Sam Shepard
Samuel Shepard Rogers III (November 5, 1943 – July 27, 2017) was an American actor, playwright, author, director and screenwriter whose career spanned half a century.[1] He won 10 Obie Awards for writing and directing, the most by any writer or director. He wrote 58 plays as well as several books of short stories, essays, and memoirs. Shepard received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play Buried Child and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of pilot Chuck Yeager in the 1983 film The Right Stuff. He received the PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award as a master American dramatist in 2009. New York magazine described Shepard as "the greatest American playwright of his generation."[2]
For other people with similar names, see Sam Shepard (disambiguation).
Sam Shepard
July 27, 2017 (aged 73)
- Actor
- playwright
- author
- director
- screenwriter
1963–2017
Jessica Lange (1982–2009)
3
See full list
Shepard's plays are known for their bleak, poetic, surrealist elements, black comedy, and rootless characters living on the outskirts of American society.[3] His style evolved from the absurdism of his early off-off-Broadway work to the realism of later plays like Buried Child and Curse of the Starving Class.[4]
Early life[edit]
Sam Shepard was born on November 5, 1943, in the Chicago suburb of Fort Sheridan, Illinois.[5] He was named Samuel Shepard Rogers III after his father, Samuel Shepard Rogers Jr. (1917–1984),[6] but was called Steve Rogers.[7]
His father was a teacher and farmer who served in the United States Army Air Forces as a bomber pilot during World War II. Shepard characterized his father as "a drinking man, a dedicated alcoholic".[8] His mother, Jane Elaine (née Schook; 1917–1994), was a teacher and a native of Chicago.[9]
Shepard grew up in southern California. He worked on a ranch as a teenager. After graduating from Duarte High School in Duarte, California, in 1961, he briefly studied animal husbandry at nearby Mt. San Antonio College.[8][10] While at college, Shepard became enamored of Samuel Beckett, jazz, and abstract expressionism. He dropped out to join the Bishop's Company, a touring repertory group.
Personal life[edit]
When Shepard first arrived in New York City, he roomed with Charlie Mingus, Jr., a friend from high school and the son of jazz musician Charles Mingus. Shepard then lived with actress Joyce Aaron.
From 1969 to 1984, he was married to actress O-Lan Jones, with whom he had one son, Jesse Mojo Shepard (born 1970).
From 1970 to 1971, Shepard was involved in an extramarital affair with musician Patti Smith, who remained unaware of his identity as a multiple Obie Award-winning playwright until it was divulged to her by Jackie Curtis. Smith said: "Me and his wife still even liked each other. I mean, it wasn't like committing adultery in the suburbs or something."[38]
Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell wrote two songs about her affairs with Shepard during Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue tour of 1975. In "Coyote", from her eighth studio album Hejira, she recounts Shepard's seduction of her at a period while he was both married and having an extramarital affair with tour manager Christine O'Dell with the lines: "He's got a woman at home, another woman down the hall, but he seems to want me anyway."[39] Meanwhile, in "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter", written during the same tour, Mitchell referenced the closeness between their birthdays, calling them "twins of spirit".[40]
Shepard met actress Jessica Lange on the set of the 1982 film Frances, in which they were both acting. He moved in with her in 1983, and they were together for 27 years; they separated in 2009.[41] They had two children, Hannah Jane Shepard (born 1986) and Samuel Walker Shepard (born 1987). In 2003, Shepard's elder son, Jesse, wrote a book of short stories, and Shepard appeared with him at a reading at City Lights Bookstore.[42]
In 2014 and 2015, Shepard dated actress Mia Kirshner.[43][44]
After a turbulent trip on an airliner returning from Mexico in the 1960s, he apparently vowed never to fly again.[45] Despite this longstanding aversion to flying, Shepard allowed Chuck Yeager to take him up in a jet in 1982 in preparation for playing the pilot in the film The Right Stuff.[46][47] Shepard cited his fear of flying as a source for a character in his 1966 play Icarus's Mother.[48] His character went through an airliner crash in the film Voyager.
In the early morning hours of January 3, 2009, Shepard was arrested and charged with speeding and drunk driving in Normal, Illinois.[49] He pleaded guilty to both charges on February 11, 2009, and was sentenced to 24 months probation, alcohol education classes, and 100 hours of community service.[50] On May 25, 2015, Shepard was arrested again in Santa Fe, New Mexico, for aggravated drunk driving.[51] Those charges were later dismissed as having no likelihood of conviction at trial.[52]
His 50-year friendship with Johnny Dark, stepfather to O-Lan Jones, was the subject of the 2013 documentary Shepard & Dark by Treva Wurmfeld.[53] A collection of Shepard and Dark's correspondence, Two Prospectors, was also published that year.[54]
Death[edit]
Shepard died on July 27, 2017, at his home in Midway, Kentucky, aged 73, from complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).[5][55][56] Patti Smith paid homage to their long collaboration in The New Yorker.[57] Fellow actor Matthew McConaughey, who had co-starred with Shepard in Mud, learned of Shepard's death during a television interview and was shocked by the news, ending the interview saying: "See you in the next one, Sam."[58]
Archives[edit]
Sam Shepard's papers are split between the Wittliff Collections of Southwestern Writers at Texas State University, comprising 27 boxes (13 linear feet)[59] and the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, comprising 30 document boxes (12.6 linear feet).[60]
