The family of iconic actor Bill Paxton settled a lawsuit over his death five years after he was tragically taken from them.
When the death of beloved American actor Bill Paxton was announced in February 2017, fans were heartbroken in their mourning for a singular talent. After stealing the show in the 1985 John Hughes comedy Weird Science, the celebrity proceeded to command the screen in such blockbuster movies as Titanic, Aliens, Twister, and True Lies. “It is with heavy hearts we share the news that Bill Paxton has passed away due to complications from surgery,” his family shared of the 61-year-old husband and father at the time. Those complications, however, led to his family facing a five-year battle…
Bill Paxton’s family took five years to settle a lawsuit over his death
The acclaimed Hollywood actor died from a stroke on February 25th 2017, just 11 days after he had surgery to repair damage to his aorta and replace a heart valve. In 2018, Bill’s family filed a lawsuit, accusing surgeon Ali Khoynezad of the Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai medical center of performing a high-risk, unnecessary surgery without the expertise to conduct it properly.
The Guardian reports that the family alleged the surgeon didn’t appropriately convey the risks involved. After the family sued for wrongful death, the defendants argued that the family gave their unequivocal consent for the surgery to be performed, stressing that the actor’s death was not due to the negligence of Ali or the medical center.
Five years later, in August 2022, it was announced that the family had reached an agreement to settle the lawsuit ahead of a trial date scheduled for the following month.
As a result, the battle his family had been fighting for half a decade came to a conclusion. “This matter has been resolved to the mutual satisfaction of the parties,” the family’s attorneys, Bruce Broillet and Steve Heimberg, confirmed at the time.
Bill married his wife Louise Newbury in 1987 and they have two children, 30-year-old son and actor James Paxton and 26-year-old daughter Lydia Paxton.
Interview with Bill Paxton’s son before his dad’s passing is heart-wrenching
With his dad being such a phenomenal actor, it’s inspiring to see that James wished to embark upon his own journey in the same profession.
A year before Bill passed away, James discussed how happy he was to be able to share the screen with his dad on the TV series Training Day.
“The executive producers approached him about bringing me into the show, because there’s a cool parallel and in this episode we just did [where] my character reminds his character of what he used to be like as a boy,” he explained during an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
“I jumped at the possibility, because I’ve always wanted to work with him,” he admitted. “And we don’t get to work together and share scenes. I did a scene with him yesterday, and it was one of the proudest moments I’ve had.”
It’s easy to imagine that Bill likely felt the same as James when discussing the golden opportunity in the 2016 interview.
The pair were also cast in the 2015 mini-series Texas Rising, although James explained they didn’t really get to work together on account of not sharing storylines. All the same, his dad was still ecstatic when he got cast.
“He always knew I could do it,” James recalled. “But he couldn’t believe it at first. He was so over the moon. It was such a great feeling, I almost cried. I hate to get emotional, but it was almost my way of telling him, ‘I could do this. You don’t have to worry about me. I can do this on my own.'”
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