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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 79.
Ward died Sunday, his publicist Ron Hofmann mentioned Friday. No trigger or place of dying was disclosed per the household’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 title character in “Remo Williams: The Journey Begins.” 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 taught concerning the passing of my good friend, Fred Ward,” tweeted actor Matthew Modine, who co-starred with Ward in “Brief Cuts” and Alan Rudolph’s “Equinox.” “A troublesome façade overlaying feelings as deep because the Pacific Ocean. Godspeed amigo.”
A former boxer, lumberjack in Alaska and short-order cook dinner who served within the U.S. Air Power, Ward was a San Diego native who was half Cherokee. One early large position was alongside Clint Eastwood in 1979’s “Escape From Alcatraz.”
“I mourn the lack of Fred Ward, who was so variety to me after we labored collectively on ‘Remo Williams,’” actor Kate Mulgrew tweeted. “First rate and modest and completely skilled, he disarmed with a smile that was directly heat and mischievous.”
Ward’s different roles included a rumpled cop chasing a psychotic felony performed by Alec Baldwin in George Armitage’s “Miami Blues.” He was a formidable and intimidating father to each Freddie Prinze Jr.’s character in “Summer time Catch” and David Spade’s title character in “Joe Filth.”
Ward performed President Ronald Reagan within the 2009 Chilly Warfare espionage thriller “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 Bacon to play a pair of repairmen who find yourself saving a hardscrabble Nevada desert group beset by big underground snakes.
With the sexually charged, NC-17 “Henry & June,” Ward confirmed extra than simply grit. Primarily based on the e-book by Anais Nin and directed by Philip Kaufman, Ward performed novelist Henry Miller, reverse Nin and his spouse, June. “My rear finish appeared to have one thing to do with (that ranking),” he advised The Washington Submit.
He additionally reteamed with Altman for the a part of a studio safety chief 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 Last Insult” in 1994.
On the small display, he had recurring 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 most lately appeared within the second season of HBO’s “True Detective” because the retired cop father of Colin Farrell’s Detective Ray Velcoro.
Ward is survived by his spouse of 27 years, Marie-France Ward and his son, Django Ward.
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