgravy.com and also enjoy our free mobile quiz game at deadoraliveapp.com

If you enjoyed this episode, you may also like Episode 46 “Love and OJ Jokes” (Norm Macdonald) and Episode 44 “Inner Soprano” (James Gandolfini).

LINKS:

Transcript of this episode

New York Times Obituary for Bill Paxton

Bill Paxton’s “MVP” IMDB page

How to remember which is Bill Paxton and which is Pullman from NPR’s “How to Do Anything”

Music video for “Fish Heads” directed by Bill Paxton

Bill Paxton given tribute by storm chasers image from The Verge

Conan remembers Bill Paxton clip

Dead or Alive quiz game

Famous & Gravy on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter

Famous & Gravy official website

The podcast Famous & Gravy traces the arc of Bill Paxton's influence and legacy as part of a life lessons from celebrities and known for biographies from a different point of view, through themes of resilience, fame, and cultural afterlife. This episode offers a layered look at how we remember — and reinterpret — famous lives. This show explores obituary-based storytelling and contributes to famous lives reframed.

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