R.I.P. Fred Ward, from Tremors and The Right Stuff
Ward, whose long career included stints on True Detective, a turn as "red white and blue Bond" Remo Williams, and more, was 79
Film News Fred Ward
Actor Fred Ward has died at the age of 79.
Ward, best known for roles in Tremors, The Right Stuff, and more, was born in San Diego and led a handful of different lives before breaking into acting in the ’70s. The California native lasted six months as an actor in New York before hitting the road and taking on jobs as a logger in Alaska, working construction in California, and even spending time as a boxer, where he broke his nose three times.
Ward made his way to Rome where he dubbed Italian pictures and worked with neorealist luminary Roberto Rossellini. he made his acting debut in Rossellini’s three-part television series The Age Of Medici in 1973. Upon his return Stateside, Ward picked up a few smaller roles on an episode of Quincy M.E. and the Brooke Shields pinball-sploitation cult favorite Tilt before making a splash in 1979’s Don Siegel/ Clint Eastwood project, Escape From Alcatraz.
The early ’80s found Ward leaning into his tough-guy character actor groove, showing up in Walter Hill’s Southern Comfort, as well as taking the lead in the futuristic, Mad Max-inspired Timerider: The Adventure Of Lyle Swan from writer and Monkee, Michael Nesmith. His role as Gus Grissom—the second American to fly into space—in the Oscar-winning true story of the U.S. Space program, The Right Stuff elevated his profile.
In 1985, Ward took on the title role in Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins. The film was based on a pulp paperback series titled The Destroyer, and Orion Pictures, who produced the film intended, it to be a series: a “red white, and blue-collar Bond.” Ward signed for three films and while developing a cult following in more recent years, Remo Williams was panned by critics and flopped at the box office in the fall of 1985.
Ward continued working, taking on smaller roles in film and on television throughout the late ’80s and, in 1990, reteamed with Right Stuff director Phillip Kaufman for Henry & June, a loose adaptation of Anaïs Nin’s book of the same name that detailed her relationship with Henry and June Miller. The film famously became the first picture to receive the NC-17 rating. The X rating had infamously been co-opted by the adult film industry and NC-17 was intended to distinguish serious, non-pornographic films that dealt with adult themes; it’s also notable that some newspapers and TV stations wouldn’t advertise films with the X rating. “There’s that sort of taint on it,” Ward told the Washington Post in 1990. “People think they’re going into Debbie Does Dallas. “
That same year, Ward produced and acted in the cult neo-noir Miami Blues and took on the role of Earl Basset in Ron Underwood’s monster movie favorite, Tremors.
The rest of the ’90s found Ward taking on roles in big-budget comedies (Naked Gun 33 ½: The Final Insult), two made-for -BO favorites (Cast A Deadly Spell, Bob Roberts), and working with Robert Altman (The Player, Short Cuts). For the rest of his career, Ward settled into life as one of the big and small screen’s most memorable character actors, with roles in Joe Dirt, ER, Grey’s Anatomy, and his final appearance, on HBO’s True Detective.
It was Fred Ward’s wish that any memorial tributes be made to the Boston University Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Center.
Ward is survived by wife Marie-France and son Django.
68 Comments
He played Gus Grissom with real humility. RIP.
“Why you ask so many questions, Hole in Rubber?”RIP
“Tremors” is one great movie. So watchable and fun. RIP Earl Bassett.
He and Kevin Bacon were an excellent pair in that film. Michael Gross and the rest of the cast were no slouches either!
It’s literally one of my favorites and everyone I say that to looks at me like I’m nuts. It’s the best, and he’s the best in it.Also shout out to his probably underappreciated role in Road Trip.
Tremors is hands down a great monster movie. It does everything right. Honestly most of the sequels are watchable as well.
We’re looking at you like that because you don’t know how to use literally properly.
One, no one asked you.Two, no one cares.Three, you’re wrong.
at least you can count
At least.
It’s a fucking great movie, pardon my French.
We just queued it up for this weekend (before this news), we were doing a little Friday the 13th-a-thon and I mentioned watching from other Kevin Bacon movies (after the first one).Yeah, great movie, loved Fred Ward.
My wife and I have been running through 80s movies with our daughter. We were running thin on options and here’s Tremors, I guess. I mean, I love it, but I figured it was too of its time and slow-paced for her. Instead, she loved it. It’s her “bad day” movie that she asks to watch again with us every now and then.
Tremors and The Right Stuff are two of my all-time favorites. Tremors is pure B-movie fun (and I mean “B-movie” in the best way possible), and The Right Stuff is arguably a perfect film. He’s great in both.
Yup, I saw it in a theater in Queens NY when it came out and the theater was cheering and gasping as no one thought it would be that darn good. RIP to the man, had no idea he was almost 80.
