&InputText=BILL PAXTON (Fred Haise) has accomplished what few others in his craft have managed: hes struck gold with box office giants like Titanic, Twister and Apollo 13 and won critical acclaim with independents like One False Move, Traveller, A Simple Plan, and most recently, Frailty, in which he made his directorial debut and starred with Matthew McConaughey.  With box office numbers of more than three billion dollars worldwide, he is one of the top ten grossing actors of all time along with Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise and fellow Apollo 13 star Tom Hanks.
	Prior to Frailty, Paxton appeared as a tough Texas billionaire, trapped at 26,000 feet on K2, in the action-thriller Vertical Limit, directed by Martin Campbell.  Previously, he portrayed the Captain in the World War II submarine hit U-571.  He was also part of the phenomenally successful Titanic, which marked his fourth collaboration with James Cameron.  Additionally, Cameron directed Paxton in True Lies, Aliens and Terminator.  Paxton starred in the Steven Spielberg-produced smash hit Twister, directed by Jan DeBont, and was nominated for a Golden Globe for his role in HBOs A Bright Shining Lie.  In addition, Roger Ebert voted Paxton best actor of the year for his work in A Simple Plan.
	Paxton emerged as a leading man, earning wide critical praise, with his performance as the small town sheriff in One False Move.  In 1996 he produced his first feature, Traveller, which received outstanding reviews.  Paxton, portraying a modern-day gypsy in the film, starred alongside Mark Wahlberg and Julianna Margulies.
	Moving to Hollywood from his hometown in Texas, Paxton got his start working as a set dresser on Roger Cormans Big Bad Mama.  After working in the art department on several features, he decided to move to New York to study acting.  Returning to Los Angeles in 1980, he met James Cameron while moonlighting as one of Camerons set dressers on the low-budget science fiction film Galaxy of Terror.  He then began accumulating acting credits, first in B-horror movies like Mortuary, then in such big-budget studio films as The Lords of Discipline, Streets of Fire and the John Hughes comedy, Weird Science, in which Paxton caught audiences attention as Chet, the bullying older brother.  Other film credits include Near Dark, Pass the Ammo, Trespass, Tombstone and Indian Summer.
