In my first glimpse of Fred Ward, he was snoring, sleeping it off in a dusty sleeping bag in the back of a truck in the 1990 film "Tremors." After his friend and fellow handyman Valentine "Val" (Kevin Bacon) decides to wake him roughly by pretending a stampede is approaching in the Nevada wilderness, Ward snake crawls out of the truck, landing in the dirt. Still in the sleeping bag, he lifts his head up to reveal an unmistakable expression: one eye squinted, his mouth open in a Popeye snarl.
Ward was a leading man who often played the sidekick. He died on May 8 at the age of 79, as reported by his publicist Ron Hofmann. No cause of death has yet been given.
