Game over man. Bill Paxton has passed away

[chowder66]

20. Bill Paxton and his dad, John.

I am so saddened to hear of the passing of Bill Paxton and wanted to share a story about Bill's dad John.
I worked at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City in the bookstore and ordered books for John over the phone.
This was in August of 1989.

At the time I had no idea who John Paxton was other than the wonderfully nice man I special ordered books for and discussed art with. I never met him in person and I can't recall where John was living at the time even though I shipped books to him.

The last time I spoke to John I let him know that I was moving to Los Angeles from K.C. and he was kind and supportive
of the move. In the conversation he said "...you should contact my son when you get there. He's an actor. You might
know him as Chet in Weird Science" (why John picked this movie, I will never know... but it worked).

I said "Oh, I know exactly who you're son is". John said "yeah, he was the big shit" and we both laughed and I let him know
that I loved that role that Bill played. At the time I had a tiny movie star crush on Bill and have watched many of his movies over the years while still having that little crush.

His dad John then demanded that I take down his number so Bill could show me around and in case I was ever in need of help.
I refused but he insisted and I finally wrote the number down. I may still even have it somewhere in a box.

Of course I never did call Bill and there probably were a couple of times I could have when I first got to L.A but
I worked out a living situation when another unraveled.

Today, I looked up Bill in IMDB and it stated that his dad John was also an actor. I had no idea. He never mentioned it.

I wondered if I would ever run into Bill (I had run into many celebrities over the years), never really speaking to any of them unless they were a customer when I worked in retail and the conversation was the same as it would be with any other customer.

If I would have run into him, which unfortunately I didn't, I would have told him that his dad gave me his number as an act of
kindness that I have and will never forget.