The one thing that says everything about Bill Paxton's badass career
Bill Paxton leaves behind the legacy of a total badass.
The actor, who died unexpectedly on Saturday, has the unusual and entirely amazing distinction of being the only actor to play characters killed by a Terminator, a Predator and a Xenomorph (of Alien fame).
The grim achievement speaks to Paxton's ubiquity as a character actor in some of the biggest genre films of the '80s and '90s. His victim status in three of the biggest sci-fi releases of the 20th century earns him the cult hero equivalent of an EGOT.
The below video highlights Paxton's final moments in The Terminator, Predator 2, and Aliens.
Some have argued that The Terminator moment doesn't really count, since we only see Paxton's tattooed punk rocker thrown into a metal gate. To those people, we say: let the man have his cult EGOT.
Technically speaking, Paxton is really one of two actors whose characters met their demise at the hands of a Terminator, Predator and Xenomorph, Lance Henriksen being the other one.
Henriksen was a victim of Arnold Schwarzenegger's killer robot from the future in The Terminator and he later faced a Predator -- and lost -- in Aliens vs. Predator. But his death-by-Xenomorph is a little trickier.
That's because his character in the Alien films wasn't actually human. Henriksen played an android named Bishop in the first three Alien movies; he was torn apart in Aliens and later shut down permanently in Alien 3. But was he ever really alive? We think not.
Paxton faced many threats above and beyond killer robots, intergalactic hunters and alien pests. He was chased by tornadoes in Twister and fell victim to cowboys in Tombstone.
More recently, Paxton added another genre favorite to his list of high-profile on-screen deaths: he was killed by Agent Phil Coulson on Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
