A Texas twang in his voice and a willingness to play larger than life oddball characters initially gave actor Bill Paxton a steady career nailing humorous character parts during the 1980s, but directors like James Cameron and Ron Howard found the gravitas beneath his larger-than-life persona. By the mid-1990s, Paxton had graduated to a dependable featured player and leading man in blockbusters such as “Apollo 13” (1995), “Twister” (1996), and “Titanic” (1997), but he also maintained a footing in independent films like “Traveller” (1997) and “Frailty” (1999), which marked his debut as a feature
