Fred Ward

Role: 

Dangerous Beauty

Although it was unfortunately ignored during its brief theatrical release, this sumptuously seductive production is that rarest of cinematic breeds, the (barely) respectable guilty pleasure. Combining historical fact with hysterical anachronisms of language and mannerism, it's been tailored for maximum contemporary appeal but maintains a lush, romantic feel for its factual 16th-century tale of Venetian love, lust, and political repression.

Sweet Home Alabama

Melanie leaves her small, Alabama town for the glamour and fame of the New York fashion world. Successful in the business and in love, her boyfriend proposes. It should be a happy moment, but Melanie can't marry him until she gets a divorce from her husband, still in Alabama. As her first marriage is unbeknownst to her NYC friends, Melanie returns to her hometown to demand a divorce. There is something about getting back to your roots and Melanie realizes maybe her fast-track life isn't exactly what she wants after all.

The Right Stuff

Philip Kaufman's intimate epic about the Mercury astronauts (based on Tom Wolfe's book) was one of the most ambitious and spectacularly exciting movies of the 1980s. It surprised almost everybody by not becoming a smash hit. By all rights, the film should have been every bit the success that Apollo 13 would later become; The Right Stuff is not only just as thrilling, but it is also a bigger and better movie.

Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult

Oscar night. Who will win? Who will lose? And will someone please kick that numbskull offstage? Wait! That's no ordinary numbskull. That's Lt. Frank Drebin, crashing the ceremonies to stop a terrorist plot that could mean curtains for him - or will a simple window shade be enough? Yes, back with a hilarious three-peat and a state-of-the art advance in sequel numbering are the filmmakers you love, the returning stars you adore, plus others getting Naked for the first time: Fred Ward, Anna Nicole Smith and more folks you'd happily give your seat to on a crowded bus.

Escape From Alcatraz

One of Clint Eastwood's two most important filmmaking mentors was Don Siegel (the other was Sergio Leone), who directed Eastwood in Dirty Harry, Coogan's Bluff, Two Mules for Sister Sara, and this enigmatic, 1979 drama based on a true story about an escape from the island prison of Alcatraz. Eastwood plays a new convict who enters into a kind of mind game with the chilly warden (Patrick McGoohan) and organizes a break leading into the treacherous waters off San Francisco.

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