NEW YORK (AP) – Fred Ward, a veteran actor who brought rude tenderness to the roles of rude boys in films such as “The Right Stuff”, “The Player” and “Tremors”, has died. He was 79.
Ward died Sunday, his publicist Ron Hoffman said on Friday. The cause or place of death, as requested by the family, was not disclosed.
Ward won a Golden Globe and shared the ensemble’s award at the Venice Film Festival for his role in Robert Altman’s Short Cuts and played the protagonist in Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins. He also reached new heights by playing Mercury 7 astronaut Virgil Gus Grissom in the 1983 Oscar-nominated film The Right Stuff.
“I’m shocked to learn of the death of my friend Fred Ward,” tweeted actor Matthew Modine, who co-starred with Ward in Alan Rudolph’s Short Clips and Equinox. “A difficult façade, covering emotions as deep as the Pacific Ocean. Cheers amigo. ”
A former boxer, woodcutter in Alaska and a chef who served in the US Air Force, Ward was a native of San Diego who was part of the Cherokees. An early major role was with Clint Eastwood in The 1979 Escape from Alcatraz.
“I mourn the loss of Fred Ward, who was so kind to me when we worked together on Remo Williams,” actor Kate Mulgrew wrote on Twitter. “Decent and modest and completely professional, he disarmed with a smile that was both warm and naughty.”
Ward’s other roles include a crushed cop chasing a psychotic criminal, played by Alec Baldwin in George Armitage’s Miami Blues. He was a great and scary father to both Freddie Prince Jr.’s “Summer Catch” and David Spade’s main character in “Joe Dirt.”
Ward played President Reagan in the 2009 Cold War spy thriller “Goodbye” and had a supporting role in the 2013 action movie “2 Guns,” starring Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg.
In the horror comedy Trembling, Ward teams up with Kevin Bacon to play a pair of masters who end up rescuing a difficult underground desert community in Nevada from giant underground snakes.
With the sexually charged NC-17 Henry and June, Ward showed more than toughness. Based on the book by Anais Nin and directed by Philip Kaufman, Ward plays writer Henry Miller against Nin and his wife June. “My back seems to have something to do with (this rating),” he told The Washington Post.
He also partnered with Altman for the role of studio security chief in the 1992 director’s Hollywood satire, and played union activist and Meryl Streep’s associate in Mike Nichols’ 1983 Silkwood.
Ward demonstrated his comedic antics by playing a terrorist plot to blow up the 1994 Academy Awards in Naked Pistol 33 1/3: The Last Insult.
On the small screen, he had recurring roles in NBC’s “ER”, playing Abby Lockhart’s father from Mora Tierney in 2006-2007 and guest starring in series such as “Gray’s Anatomy”, “Leverage” and “Tara’s United States”. . Ward last appeared in the second season of HBO’s True Detective as the retired father of Colin Farrell’s cop. Ray Velcro.
Ward is survived by his 27-year-old wife, Marie-France Ward, and his son, Jango Ward.
Add Comment