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Sam Shepard, one of America’s greatest playwrights who had a successful side career as an actor, died on Thursday from complications of ALS. He was 73.<\/p>\nSam Shepard, one of America’s greatest playwrights who had a successful side career as an actor, died on Thursday from complications of ALS. He was 73.<\/p>\n
Born Samuel Shepard Rogers III in Fort Sheridan, Illinois, Rogers moved to the New York City in the early-1960s. He quickly became involved in the Off-Off-Broadway community, adopting the pen name of Sam Shepard. It is here that he began his playwriting career, with his first play,\u00a0Cowboys<\/strong>, being put up in 1964.<\/p>\n Shepard would win six Obie Awards between 1966 and 1968, which caught the attention of Hollywood producers. He became a screenwriter on such films as\u00a0Me and My Brother\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Zabriskie Point<\/strong>.<\/p>\n He would also partner with rock legends Patti Smith (who was his lover at the time) for 1971s\u00a0Cowboy Mouth<\/strong>, and Bob Dylan, for whom he would write the film\u00a0Renaldo and Clara <\/strong>in 1978.<\/p>\n Shepard would have an acting role in the latter, and it, along with a role in Terrence Malick’s\u00a0Days of Heaven<\/strong> the same year began his film acting career in earnest. His resume would range from Oscar worthy fare like\u00a0The Right Stuff\u00a0<\/strong>(which earned him a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his role as Chuck Yeager),\u00a0Frances, Steel Magnolias, Black Hawk Down\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0August: Osage County\u00a0<\/strong>to more middle-and-low-brow fare such as\u00a0Baby Boom, The Pelican Brief, Swordfish, Bandidas\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Stealth<\/strong>.<\/p>\n In 1979, Shepard would write Buried Child<\/strong>, which would win him the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. A number of his plays would be adapted for the screen, most notably\u00a0Fool for Love<\/strong>. The 1982 play was adapted for the screen by Robert Altman in 1985, and Shepard played the lead opposite Kim Basinger. Other Shepard plays adapted to the big screen include\u00a0True West, Simpatico, <\/b>and\u00a0Curse of the Starving Class<\/b>. The 2003 documentary This So-Called Disaster: Sam Shepard Directs the Late Henry Moss<\/strong> documented Shepard attempting to stage that play.<\/p>\n Shepards most recent acting work was on the Netflix TV show\u00a0Bloodline<\/strong>. His final film work was\u00a0Never Here<\/strong>, which premiered last month at the Los Angeles Film Festival.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"