Fred Ward, actor who came to fame fighting off giant killer worms in the monster movie Tremors – obituary
msn.comMike Nesmith) about a time-travelling biker. He beat the then-unknown Bruce Willis to land the title role in Remo: Unarmed and Dangerous (1985), the first of a planned trilogy of action films.
But despite multiple magazine covers positioning Ward as a new, blue-collar James Bond and a memorable Statue of Liberty climax, the film nosedived commercially, recouping only $14 million of its $40 million budget.
Tremors steadied him, however, and two other 1990 parts demonstrated Ward’s range: the careworn shamus Hoke Moseley in the blackly comic thriller Miami Blues, and the transgressive novelist Henry Miller in Philip Kaufman’s elegant period love triangle Henry & June, a role for which Ward shaved his head, adopted blue contact lenses and gamely watched Uma Thurman and Maria de Medeiros compete for his attentions.
One more notable lead role followed, as P I Harry Philip Lovecraft in the made-for-cable horror-noir Cast a Deadly Spell (1991).
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