FRED WARD Biography - Actors and Actresses

 
 

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FRED WARD

Name: Fred Ward                                                                         
Born: 30 December 1942 San Diego, California, United States                             
                                                                                       
Fred Ward (born December 30, 1942) is an American actor. He began his career in         
1979 alongside Clint Eastwood in Escape from Alcatraz.                                 
                                                                                       
Ward was born Freddie Joe Ward in San Diego, California, of part Cherokee               
descent. Before acting, Ward spent three years in the United States Air Force.         
He was also a boxer, and worked as a lumberjack in Alaska. Ward is                     
divorced from Silvia Ward and currently married to Marie-France Ward.                   
                                                                                       
Ward became an actor after studying at New York's Herbert Berghof Studio and in         
Rome. While in Italy. he dubbed Italian movies and worked as a mime until he           
made his debut in two Roberto Rossellini films. Upon returning stateside in the         
early 1970s, Ward spent time working in experimental theater and doing some             
television work. He made his first American film appearance playing a cowboy in         
Hearts of the West (1975). His first major role came in the Clint Eastwood             
vehicle Escape from Alcatraz (1979) as fellow escapee John Anglin. He was also         
notable as a violent National Guardsman in Walter Hill's Southern Comfort (1981).       
                                                                                       
Other notable film roles include Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann (1982),         
astronaut Gus Grissom in The Right Stuff (1983), the overbearing father in             
Secret Admirer (1985), the action movie Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985),     
Earl Bassett in Tremors (1990) (which he reprised in Tremors 2: Aftershocks (1996)),   
the writer Henry Miller in Philip Kaufman's Henry & June (1990), Sgt. Hoke             
Mosely in Miami Blues (1990), and the covert security chief in Robert Altman's         
Hollywood satire The Player (1992).                                                     
                                                                                       
Ward has continued to be active through the 1990s and 2000s, with roles in films       
such as Bob Roberts (1992), Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult (1994) (which             
parodied his first film, Escape from Alcatraz), Chain Reaction (1996), The Chaos       
Factor (2000), and Sweet Home Alabama (2002). He has enjoyed success in comedies,       
dramas and action thrillers.