CNN
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Fred Ward, a veteran character actor in movie and tv, has died, based on his publicist Ron Hofmann.
Ward, recognized for his work in “The Proper Stuff,” “Quick Cuts,” and quite a few different movies, died on Might 8 at age 79.
No reason behind loss of life was given.
Ward began appearing within the early Seventies, following three years of service within the U.S. Air Drive. A renaissance man, Ward additionally did stints as a short-order prepare dinner, a boxer, and labored as a lumberjack in Alaska. His first main position got here within the Clint Eastwood movie “Escape from Alcatraz” in 1979.
In “The Proper Stuff,” Ward portrayed real-life Mercury 7 astronaut Virgil “Gus” Grissom. He switched gears in “Henry & June,” enjoying 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 making an attempt 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 a TV information anchor in Tim Robbins’ “Bob Roberts.” In 1993, he performed one in all three associates who discover a corpse whereas fishing in “Quick Cuts.”
“The distinctive factor about Fred Ward is that you just by no means knew the place he was going to pop up, so unpredictable have been his profession decisions,” Hofmann stated in an emailed assertion.
A few of Ward’s different movie credit embrace “Summer season Catch,” “Candy House Alabama” and “Abandon.” In tv, Ward appeared in “America of Tara,” “Gray’s Anatomy,” “Leverage,” “True Detective” and amongst different sequence.
Additionally an artist, in recent times Ward directed a few of his inventive expertise to portray.
He’s survived by his spouse of 27 years, Marie-France Ward and his son Django Ward.