Sam Shepard | |
|---|---|
 Shepard in 2004 | |
| Born | Samuel Shepard Rogers III November 5, 1943 Fort Sheridan, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | July 27, 2017 (aged 73) Midway, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Education | Mt. San Antonio College |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1963–2017 |
| Works | Filmography |
| Spouse | |
| Partner | Jessica Lange (1982–2009) |
| Children | 3 |
| Awards | See full list |
| Signature | |
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Samuel Shepard Rogers III (November 5, 1943 – July 27, 2017) was an American playwright, actor, director, screenwriter, and author whose career spanned half a century.[1] He wrote 58 plays as well as several books of short stories, essays, and memoirs. He won 10 Obie Awards for writing and directing, the most by any writer or director. Shepard received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play Buried Child and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of pilot Chuck Yeager in the 1983 film The Right Stuff. He received the PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award as a master American dramatist in 2009. New York magazine described Shepard as "the greatest American playwright of his generation."[2]
Shepard's plays are known for their bleak, poetic, surrealist elements, black comedy, and rootless characters living on the outskirts of American society.[3] His style evolved from the absurdism of his early off-off-Broadway work to the realism of later plays like Buried Child and Curse of the Starving Class.[4]
- ^ Shewey, Don (1997). Sam Shepard. Perseus Books Group. p. 13. ISBN 978-0-30680-770-1.
He was born Samuel Shepard Rogers III and called Steve, although if he were royalty his name would have been Samuel Shepard Rogers VII.
- ^ Wetzsteon, Ross (November 11, 1984). "The Genius of Sam Shepard". New York. Archived from the original on May 3, 2016. Retrieved December 9, 2015.
- ^ "Wim Wenders à propos de Sam Shepard (Video)" [Wim Wenders on Sam Shepard]. Institut national de l'audiovisuel (in French). May 2, 1984. Archived from the original on August 19, 2017. Retrieved June 13, 2019.
- ^ Bloom, Harold (2009). Harold Bloom's Major Dramatists: Sam Shepard. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 978-1-43811-646-4. Archived from the original on July 30, 2017. Retrieved December 12, 2015.