Oh fuck, I had forgotten about Miami Blues. Such a weird, nasty movie. Some of Alec Baldwin’s best acting.
Did he blow you away?
Yeah, Balwin was a complete and total arse in that one. The scene that still sticks in my head is where he nonchalantly breaks the Hari Krishna’s hand in the airport, with a look of total boredom on his face. His character was just plain mean.
A great shame, a terrific actor and so versatile. Loved him in stuff like Tremors and Remo, but also saw him in a Beth B film, Two Small Bodies, which screened at a festival. A two-hander with Suzy Amis, it was flawed but the two central performances were genuinely powerful, showing the range of both leads. RIP Mr. Ward, it was always a good sign to see you in a cast list.
Dang. He was that every-man kind of hero back in the 80’s I wanted to grow up to be. The Right Stuff, Remo fu*** Williams(!), Miami Blues ‘n’ Tremors… wow.
Remo Williams and Hoke Moseley in Miami Blues. UFOria with Harry Dean Stanton and Cindy Williams is a fun gem. Vinegar pie all around.
DUDE. I have been trying to think of the name of that movie for years. “UFORIA”. Man, no wonder it was so hard to search for. Terrible title, great movie. That shit was a TBS Superstation classic when I was a kid! I actually found a copy! Now I’ve gotta watch it in Fred Ward’s memory. Thank you!
It was impossible to find for years but when I finally saw it I really liked it a lot. I watched some of it earlier on Youtube. Fun movie.
Oh my god. Okay, I haven’t seen Uforia in years, but thanks for posting that. One of the best openings of any movie: Fred Ward in a convertible singing along to Waylon. (And Ward’s got his cowboy-booted foot up on the dash. Holy moley.)
Gosh, thanks for the reminder. I have that on VHS someplace…
I remember as a kid seeing Timerider: The Adventure Of Lyle Swan and Remo Williams in the theater. People can shit on those movies all they want, but I still love them. There is something charming about them (although there are a couple of things in Remo that makes me cringe now).Anyway, Fred Ward was one of those character actors I was always happy to see show up in a show or movie. R.I.P.
I know what you mean with Remo Williams. A thoroughly entertaining movie but very much a product of the ‘80s. Joel Grey was great as Chiun (he was nominated for a Golden Globe) but having a caucasian actor play a Korean character simply would not fly today.
Yeah that yellow face… gotta just ignore it when rewatching it now. It’s not right and it wasn’t right then but it is what it is and I’m not going to let it stop me from enjoying one of my personal favorite movies of all time. Sure, not one of the best movies ever made, but I’m serious when I say it’s a personal favorite. I loved it when I was a kid, I love it now, and I’ll keep on loving it. I’ve never heard of Timerider, but it has a subtitle with the word “adventure” in it so maybe I need to give it a chance…
Timerider is some goofy fun:Basically it’s Back to the Future 2 before Back to the Future 1 even came out.
looks like it’s worth watching, thanks!
…with an *amazing* cast.
Working with Mike Nesmith (RIP) must have been quite a drawing card for a bunch of quirky actors (Tracey Walter would later figure majorly in the Nesmith-produced Repo Man).
Working with Mike Nesmith (RIP) must have been quite a drawing card for a
bunch of quirky actors (Tracey Walter would later figure majorly in the
Nesmith-produced Repo Man).Mike Nesmith! Hell yeah! As a teenager I thought Mike Nesmith was cool as fuck, not for the Monkees, but because he produced two of my favorite movies: Repo Man and Tapeheads.
Ever read the P. J. O’Rourke essay about pre-running the Baja with Mike Nesmith as research/marketing for Timerider? It’s in the collection Driving Like Crazy.
I thought he died many years ago, I mean like just a few years after Tremors. I wonder how I got that idea.
Oh no!
Noooooooo. RIP Fred.
Damn. I mean, Damn.Another great actor who instantly elevated whatever he was in. I don’t care what anybody says, Remo Williams was a great film and I watch it every time they play it.RIP Mr. Ward
Ward did an interview when Remo Williams came out, about the number of idiotic (he didn’t use the word, I will) actors who claimed, in their auditions, to be actual experts in Sinanju. You know, the martial art that the authors fucking made up…Ward? He got the part because he was a good actor, and not afraid of stunts or heights… Helped that he’d been a boxer, I suppose. He was one of those physical actors who you believed was doing all that fighting and falling. Stunt doubles were used for sure, but in closeup work it’s all him, and I for one wouldn’t want to tangle with him.
You’re right about Ward’s physicality. I’m sure that was a huge selling point in his audition—the fact that we was also a really good actor was almost icing on the cake. His time in the ring definitely showed as he easily slipped into different stances.Ward was totally believable in a somewhat campy adaptation of a pulpy men’s adventure fantasy series. I always thought it was funny that CURE went to the trouble of altering Remo’s face and the best they could do was to make it look like his nose had been broken a half a dozen times!Considering how well the Marvel films have done, I think Remo Williams was ahead of its time.
