Hollywood gruff guy dies at 79
Veteran film and television actor Fred Ward, 79, best known for playing gruff, tough-guy roles in movies such as “Tremors,” “Escape from Alcatraz,” and “The Right Stuff,” died on Sunday, his publicist said on Friday.
No cause or place of death was released, as per his family’s wishes, publicist Ron Hofmann said.
Ward took a roundabout way into acting, after serving three years in the Air Force in the 1960s and then working as an Alaskan lumberjack, as a boxer where his nose was broken three times, and as a short-order cook, according to a biography provided by Hofmann.
His career spanned more than four decades, starting with foreign films in the early 1970s, and stretched through 2015 with his final role in the television series “True Detective,” according to his online IMDb page.
He is survived by his wife of 27 years, Marie-France Ward, and a son, Django Ward.