By Travis Johnson
We were all saddened by the sudden death of the great character actor Bill Paxton in February, a man who elevated any film lucky enough to contain him through sheer charisma, vitality, and the finest shit-eating grin in the business. Well, now you can own, if not exactly a piece of one Texas’s favourite sons, something that spent a lot of time directly adjacent to him back in the day: his costume from his turn as Hudson in James Cameron’s Aliens.
Seriously, the bloody thing is on ebay as part of a Hollywood Auction event. Here’s the lot description:
Bill Paxton “Pvt. Hudson” Colonial Marine armor from Aliens. (TCF, 1986) Original hero screen worn Colonial Marine body armor created for Aliens production by legendary armorer Terry English. Consisting of pressed aluminum panels, cast resin components, web belting and plastic buckles. Including 2-sided chest and back armor of aluminum linked together at the sides by black web belting. Tri-tiered pauldrons of aluminum with comfort padding also attach to the chest and back plate with rivets and web belting. The entire body armor assemblage has been painted in green military camouflage. James Cameron instructed each actor playing marines to personalize their uniforms, in character, as homage to soldiers of the Vietnam war and for the practical purpose of distinguishing characters from each other onscreen. Paxton wrote Louise on his body-armor as a nod to his wife. There are also paper decals and stencil text in the breast plate. Included is Paxton’s combat helmet with affixed prop camera lens on the right side, head microphone and retractable eye-piece that drops from the brim of the helmet in front of the right eye. All pieces are expertly studio distressed with signs of production wear and some missing plastic clasp buckles. A piece of Alien franchise history, worn by Bill Paxton, a favorite big screen Marine. In vintage very good condition. $10,000 – $15,000
Ten. To. Fifteen. Thousand. Dollars. That’s us out of the running. But if any of our readers are insanely rich and manage to pick this lot up, we’d really like to try it on just once.
