By Breaking Celebrity News Staff

Alice Ward, who Melissa Leo's Academy Award-winning performance in The Fighter was based on, has died at 79.

The mother and manager of boxer Micky Ward passed away Tuesday at Boston's Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital.

In January, Ward suffered a heart attack, a stroke and was pronounced dead for 45 minutes; she regained consciousness and start breathing again on her own, her other son, Dicky Eklund, told the family’s local newspaper.