His appearances were striking and varied, you never knew where and in what role he would appear next, his spokesman Ron Hoffman said of Fred Ward.

As announced on Friday, the actor died last Sunday at the age of 79.

In his profession, Ward was a latecomer.

Before joining Herbert Berghof's acting studio in New York, Ward, who was born in San Diego on December 30, 1942, had served in the US Army, worked as a lumberjack in Alaska, as a cook and as a boxer.

For his later film roles, that was not the worst preparatory training.

Ward moved to Italy in the early 1970s and made his living dubbing Italian films.

He caught the eye of director Roberto Rossellini.

Ward made his film debut in his film L'Etá di Cosimo di Medici (1973).

A year later in Descartes.

Back in the United States, Ward continued with supporting roles, most of which he was number two in the cast, such as in the western Heart of the Wild West opposite Jeff Bridges, in Pinball Queen with Brooke Shields, in Funfair with Jodie Foster, "Silkwood" with Meryl Streep, in "The Stuff of Heroes" and in "Escape from Alcatraz" opposite Clint Eastwood.

The list of Ward's casts was impressive in the 1980s and 1990s.

In the Philip Kaufman film Henry & June (1990), Ward played the lead role of writer Henry Miller.

Ward got good reviews from critics, as did Uma Thurman and Maria de Medeiros, but the film didn't.

In "Miami Blues" Ward played a robbed cop.

Finally, with Kevin Bacon, Ward made the sci-fi horror comedy Tremors (1990), which soon achieved cult status.

In 1994, Ward received a Golden Globe as a cast member for Robert Altman's "Short Cuts."

A whole series of cinema productions followed for Ward in the two thousand years (once as Ronald Reagan).

Most recently, viewers saw Fred Ward in the television series True Detectives.

Here he played the father of one of the investigators.

Fred Ward is survived by his wife Marie-France and their son Django, who made a name for himself as a jazz musician.