For the osteopath accused in a notable murder trial, see Sam Sheppard.
Sam Shepard (born November 5, 1943) is an award-winning American playwright, writer and actor. His many written works are known for being frank and often absurd, as well as for having an authentic sense of the style and sensibility of the gritty modern American west. Shepard is also a respected actor of the stage and motion pictures.
Shepard was born Samuel Shepard Rogers VII in Fort Sheridan, Illinois and worked on a ranch as a teenager. His father, Samuel Shepard Rogers VI, was a teacher, farmer and served in the Air Force as a bomber pilot during World War II; his mother, Jane Elaine (nee Schook) was a teacher and a native of Chicago. After high school Shepard briefly attended college, but dropped out to join a traveling theater group. He avoided the draft during the Vietnam-era by claiming to be a heroin addict. The year 1963 found him working as a busboy in Greenwich Village. During this time Shepard was using illicit drugs. He was also a drummer for the eccentric late 1960s rock band Holy Modal Rounders.
Shepard became very much involved in New York's off-off-Broadway theater scene. His early science-fiction play, The Unseen Hand, influenced Richard O'Brien's Rocky Horror Show. In 1976 Shepard relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area and was named playwright in residence at the Magic Theatre where many of his works received their premier productions. Notable work includes Buried Child, Curse of the Starving Class in 1978, True West in 1980 and A Lie of the Mind in 1985. He also continued with his collaboration with Bob Dylan that started with the surrealist film Renaldo and Clara on an epic, 11 minute song entitled "Brownsville Girl", included on the 1986 Knocked Out Loaded album and later compilations.
In 1986, Shepard was elected to The American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Shepard was previously married to actress O-Lan Jones (born O-Lan Johnson, alias O-Lan Johnson Dark, alias O-Lan Barna) from 1969 to 1984, with whom he has one son, Jesse Mojo Shepard (born 1970). After the end of his relationship with the singer and musician Patti Smith, Shepard met Oscar-winning actress Jessica Lange on the set of a movie they both starred in, Frances. He moved in with her in 1983. They have two children, Hannah Jane (born 1985) and Samuel Walker Shepard (born 1987).
His play Buried Child received a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979.
For his portrayal of test pilot Chuck Yeager in the film The Right Stuff, Shepard was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1983.
In 1986, Shepard was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He received the Gold Medal for Drama from the Academy and in 1992.
In 1994 he was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame. Of his more than forty-five plays, eleven of them have won Obie Awards. He was nominated for two Tony Awards for Buried Child in 1996, and for True West in 2000.
