Sam Shepard

**Samuel Shepard Rogers III** (November 5, 1943 – July 27, 2017) was an American playwright, actor, and television and movie director.  He is the author of several books.  He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play _Buried Child_. Shepard was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of pilot Chuck Yeager in _The Right Stuff_ (1983).

## Early years

Born **Samuel Shepard Rogers IV** in Fort Sheridan, Illinois, he worked on a ranch as a teenager. His father, Samuel Shepard Rogers, Jr., was a teacher and farmer.  His father was in the United States Army Air Forces as a bomber pilot during World War II. His mother, Jane Elaine (née Schook), was a teacher and from Chicago, Illinois. After high school, Shepard went to college for a little while.  He quit to join a travelling theater group. He was also a drummer for the different late-1960s rock band The Holy Modal Rounders.  The band was in the movie _Easy Rider_ (1969).

## Awards and honors

|Year|Nominated work(s)|Category|Result|||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1966|_Chicago, Icarus's Mother,  Red Cross_|rowspan="4"|Obie Award for Best Distinguished Play(s)|||
|1967|_La Turista_|||||
|1968|_Forensic and the Navigator, Melodrama Play_|||||
|1973|_The Tooth of Crime_|||||
|1975|_Action_|Obie Award for Best Playwriting||||
|1977|_Curse of the Starving Class_|Obie Award for Best New American Play||||
|rowspan="2"|1979|rowspan="2"|_Buried Child_|Obie Award for Best Playwriting||
|Pulitzer Prize for Drama||||||
|1980|Himself|Obie Award for Sustained Achievement||||
|rowspan="3"|1984|rowspan="2"|_Fool for Love_|Obie Award for Best New American Play||
|Obie Award for Best Direction||||||
|_The Right Stuff_|Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor|||||
|1985|_Paris, Texas_|BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay||||
|rowspan="3"|1986|rowspan="3"|_A Lie of the Mind_|Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play||
|New York Drama Critics' Circle for Best Play||||||
|Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Play||||||
|1992|rowspan="2"|Himself|American Academy of Arts and Letters – Gold Medal for Drama|||
|1994|American Theatre Hall of Fame|||||
|1996|_Buried Child_|Tony Award for Best Play||||
|1997|_Hallmark Hall of Fame:_ "Lily Dale"|Lone Star Film & Television Award for Best TV Supporting Actor||||
|1999|rowspan="2"|_Dash and Lilly_|Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie|||
|rowspan="2"|2000|Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Miniseries or TV Film||||
|_True West_|Tony Award for Best Play|||||
|2001|_Black Hawk Down_|Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Acting Ensemble||||
|2008|_Ruffian_|SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a TV Movie or Miniseries||||

## Death

Shepard died on July 27, 2017 at his home in Midway, Kentucky from complications of ALS, aged 73.

## Bibliography

|colspan=3 style="background:#B0C4DE;"|Bibliography||
| --- | --- | --- |
|rowspan="2"|1964|_Cowboys_|
|_The Rock Garden_|||
|rowspan="3"|1965|_Chicago_|
|_Icarus's Mother_|||
|_4-H Club_|||
|1966|_Red Cross_||
|rowspan="3"|1967|_La Turista_|
|_Cowboys #2_|||
|_Forensic & the Navigators_|||
|rowspan="2"|1969|_The Unseen Hand_|
|_Oh! Calcutta!_|contributed sketches||
|rowspan="2"|1970|_The Holy Ghostly_|
|_Operation Sidewinder_|||
|rowspan="3"|1971|_Mad Dog Blues_|
|_Back Bog Beast Bait_|||
|_Cowboy Mouth_|with Patti Smith||
|1972|_The Tooth of Crime_||
|1974|_Geography of a Horse Dreamer_||
|1975|_Action_||
|rowspan="2"|1976|_Suicide in B Flat_|
|_Angel City_|||
|1977|_Inacoma_||
|rowspan="3"|1978|_Buried Child_|
|_Curse of the Starving Class_|||
|_Tongues_|with Joseph Chaikin||
|1980|_True West_||
|1981|_Savage Love_|with Joseph Chaikin|
|1983|_Fool for Love_||
|1985|_A Lie of the Mind_||
|1987|_A Short Life of Trouble_||
|1991|_States of Shock_||
|1993|_Simpatico_||
|1994|_Safe Passage_||
|1998|_Eyes for Consuela_||
|2000|_The Late Henry Moss_||
|2004|_The God of Hell_||
|2007|_Kicking a Dead Horse_||
|2009|_Ages of the Moon_||

