Actor Fred Ward has died at the age of 79, according to his publicist, Ron Hofmann.. The star, who brought an unmistakable gaze to films such as ‘The Right Stuff, 1983’, ‘Tremors’ (1990), ‘Henry and June’ (Henry and June, 1990), died on Sunday May 8 at the age of 79, cause of death unknown, leaves behind his wife of 27 years, Marie-France Ward and son Django Ward.
A tough guy with a comical vis
Ward brought a touch of comedy to his tough-guy roles and plenty of physical credibility, not coincidentally. Ward had been a boxer, lumberjack, and fast-food cook, serving in the US Air Force.went to acting school and started working when he moved to Rome at a very young age where he acted as a mime and later as a voice actor, which led to a few appearances in television productions of Italian neorealist pioneer Roberto Rossellini.
Ward made his American film debut as a convict in Clint Eastwood’s ‘Escape from Alcatraz’ (1979) and began a prolific career in Hollywood where he played detective in both ‘satan’s seal‘ (Cast a Deadly Spell, 1993) as in the independent film ‘damn Nick‘ (Two Small Bodies, 1993) directed by underground filmmaker Beth B., or a terrorist planning to blow up the Academy Awards in ‘Grab it as you can 33 1/3: and final insult‘ (1994), or the father of the title character in Jennifer Lopez’s revenge thriller ‘Never more‘ (Enough, 2002).
your publicist, Hofmann, sent a press release in which he commented:
“The one sure thing with Fred Ward is that you never knew where he was going to turn up, so unpredictable were his job choices. He could play characters as diverse as Henry Miller in ‘Henry and June’ (1990) as a police officer trained by Chiun, Master of Sinanju (Joel Gray) to become an unstoppable killer in ‘Remo Williams’ or Earl Bass, who, alongside battle giant Kevin Bacon, slayed worm-like monsters hungry for human flesh in the horror/comedy movie Cult Tremors (1990)”