Amidst all of the awards season madness this weekend, there was also some sad and unexpected news to report. Bill Paxton, best known for his roles in Twister, Aliens, Apollo 13 and the HBO series Big Love (among others), passed away due to complications from surgery. Having just listened to his recent appearance on WTF, this totally caught me off guard. He was currently starring in the CBS series Training Day (he had completed work on all 13 episodes of the first season) and it would appear that his final role will be in the upcoming film The Circle. He was 61 years old.

Paxton got his start, as many people did, by working for Roger Corman (specifically as a set dresser) and rose to fame in the early ’80s with his bizarre music video “Fish Heads” and his short-lived new wave band Martini Ranch. Soon his association with James Cameron (who directed Martini Ranch’s video for “Reach”) led to a small role in The Terminator and eventually, one of his best known roles, Hudson in Aliens. He also starred in Weird Science, Near Dark and Predator 2, before going on to star in some of the biggest movies of the ’90s including Apollo 13, Twister and Titanic.

In the early 2000s, he directed a couple of films with Frailty and The Greatest Game Ever Played before starring in Big Love for the back half of the decade, earning 3 Golden Globe nominations along the way. After that his career seemed to cool off a bit but he had recently returned to the screen in some significant projects including Edge of Tomorrow, Nightcrawler and Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series. Either way, he had some iconic roles over the years and will most certainly be missed. What are your favourite Bill Paxton performances?