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Actor Bill Paxton died due to complications from surgery, PEOPLE confirms.

“It is with heavy hearts we share the news that Bill Paxton has passed away due to complications from surgery,” a family representative said in a statement. “A loving husband and father, Bill began his career in Hollywood working on films in the art department and went on to have an illustrious career spanning four decades as a beloved and prolific actor and filmmaker. Bill’s passion for the arts was felt by all who knew him, and his warmth and tireless energy were undeniable. We ask to please respect the family’s wish for privacy as they mourn the loss of their adored husband and father.”

The Texas native, who was nominated for an Emmy for his work in the TV mini-series Hatfields and McCoys, began acting in the 1970s. His earliest acting credits include minor roles in blockbusters such as Terminator (1984) and Aliens (1986).

Paxton’s fame rose in the 1990s thanks to roles such as Morgan Earp in Tombstone (1993), Fred Haise in Apollo 13 (1995), the lead role in the 1996 hit Twister and as treasure hunter Brock Lovett in Titanic (1997).

His television credits include a lead role in HBO’s Big Love, for which he earned three Golden Globe nominations, as well as Hatfields and McCoys.

Paxton’s final big-screen role will be in the thriller The Circle, which is currently in post-production, alongside Emma Watson and Tom Hanks. Paxton said in a 2007 interview with PEOPLE that he and Hanks kept in touch after costarring in Apollo 13 — and Hanks was an executive producer of Big Love.

“We write each other letters,” said Paxton. “I love that I’m working for Tom again. [Apollo 13] forged an alliance.”

The actor is survived by his two children, James and Lydia Paxton, and his wife of 30 years Louise Newbury.

Paxton’s son was recently tapped to join the actor in his new CBS drama.

“I was thrilled to have my son [James, 22,] guest-star on the eighth episode of Training Day,” Paxton told PEOPLE earlier this month. “He plays the son in a father-son robbery team, and my character, whose dad was also a criminal, tells him, ‘We’re both our father’s sons, but that doesn’t have to define us.’ It was surreal saying that to him.”

Paxton was starring with Justin Cornwell in the new cop drama Training Day, which picks up 15 years after the 2001 Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke film of the same name.

Paxton also spoke with PEOPLE about his latest TV obsession.

“I loved watching Stranger Things with my daughter [Lydia, 19],” he said. “But I had surgery last spring and binge-watched all of Downton Abbey while I was recuperating. I got so engrossed in it, I was devastated when I got to the end.”

#tbt to the chubz ❤️

A post shared by Lydia Paxton (@lydia_paxton) on Sep 18, 2014 at 10:26pm PDT

At 8 years old, Paxton witnessed a speech given by President John F. Kennedy the morning of his assassination. During the 2007 AFI Dallas International Film Festival, the actor shared recently discovered photos of himself as a young boy perched on the shoulders of a man who offered him a lift so he could see the president speak n the parking lot of the Hotel Texas in Fort Worth.

Devastated by the sudden loss of my close friend and one of the finest actors in the business, Bill Paxton. Renaissance man, raconteur and

— Rob Lowe (@RobLowe) February 26, 2017

uniquely American national treasure. His filmography speaks for itself. His friendship was a blessing. My love to Bunny, James and Lydia.

— Rob Lowe (@RobLowe) February 26, 2017

In his memory, on this Oscar Sunday, watch « One False Move » or « A Simple Plan » to see this lovely leading man, at his finest.

— Rob Lowe (@RobLowe) February 26, 2017

Celebrity pals such as Rob Lowe, who starred alongside Paxton in the 1995 film Frank and Jesse, took to social media to mourn the loss of the veteran actor.

“Devastated by the sudden loss of my close friend and one of the finest actors in the business, Bill Paxton. Renaissance man, raconteur and uniquely American national treasure,” Lowe wrote in a series of tweets. “His filmography speaks for itself. His friendship was a blessing. My love to Bunny, James and Lydia.”

He continued, “In his memory, on this Oscar Sunday, watch ‘One False Move’ or ‘A Simple Plan’ to see this lovely leading man, at his finest.”

By: Mike Vasilinda | Capitol News Service
February 24, 2017

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) — As the Florida legislature gets ready to start its annual session a week from Tuesday, there is a bitter divide between the House Speaker and the Governor over funding the state’s tourism and business marketing arms. The latest chapter is dueling videos.

Rick Scott is making the incentives fight personal.

“And one of them is your state rep, right here,” he told an audience in Panama City.

After 9 GOP House members voted to strip Visit Florida and Enterprise Florida of funding, Scott went to their districts to pressure their constituents.

“How could anybody saw we are going to turn our backs on jobs?” he asked.

House Speaker Richard Corcoran responded with a video criticizing the incentives.

“Executive salaries went from $800,500 to $1.4 million over the past six years,” says a news report.

Now the Governor is responding in kind.

“If we quit marketing this state, we’re in big trouble,” said business owner Rick Case in the video.

Asked about the personal attack, the House Speaker says he won’t punch back.

“If Governor Scott poked me in the chest, I would take it, um, ten out of ten times. He’s been a very good man to me and my family,” the Speaker told reporters.

The first sign of compromise came this past week when the House voted to keep Visit Florida, but they still want to scrap a job incentives program.

A powerful House committee is suggesting giving Visit Florida $25 million– a third of what was spent last year. The compromise was due in large part to pressure from people like Carol Dover. She’s the CEO of the Restaurant and Lodging Association.

“I spent years on the Visit Florida board when we were at 25 million, and we could not the ceiling of 82, 84, 85 million tourists. We now have additional funding. Where are we. We’re at 112 million visitors,” says Dover.

