Playwright, actor dies

SAM Shepard, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and Oscar-nominated actor whose plays chronicled the explosive fault lines of family and masculinity in the American West, has died. He was 73.

A family spokesman said Shepard died at his home in Kentucky from complications related to Lou Gehrig’s disease.

The taciturn Shepard produced 44 plays and numerous books, memoirs and short stories. His 1979 play Buried Child won the Pulitzer for drama.

He appeared in dozens of films, and was nominated for an Oscar for his performance in 1983’s astronaut drama The Right Stuff.