Ward, identified for his paintings in “The Proper Stuff,” “Brief Cuts,” and a large number of different motion pictures, died on Would possibly 8 at age 79.
No explanation for dying was once given.
Ward began appearing within the early Nineteen Seventies, following 3 years of provider within the U.S. Air Drive. A renaissance guy, Ward additionally did stints as a short-order cook dinner, a boxer, and labored as a lumberjack in Alaska. His first primary function got here within the Clint Eastwood movie “Break out from Alcatraz” in 1979.
In “The Proper Stuff,” Ward portrayed real-life Mercury 7 astronaut Virgil “Gus” Grissom. He switched gears in “Henry & June,” taking part in chain-smoking, hard-drinking writer Henry Miller, who travels to Paris in 1931 to complete his ebook “Tropic of Most cancers.”
In 1988, Ward purchased the movie rights to “Miami Blues,” which showcased Ward as Hoke Mosely, a veteran Miami detective seeking to corral a slick ex-con.
Ward later joined forces with Robert Altman in “The Participant,” performed a gangster in Alan Rudolph’s “Equinox,” and was once a TV information anchor in Tim Robbins’ “Bob Roberts.” In 1993, he performed considered one of 3 buddies who discover a corpse whilst fishing in “Brief Cuts.”
“The original factor about Fred Ward is that you just by no means knew the place he was once going to pop up, so unpredictable had been his occupation possible choices,” Hofmann mentioned in an emailed remark.
A few of Ward’s different movie credit come with “Summer season Catch,” “Candy House Alabama” and “Abandon.” In tv, Ward seemed in “The USA of Tara,” “Gray’s Anatomy,” “Leverage,” “True Detective” and amongst different sequence.
Additionally an artist, lately Ward directed a few of his inventive ability to portray.
He’s survived by way of his spouse of 27 years, Marie-France Ward and his son Django Ward.
