Vale: Fred Ward
Veteran actor Fred Ward, best known for The Right Stuff and Tremors has died.
- Published by David Knox
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Veteran actor Fred Ward, best known for The Right Stuff and Tremors has died, aged 79.
The cause and place of his death were not released, following family’s wishes.
His career spanned more than four decades, starting with foreign films in the early 1970s, and stretched through 2015 with his final role in True Detective.
Ward played everything from an astronaut, cowboy, Vietnam war soldier, a chain-smoking police detective-turned-assassin, to a hero battling giant worms.
He made his screen debut in the 1973 miniseries The Age of the Medici, directed by Roberto Rossellini. He had a small role in the feature Ginger in the Morning in 1974 and a breakthrough role opposite Clint Eastwood in the 1979 film Escape from Alcatraz.
In 1983 he portrayed Mercury 7 astronaut Virgil “Gus” Grissom in The Right Stuff. He followed with Uncommon Valor, Silkwood, Short Cuts, Off Limits, Big Business, Tremors, Henry & June, Miami Blues, Thunderheart, The Player, Naked Gun 33+1⁄3: The Final Insult, Road Trip, Sweet Home Alabama.
His TV credits included Quincy ME, The Incredible Hulk, Invasion: Earth, Wild Iris, Dice, ER, Grey’s Anatomy, United States of Tara, In Plain Sight, True Detective, Leverage.