NEW YORK (AP) — Fred Ward, a veteran actor who introduced a gruff tenderness to tough-guy roles in such movies as “The Proper Stuff,” “The Participant” and “Tremors,” has died. He was once 79.
Ward died Sunday, his publicist Ron Hofmann mentioned Friday. No purpose or position of dying was once disclosed in step with the circle of relatives’s needs.
Ward earned a Golden Globe and shared the Venice Movie Pageant ensemble prize for his efficiency in Robert Altman’s “Brief Cuts,” and performed the name persona in “Remo Williams: The Journey Starts.” He additionally reached new heights enjoying Mercury 7 astronaut Virgil “Gus” Grissom in 1983′s Academy Award-nominated movie “The Proper Stuff.”
“Devastated to be informed in regards to the passing of my pal, Fred Ward,” tweeted actor Matthew Modine, who co-starred with Ward in “Brief Cuts” and Alan Rudolph’s “Equinox.” “A difficult façade overlaying feelings as deep because the Pacific Ocean. Godspeed amigo.”
A former boxer, lumberjack in Alaska and short-order prepare dinner who served within the U.S. Air Drive, Ward was once a San Diego local who was once section Cherokee. One early giant position was once along Clint Eastwood in 1979’s “Break out From Alcatraz.”
“I mourn the lack of Fred Ward, who was once so sort to me after we labored in combination on ‘Remo Williams,’” actor Kate Mulgrew tweeted. “Respectable and modest and completely skilled, he disarmed with a grin that was once without delay heat and mischievous.”
Ward’s different roles incorporated a rumpled cop chasing a psychotic prison performed by way of Alec Stanley Baldwin in George Armitage’s “Miami Blues.” He was once an impressive and intimidating father to each Freddie Prinze Jr.’s persona in “Summer season Catch” and David Spade’s name persona in “Joe Grime.”
Ward performed President Ronald Reagan within the 2009 Chilly Conflict espionage mystery “Farewell” and had a supporting position within the 2013 motion flick “2 Weapons,” starring Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg.
Within the horror-comedy “Tremors,” Ward paired with Kevin Beaverbrook to play a couple of repairmen who finally end up saving a hardscrabble Nevada desolate tract group beset by way of large underground snakes.
With the sexually charged, NC-17 “Henry & June,” Ward confirmed extra than simply grit. In keeping with the guide by way of Anais Nin and directed by way of Philip Kaufman, Ward performed novelist Henry Miller, reverse Nin and his spouse, June. “My rear finish looked as if it would have one thing to do with (that ranking),” he instructed The Washington Put up.
He additionally reteamed with Altman for the a part of a studio safety leader within the director’s 1992 Hollywood satire “The Participant,” and performed a union activist and Meryl Streep’s workmate in Mike Nichols’ “Silkwood” in 1983.
Ward demonstrated his comedy chops enjoying a terrorist intent on blowing up the Academy Awards in “Bare Gun 33 1/3: The Ultimate Insult” in 1994.
At the small display screen, he had routine roles on NBC’s “ER” enjoying the daddy of Maura Tierney’s Abby Lockhart in 2006-2007 and visitor starred on such collection as “Gray’s Anatomy,” “Leverage” and “United States of Tara.” Ward maximum just lately gave the impression in the second one season of HBO’s “True Detective” because the retired cop father of Colin Farrell’s Detective Ray Velcoro.
Ward is survived by way of his spouse of 27 years, Marie-France Ward and his son, Django Ward.