Sam Shepard 1943 – 2017
Authors and Writers
Authors and Writers, Celebrities, Director, Film Director, Musicians, Musicians and Composers
Biography
Sam Shepard was the rare artist who mastered two stages — the playwright who became a movie star without leaving the theater behind. Born November 5, 1943, at Fort Sheridan, Illinois, he came up in New York’s off-off-Broadway scene and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for Buried Child, a portrait of a decaying American family. As an actor he was equally at home in mythic roles, earning an Oscar nomination as Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff in 1983 and appearing in Days of Heaven, Paris, Texas — which he co-wrote — and Steel Magnolias. His long partnership with Jessica Lange was one of Hollywood’s most storied. He died of complications from ALS on July 27, 2017, at 73.
