According to his publicist, Ron Hofmann, actor Fred Ward has died.
The actor, who starred in films such as The Right Stuff, Henry and June, and The Player, was 79 years old when he died on Sunday, May 8. There was no mention of a cause of death.
Ward brought a lot of sensitivity to his tough-guy parts, as well as a lot of street cred. Ward, a former boxer, lumberjack, and short-order chef who served in the United States Air Force, went to acting school and made his start as a mime, then a voice-over actor, when he relocated to Rome as a young man. As a result, Italian neorealist pioneer Roberto Rossellini made a few TV appearances. Ward debuted in the United States as an inmate with Clint Eastwood in the 1979 film Escape from Alcatraz.
In an email, Hofmann stated, "The unusual thing with Fred Ward was that you never knew where he was going to come up, so unexpected were his career choices." "In Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, he could play a cop trained by Chiun, Master of Sinanju (Joel Grey) to become an unstoppable assassin, or Earl Bass, who, alongside Kevin Bacon, battles giant, worm-like monsters hungry for human flesh in the cult horror/comedy film Tremors (1990), or a detective in the indie film Two Small Bodies (1993), directed by underground filmmaker Beth B., or the father of the primary character in Jennifer Lopez's vengeance film Enough (2002), or a terrorist plotting to blow up the Academy Awards in The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994)."
Ward is survived by his wife of 27 years, Marie-France Ward, and his son Django Ward.
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