### Actor

|colspan=3 style="background:#B0C4DE;"|As actor|||
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1963|_Apples In the Tree_|||
|1965|_Rusakai_|||
|1970|_Brand X_|||
|rowspan="2"|1978|_Renaldo and Clara_|Rodeo|
|_Days of Heaven_|The Farmer|||
|1980|_Resurrection_|Cal Carpenter||
|1981|_Raggedy Man_|Bailey||
|1982|_Frances_|Harry York||
|1983|_The Right Stuff_|Chuck Yeager||
|rowspan="2"|1984|_Paris, Texas_|unconfirmed|
|_Country_|Gil Ivy|||
|1986|_Crimes of the Heart_|Doc Porter||
|1987|_Baby Boom_|Dr. Jeff Cooper||
|1989|_Steel Magnolias_|Spud Jones||
|1990|_Bright Angel_|Jack||
|1991|_Voyager_|Walter Faber||
|1992|_Thunderheart_|Frank Coutelle||
|1993|_The Pelican Brief_|Professor Thomas Callahan||
|1994|_Safe Passage_|Patrick Singer||
|1995|_Streets of Laredo_|Pea Eye Parker||
|rowspan="2"|1999|_Snow Falling on Cedars_|Arthur Chambers|
|_Purgatory_|Sheriff Forrest/Wild Bill Hickock|||
|rowspan="2"|2000|_Hamlet_|The Ghost|
|_All the Pretty Horses_|J.C. Franklin|||
|rowspan="6"|2001|_Black Hawk Down_|Maj. Gen. William F. Garrison|
|_After the Harvest_|Caleb Gare|||
|_Kurosawa_|Narrator|||
|_Shot in the Heart_|Frank Gilmore|||
|_Swordfish_|Senator James Reisman|||
|_The Pledge_|Eric Pollack|||
|2003|_Blind Horizon_|Sheriff Jack Kolb||
|2004|_The Notebook_|Frank Calhoun||
|rowspan="3"|2005|_Don't Come Knocking_|Howard|
|_Bandidas_|Bill Buck|||
|_Stealth_|Capt. George Cummings|||
|rowspan="3"|2006|_Walker Payne_|Syrus|
|_The Return_|Ed Mills|||
|_Charlotte's Web_|(Narrator)|||
|rowspan="2"|2007|_Ruffian_|Frank Whiteley|
|_The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford_|Frank James|||
|rowspan="2"|2008|_The Accidental Husband_|Wilder|
|_Felon_|Gordon Camrose|||
|2009|_Brothers_|Hank Cahill||
|rowspan="2"|2010|_Inhale_|James Harrison|
|_Fair Game_|Sam Plame|||
|2011|_Blackthorn_|Butch Cassidy||
|rowspan="2"|2012|_Safe House_|Harlan Whitford|
|_Killing Them Softly_|TBA|||

### Screenwriter

|colspan=3 style="background:#B0C4DE;"|As screenwriter|||
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1968|_Me and My Brother_|Robert Frank||
|1970|_Zabriskie Point_|Michelangelo Antonioni||
|1984|_Paris, Texas_|Wim Wenders||
|1985|_Fool for Love_|Robert Altman||
|1988|_Far North_|rowspan="2"|Himself|
|1994|_Silent Tongue_|||
|2005|_Don't Come Knocking_|Wim Wenders||

### Director

|colspan=3 style="background:#B0C4DE;"|As director|||
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1988|_Far North_|rowspan="2"|also screenplay|
|1994|_Silent Tongue_|||

## Infobox (actor)

- **name**: Sam Shepard
- **image**: Sam Shepard Stealth cropped.JPG
- **caption**: Shepard in June 2004
- **birth name**: Samuel Shepard Rogers III
- **death place**: Midway, Kentucky, U.S.
- **birth place**: Fort Sheridan, Illinois, U.S.
- **years active**: 1963–2017
- **children**: 3