Bill Paxton

Just a month after the death of the Executive Officer of the Nostromo, today we farewell a crew member of the USS Sulaco, Private First Class William Hudson.

Although almost exclusively a supporting actor, Bill Paxton really was a titan of genre cinema. He was after all the only actor ever to be killed by a Terminator, an Alien and a Predator.

He began his career toiling behind the scenes for Roger Corman's New World Pictures, in between picking up roles and bit parts in the likes of 1983's MORTUARY and Walter Hill's STREETS OF FIRE. During this time, while working as a set decorator on GALAXY OF TERROR, Paxton befriended a young production designer by the name of James Cameron. A few years later Cameron cast his friend as a switchblade wielding punk in THE TERMINATOR, and the rest, as they say, is history. As well as his continuing work with Cameron, and memorable roles for John Hughes, Kathryn Bigelow and Sam Raimi, Paxton ventured behind the camera himself in 2001, to direct the critically acclaimed FRAILTY.


THE TERMINATOR

WEIRD SCIENCE

ALIENS

NEAR DARK

PREDATOR 2

TOMBSTONE

APOLLO 13 

A SIMPLE PLAN

FRAILTY

EDGE OF TOMORROW

NIGHTCRAWLER

Acheron (LV-426)

I'm not really buying into the whole "Alien day" thing, because in the end it's just another marketing ploy. That said, if every April 26 brings us Alien artworks of the standard displayed below, then why am I complaining?

Laurent Durieux's "Alien" is a thing of haunting beauty. I like how he's worked the creature's head into the derelict ship. After seeing that, the whole surrounding landscape becomes suggestive of the xenomorph's form.

Moving from Alien to Aliens, Mark Englert's "should we take a look inside?" is a real stunner too. Lots of cool details in this one. Planet Calpamos and LV-426's two sister moons loom ominously in the sky. Hadley's Hope and the Atmosphere Processing Plant are visible in the distance. Turn the lights out and Newt and her ill-fated family disappear. In the distance the plant's reactor is detonating, and the Sulaco's final dropship can be seen heading for orbit with four desperate survivors aboard. A fifth passenger hitches a ride.

As a bonus here's Englert's previous Alien painting (and a colour variant), "you are my lucky star". The bane of the Nostromo drifts into space* after being blasted off the stern of the Narcissus.

*Here's a question for Alien aficionados: at the end of the film is the Nostromo still within the Zeta Reticuli system, or is it in interstellar space? I've always assumed the ship is still in-system as its crew haven't yet gone into hypersleep.