Pulitzer Prize winning writer, and actor, Sam Shepard dies at 73
Sam Shepard, author of 44 plays, books of short stories and memoirs, died at 73 from complications of ALS. Shepard, known as a versatile actor and director as well as a top writer, won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1979 for the play Buried Child.
According to the New York Times, Shepard was “One of the most important and influential writers of his generation.”
He was best known for his role as the young Chuck Yeager in the film “The Right Stuff,” for which he was nominated for an Academy Award, for Best Supporting Actor, in 1983. He also won six Obe Awards for his off-broadway work.
Shepard’s acting roles were gritty and masculine, his plays dark and populated by characters struggling in families at the margins of society.
Watch a clip of Sam Shepard as Test Pilot Chuck Yeager:
Learn more about the late Sam Shepard (The New York Times)
Photo: By Tyler J. Clements [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