And any level of funding is guaranteed to come with a catch: increased oversight.

The House Speaker calls the debate over incentives spirited and while tense, useful and important.

Video is the new star of a small business’s marketing strategy. In fact, 96% of B2B marketers today engage in video content marketing, and nearly three-quarters of marketers say that video marketing brings positive results to their company.

Video marketing is “efficient” too. “A minute of video is the equivalent of 1.8 million words,” says Dr. James McQuivey of Forrester Research. Those 1.8 million words translate to roughly 3,600 pages of web content, and if you were creating content at the speed of a single web page per hour, it would take nearly five months to produce enough content to create the same impact as 60 seconds of video.

If you haven’t added video to your marketing mix, here are more reasons why now is the time to push the video play button.

Video ROI vs. Content ROI

An infographic from MarketingProfs shows the key differences in tracking the ROI of text-based assets and video assets. For text-based content, once syndicated, it’s difficult to track their success, but with video, that’s not the case; 40% of video marketers can track various metrics across all channels for video, while 16% of non-video users have that ability.

In addition, the websites of non-video users only convert at 2.9%, whereas the websites of video marketers have a 4.6% conversion rate—representing a 65% increase in conversion rate for videos compared to text-based assets.

Non-video users are also spending an average of $115 per lead, compared to just $93 per lead for companies using video. The companies using video require 37% fewer unique site visits to generate their marketing response.

Video Drives Engagement

Visual content, including photos and videos, drives engagement. One month after Facebook launched the Timeline profile format for brands, companies reported a 65% increase in interactive content (video and photo) engagement. In terms of advertising, the average engagement rate for rich media ads such as video ads is 16.85%, compared to 1.62% for mobile ads, and 2.14% for standard banner ads. Nearly 93% of shoppers say visuals are the most influential factor affecting their purchasing decisions, and the viewers of e-commerce videos are 1.7 times more likely to make a purchase than non-viewers.

MetLife Hong Kong launched a video marketing campaign titled, “My Dad’s Story: Dream for My Child.” In the video, a father reads an essay his daughter wrote about him. She describes her father as “the smartest,” “most clever,” and “Superman.” She goes on to say she knows he lies about being tired, having money, and having a job—as part of the sacrifices he makes for her. The campaign then directed viewers to visit a website where parents could submit their dreams for their children for a chance to win a three-year endowment plan to save for their children’s college.

This video engaged more than 300 million people, with over 27 million views on Facebook and YouTube: 7 million viewers shared the video, 268 million read about the video through nearly 100 news reports, and 280,000 visited the MetLife microsites in Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Malaysia.

Video Helps Brand Awareness

Video can work alongside your other assets to help build brand awareness. In fact, a study by On Device Research showed 92% of all mobile video viewers share mobile video with others. That means your video content is likely to get shared across multiple channels, furthering your reach and expanding your brand awareness. The majority of those sharers shared video on Facebook and similar social websites, while 44% simply passed the mobile device to their friend for viewing.

Facebook has expanded its trial of in-stream video ads beyond Facebook Live – reportedly even testing mid-roll ads in videos from publishers as it seeks to better monetize the video content on its platform.

According to Recode, Facebook is testing these ads with a small number of US publishers – letting publishers keep 55% of the revenue and retaining 45% for itself.

Per Recode, the video must run for at least 20 seconds prior to the first in-stream ad and additional ads must be at least two minutes apart.

Marketing Land said Facebook would not share which publishers were testing mid-roll ads or where the ads ran. In addition, Marketing Land noted advertisers have limited control over which videos – live or otherwise – get their in-stream ads.

TechCrunch said this could also change the way videos are produced for Facebook as publishers may seek to build suspense in order to sustain interest through ad breaks.

The news comes after Facebook announced it was testing mid-roll ads within Facebook Live in August. These ads appear five minutes into live broadcasts and are 15 seconds or less.

It’s big news for publishers that have struggled to monetize video content on Facebook to date, Recode said, noting the timing is not coincidental as many deals Facebook had with influencers to push live video are ending soon and Facebook does not plan to renew them.

In a blog post, Facebook said it is also expanding in-stream video ads to all eligible publishers in its Audience Network. The platform announced an initial test of in-steam video ads on Audience Network, the service that places ads from Facebook advertisers onto third party websites and apps, in May.

“Publishers have historically been wary of video ads delivered from networks or exchanges because they can load slowly and are often unreliable,” Facebook said in a blog post. “With Audience Network, advertisers upload their ads and bids to Facebook in advance – allowing us to quickly run an auction and return an ad that’s a good experience for the person watching it.”

Facebook said publishers like Univision and Collective Press have tested these in-stream ads to date.

In addition, Facebook said it is expanding the ability to test Ad Breaks in Facebook Live to US pages or profiles with 2,000 or more followers that have reached 300 or more concurrent viewers in a recent live video.

“As the name implies, Ad Breaks allow creators to take short breaks for ads during their live videos,” Facebook said. “When a broadcaster chooses to take an ad break, people watching the video will see an in-stream ad of up to 15 seconds in length. The broadcaster will earn a share of the resulting ad revenue.”

Live broadcasters can take their first Ad Breaks after four minutes and can take additional breaks after a minimum of five minutes between each break, Facebook said. Each Ad Break lasts up to 20 seconds.

Marketing Land noted eligible broadcasters do not have to maintain simultaneous viewership of at least 300 viewers at the time an ad is inserted.

Ad Breaks are available to US broadcasters, but Facebook said it hopes to eventually expand.