Bill Paxton: 5 Awesome Performances (And Five That Sucked)

2. Dad Meiks - Frailty (2001)

Frailty Bill Paxton
Lionsgate

Paxton's feature directorial debut, 2001's Frailty also saw the actor take the lead as a father-of-two who believes he must commit a series of murders in order to destroy demons disguised as human beings.

Though Dad Meiks is, inherently, a bad person (he is a murderer, after all), Paxton is able to make the character one you'll feel sympathetic towards, playing him in such a way that you can't help but feel sorry for the man.

All he wants to do is look after and protect his children - that's why he's killing "demons" - and although he's being manipulated by his religious beliefs (he's visited by an angel, who compels him to begin his demon-hunting quest), he's only doing what he thinks is right, and Paxton smartly focuses on this aspect of the character.

It's a dark tale that's not as easy to watch as the other awesome performances on this list, but it packs a fantastic third-act twist and a strong performance from a pre-Oscar-winning Matthew McConaughey.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!