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

1. Bill Harding - Twister (1996)

Twister Bill Paxton
Universal Pictures

Arguably Paxton's most famous role - since you've probably seen it on ITV2 3,683 times since its release - Twister stars the actor as Bill Harding, a former tornado-hunter who re-enters the game in order to help create a more advanced weather warning system.

Though Twister is an effects-laden, fun-filled blockbuster, Paxton keeps his performance quietly restrained. This could have been viewed as an odd choice - after all, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Alan Ruck and most of the other storm-chasers are anything but restrained - but it works incredibly well, Paxton's measured delivery supporting the film's central emotional backbone.

Twister is just solid all around; the love triangle between Bill, his ex-wife and his fiance makes for some compelling viewing, and the tornado action is as exciting as you'd hope. It's Paxton who makes the movie what it is though, and without him, it simply wouldn't be as successful as it turned out to be.

Up next - five performances you won't remember quite as fondly...

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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!