RIP Bill Paxton: Aliens Actor Dies At 61

Game over, man.

By Simon Gallagher /

20th Century Fox

Sad news is just breaking that Aliens and Titanic star Bill Paxton has died at the age of 61following complications after surgery, according to TMZ.

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The actor was famed for his work in genre movies predominantly, with star billing in the Alien sequel, Predator 2, The Terminator, Twister and Weird Science. He was nominated for an Emmy Award for the miniseries Hatfields & McCoys and had been working on the TV show version of Training Day when he died.

His family released a statement on his death: 'It is with heavy hearts we share the news that Bill Paxton has passed away due to complications from surgery.' They also celebrated his 'illustrious career spanning four decades as a beloved and prolific actor and flim-maker.'

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Paxton was characteristically humble when asked about the line he will forever be remembered for, believing his performance in Aliens was nothing to write home about. It was he who came up with the "Game over, man!" line, and he recounted in a panel at Comic Con:

“I'm not great at improvising on the spot. The stuff I improvised was stuff that wasn't in the script, but it was stuff that I'd throw at Jim [Cameron] in a rehearsal. Jim is a — his mind's like a steel trap. He'd remember something I'd said when we were rehearsing at a scene we were shooting 2 months later. He'd say, 'You said something when we rehearsing to Sigourney. You said something about the express elevator to hell… put that in here.' That was kind of cool, that was kind of fun. 'Game over, man,' was really the background of the character.
“I figured…[Hudson] was kind of the enlisted version of Gorman who was the officer, [played by] Bill Hope. He probably came up on video games and back in those days you always … I don't think they do it anymore because I don't play video games but it always at the end of your quarter, [it said] 'Game over.'…'Wow, has anybody ever used that, I wonder? Because it's good.' I had no idea it would catch on.”

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