I knocked out the little tribute to the late Bill Paxton the other day as I did my usual morning struggle to wake up. I’ve been aware of him for his entire career — Near Dark, nice reunion of the Aliens cast — Predator 2, bringing in an Ah-nold regular to kind of sub-out for Ah-nold being missing. He’s in town with a few days to kill. Nice.
So, I tossed together the tribute, then headed out to do the tour. As the blood circulated from all the walking and hill-climbing, some vague thought began to tug at my brain. Finally, mid-point, as I waited for the group to reconvene after the break, it hit me.
In the first version of the post I did a line about “instant Silver Screen immortality as Hicks in Aliens” — Hicks!!!
Holy Moley, what a mistake. . . .
Of course I know better, but the mind or the coffee failed me.
I thought, man, as soon as I get back to the computer, I must correct that to Hudson, the character Paxton portrays. Hicks was done by Michael Biehn.
The memory struck complete with the lines of dialog from Aliens, as the stuffed-shirt young commander looks at Paxton and refers to him as Hicks.
“Hudson, sir. He’s Hicks.”
Whoa! Got to correct that!
And immediately I chided myself with the next line of dialog, as the lieutenant looks at Hudson and says, “Private.”
I felt thoroughly demoted until I got the correction in. And I think another viewing of Aliens may be in order, in memoriam.