Indeed. I don’t know why, but Jon Bernthal always reminded me of a young Fred Ward.
I could see it.
Bernthal’s got that same kind of lived-in face. He looks like a guy who’s been there and done that, a few times.
I loved it too. The ‘critics’ can be absolute kill-joys.
Yeah. Sometimes I wonder if most movie critics even like movies. I think the last realyy serious movie critic who actually liked them was Roger Ebert. He was famous for going back and reviewing movies he’d panned,—expecially ones that had been recut—and coming to a different conclusion.
So many quotable lines from Chiun in that movie.
Remo Williams is a legit awesome 80’s movie! Yeah I know it’s cheesy as hell but I don’t give a shit, I unironically love me some Remo Williams. I even started a Remo Williams Subreddit (and then didn’t bother to post anything). Remo Williams is right up there with Iron Eagle and The Last Starfighter as the greatest movies to come out of the 80’s
Any Fred Ward retrospective that doesn’t mention Cast a Deadly Spell can fuck the right off.
I’m watching that now. Never seen it.
Just avoid the sequel, Witch Hunt, which swaps Dennis Hopper for Fred Ward and isn’t nearly as clever or as much fun.
I love Cast a Deadly Spell so much. Such an amazing cast.
Harsh. But fair.
I do not get why they didn’t use Fred Ward as Harry Lovecraft in Witch Hunt, but instead went with a miscast Dennis Hopper.
Yep. That was a major mistake.
I watched it The day I heard the news. So glad it’s easily available now.
Watched my old-ass DVD copy of Remo Williams again tonight in honor. As I told my wife: “It’s a terrible movie, but it’s incredibly fun!”Ward had such versatility across all of his roles, but I still find it amazing he was as funny as he was with some of the roles he took…
Been itching to watch The Right Stuff again. It’s been years.
Well, damn, this is sad. Remo Williams is one of my favorite movies, despite (okay, kinda because of) the batshit casting of Joel Grey as the 100+ year old Korean martial arts master. (Obviously they could have cast a Korean actor, I have no idea why they didn’t but Grey ran with it and was hilarious.) I, with probably hundreds of others, wish they would have done a few more in the series. Another character they should have turned into a series was Hoke Moseley from Miami Blues. Ward was great and there are I think four Moseley books that Charles Willeford wrote. Too bad.He was letter-perfect as Gus Grissom in a movie with a stellar cast. Tremors is of course great – my famously horror-movie-averse wife loves it, because it’s well-written, funny, and yeah, scary.I recently rewatched Cast a Deadly Spell and it holds up well, as does The Player, as does Timerider. As much as I liked Powers Boothe’s Philip Marlowe, I would have loved to see Ward take that role on. Fred Ward was always good, always authentic, and just exactly the kind of actor you’d want to meet. I never did, but a friend of mine ran into him once and said he was approachable and nice – down to earth and, you know, normal.
I have a Korean friend who loves Joel Grey’s performance as Chun. Yeah, she knows it should have been a Korean actor now but back in the 80’s there weren’t many Koreans shown on TV or movies and his character is so emphatically pro-korean that she loved it. We all know it’s not right but I still enjoy the hell out of his performance
two made-for -BO favorites (Cast A Deadly Spell, Bob Roberts)I don’t think either of those moves stunk.
One of the funniest scenes in any movie is in Road Trip. When Ward is in a diner and gets upset at the waiter and stands up to yell “we’ve been coming here for 20 god damn years” and the waiter replies “sir, we’ve only been open for three”.RIP tha gawd
Vale, Fred Ward.
Did Cast a Deadly Spell establish the trope of the hardboiled detective who specializes in the supernatural?
Best movie.
Cast a Deadly Spell is a lot of fun with great banter. Film noir plus Lovecraft. Go watch it on Amazon Prime.Timerider isn’t “Mad Max-inspired,” it’s a time travel flick where a motocross racer gets zapped into the 1800s. It’s right there in the name. I’ve always liked it.
God bless you, Fred. You never screwed the pooch on us. Not once.
Great actor. Rest in peace.
I’ll go ahead and plug Secret Admirer, a forgotten C. Thomas Howell rom-com. Fred Ward has some choice jokes in there. And I still laugh at Sweet Home Alabama when he chimes in, “You can’t ride two horses with one ass.”But really, I’ll join the chorus of fans of Remo Williams. There’s a lot wrong with it, but I still dig it!
He’ll always be Henry Miller to me, but Tremors is a fantastically fun movie that I will always watch whenever I stumble across it.