NEW YORK (AP) — Fred Ward, a veteran actor who introduced a gruff tenderness to tough-guy roles in such motion pictures as “The Proper Stuff,” “The Participant” and “Tremors,” has died. He was once 79.
Ward died Sunday, his publicist Ron Hofmann stated Friday. No motive or position of dying was once disclosed in line with the circle of relatives’s needs.
Ward earned a Golden Globe and shared the Venice Movie Competition ensemble prize for his efficiency in Robert Altman’s “Quick Cuts,” and performed the identify personality in “Remo Williams: The Journey Starts.” He additionally reached new heights taking part in Mercury 7 astronaut Virgil “Gus” Grissom in 1983′s Academy Award- nominated movie “The Proper Stuff.”
“Devastated to be informed concerning the passing of my pal, Fred Ward,” tweeted actor Matthew Modine, who co-starred with Ward in “Quick Cuts” and Alan Rudolph’s Equinox.” “A tricky façade masking 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 Pressure, Ward was once a San Diego local who was once section Cherokee. One early large 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. “First rate and modest and completely skilled, he disarmed with a grin that was once directly heat and mischievous.”
Ward’s different roles integrated a rumpled cop chasing a psychotic prison performed via Alec Stanley Baldwin in George Armitage’s “Miami Blues.” He was once a powerful and intimidating father to each Freddie Prinze Jr.’s personality in “Summer season Catch” and David Spade’s identify personality in “Joe Grime.”
Ward performed President Reagan within the 2009 Chilly Warfare 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 1st baron beaverbrook to play a couple of repairmen who finally end up saving a hardscrabble Nevada wasteland neighborhood beset via massive underground snakes.
With the sexually charged, NC-17 “Henry & June,” Ward confirmed extra than simply grit. In response to the e book via Anais Nin and directed via Philip Kaufman, Ward performed novelist Henry Miller, reverse Nin and his spouse, June. “My rear finish gave the impression to have one thing to do with (that ranking),” he informed The Washington Submit.
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 taking part in a terrorist intent on blowing up the Academy Awards in “Bare Gun 33 1/3: The Ultimate Insult” in 1994.
At the small display, he had ordinary roles on NBC’s “ER” taking part in 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 not too long ago seemed in the second one season of HBO’s “True Detective” because the retired cop father of Colin Farrell’s Det. Ray Velcoro.
Ward is survived via his spouse of 27 years, Marie-France Ward and his son, Django Ward.
