For me, his first movie I thought of when I heard the news was Naked Gun 33 1/3. Of course he played it straight, but he was really funny in it.
I worked as an extra in it, so it’s one of my favourites as well. I don’t remember if I saw or talked to Fred Ward at the wrap party.
While I love the movie, its treatment of Gus Grissom still grates. If Grissom really did ‘screw the pooch’, would they have let him fly on Gemini 3? Would they have selected him to command the first Apollo flight? The movie – and the book – treated Grissom very unfairly.
I still think of the lines, ‘Y’all want a drink of whiskey?’, ‘Slow down! You’re scaring the girls!’, and ‘Are there snakes out here?’ ‘Yeah, in the bushes.’
I thought the book (which is also brilliant) was rather ambiguous about whether the hatch on his Mercury mission was triggered by Grissom, or a malfunction. I believe it mentions a bruise on the arm that astronauts got when hitting the button to blow the hatch, and that Grissom didn’t have the bruise. It’s also not completely clear whether the movie (and the book) are blaming Grissom, or just chronicling the way NASA treated him at the time.
When I got my pilot’s license, I took my best friend on a flight. As we were taxiing out, I asked him if he had any Beeman’s. He was crestfallen that he’d forgotten to bring some.
ETA: Who’s the best pilot you ever saw?
I remember him for Naked Gun 33 1/3, Tremors and Thunderheart.
You’re looking at him.
I guess I’ll stop waiting for Remo Williams: The Adventure Continues …
RIP.
Actually, a fan made it back in 1992. Overall quality is about what you would expect, given that statement. 
Remo Williams 2: The Adventure Continues : Luke S. Goljan : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive
No . . .
. . . it is better than that.
I mainly remember Chain Reaction because some scenes were filmed at the place where I worked, and some of my coworkers were extras. I’m not sure how it’s possible to make a bad movie with Morgan Freeman and Keanu Reeves, but somehow they did.
Tremors 2 was much better than it should have been! I’d recommend it back to back with the first.
Forgot to mention another quote that is frequently used: Broke into the wrong goddamned rec room!
Tremors 3 is best not even mentioned.
Agreed. Just as with Highlander, it’s good that no other movies in the series were ever made.
F*ckin’ A, Bubba!
He will be missed.
I hesitate to hijack the Fred Ward memorial thread, but you haters are just wrong about Tremors 3. It’s full of great quotes, all the surviving Perfectionists, and Desert Jack was a way cooler sidekick than Grady.
Amen to that. I liked his work. Rest In Peace, Fred Ward.
What Gus is sayin, is, … (fill in the blank)