Paxton was born on May 17, 1955 in Fort Worth, Texas, the son of Mary Lou ("née" Gray) and John Lane Paxton (1920–2011). His father was a businessman, lumber wholesaler, museum executive and, later, during his son's career, an occasional actor, most notably appearing in Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man" films, as well as alongside Bill in "A Simple Plan" (1998). Paxton was of English, Scotch-Irish, Scottish, Austrian, German, French, Swiss and Dutch descent, and also had distant Welsh and Norwegian ancestry. His great-great-grandfather was Elisha Franklin Paxton, a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the Civil War, who was killed commanding the legendary Stonewall Brigade at the Battle of Chancellorsville. Paxton's mother was Roman Catholic and he and his siblings were raised in her faith. Paxton was in the crowd when President John F. Kennedy emerged from the Hotel Texas in Fort Worth on the morning of his assassination on November 22, 1963. Photographs of an eight-year-old Paxton being lifted above the crowd are on display at the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza in Dallas. He later co-produced the film "Parkland", about the assassination. Paxton is distantly related to actress Sara Paxton and great nephew of Mary Paxton Keeley, prominent journalist and close friend of Bess Wallace Truman.