Obituary: Actor, director Sam Shepard dies.
Sam Shepard, the experimentalist cowboy-style poet who became one of the most significant American playwrights of the 20th century, honored with the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for drama for his play “Buried Child” and with an Oscar nomination for his acting role as aviator Chuck Yeager in the 1983 film “The Right Stuff,” died July 27 at his farm in Kentucky. He was 73.
A family spokesman, Chris Boneau, confirmed his death and said the cause was complications from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Shepard came of age writing poetry and plays in the 1960s as alternative experimentation transformed the theater scene. As a playwright, he created an original, influential tone fusing rock-androll spirit, Tennessee Williams-style brutal lyricism and a 1960s radical attack on realism.
He became one of the most inimitable voices of the American stage, yet outside theater circles, Shepard was perhaps more widely known for his rugged good looks and understated magnetism on the movie screen.
Many filmgoers remembered him as the crusty Yeager in the film adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s book, as Diane Keaton’s love interest in “Baby Boom” (1987), and as the brooding Eddie in the 1985 Robert Altman film of Shepard’s 1983 play “Fool for Love.”
He directed two films, including “Far North” (1988), starring his longtime romantic partner Jessica Lange. They became a couple after appearing together in “Frances” in 1982. Previously, Shepard had been married to actress O-Lan Jones.
Shepard always regarded Hollywood stardom warily, but he became a major crossover celebrity, showing up on lists of “America’s Sexiest Men.”
Samuel Shepard Rogers III was born in Fort Sheridan, Illinois, on Nov. 5, 1943. In his youth he was called Steve, but he eventually rechristened himself Sam Shepard.
His father’s Army career took the family across the country before they settled on a farm in California, where they cultivated avocados and where Shepard seemed to forge his Western identity.