Sam Shepard

Sam Shepard was born on November 5, 1943, in the Chicago suburb of Fort Sheridan, Illinois. He was named Samuel Shepard Rogers III after his father, Samuel Shepard Rogers Jr. (1917–1984),[https://www.geni.com/people/Samuel-Shepard-Rogers/6000000002804584695 Samuel Shepard Rogers, Jr., Sam Shepard's father] but was called Steve Rogers.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T59milCjWBQC&q=steve+rogers&pg=PA12

|title=Sam Shepard |last=Bloom |first=Harold |page=12 |year=2009 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=978-1-4381-1646-4 |access-date=May 10, 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160630000652/https://books.google.com/books?id=T59milCjWBQC&pg=PA12&lpg=PA12&dq=sam%20shepard%20steve%20rogers&source=bl&ots=CL-ZoN_qsu&sig=L364_oB9tvdx-lYlFVpy41pnwSc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiHxLLlts_MAhVEEpQKHVtkBOYQ6AEIGzAA |archive-date=June 30, 2016}}

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".{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2003/oct/11/theatre.music |title=The write stuff |location=London |newspaper=The Guardian |first=John |last=O'Mahony |date=October 11, 2003 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170414082920/https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2003/oct/11/theatre.music |archive-date=April 14, 2017 }} His mother, Jane Elaine (née Schook; 1917–1994), was a teacher and a native of Chicago.{{cite web |url=http://www.filmreference.com/film/84/Sam-Shepard.html |title=Sam Shepard biography |website=Film Reference |access-date=November 25, 2008 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081202090556/http://www.filmreference.com/film/84/Sam-Shepard.html |archive-date=December 2, 2008 }}

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.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1979/01/14/searching-for-sam-shepard/38eae5b1-e51b-48b1-b378-b33cca6327af/ |title=Searching for Sam Shepard |last=Shirley |first=Don |date=January 14, 1979 |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=August 16, 2018}} 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.

File:Sam Shepard.jpg

Shepard moved to New York City in 1963 and found work as a busboy at the Village Gate nightclub. The following year, the Village Gate's head waiter, Ralph Cook, founded the experimental stage company Theater Genesis, housed at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery in Manhattan. Two of Shepard's earliest one-act plays, The Rock Garden and Cowboys, debuted at Theater Genesis in October 1964. It was around this time that he adopted the professional name Sam Shepard.{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/theatreofprotest0000bott |url-access=registration |title=The Theatre of Protest in America |publisher=Harden House |first=Gary |last=Botting |year=1972 |access-date=December 14, 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170730204911/http://www.thewittliffcollections.txstate.edu/research/a-z/shepard.html |archive-date=July 30, 2017 }}

In 1965, Shepard's one-act plays Dog and The Rocking Chair were produced at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club.{{cite web |url=https://catalog.lamama.org/Detail/occurrences/147 |title=Production: 'Two One-Act Plays by Sam Shepard' (1965) |date=2015 |website=La MaMa Archives Digital Collections |access-date=August 29, 2018}} These were the first of many productions of Shepard's work at La MaMa during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. In 1967, Tom O'Horgan directed Shepard's Melodrama Play alongside Leonard Melfi's Times Square and Rochelle Owens' Futz at La MaMa.{{cite web |url=https://catalog.lamama.org/Detail/Occurrences/1589 |title=Production: Times Square, Melodrama Play, and Futz (1967) |date=2015 |website=La MaMa Archives Digital Collections |access-date=August 29, 2018}} In 1969, Jeff Bleckner directed Shepard's play The Unseen Hand at La MaMa.{{cite web |url=https://catalog.lamama.org/Detail/Occurrences/634 |title=Production: Unseen Hand, The (1969) |date=2015 |website=La MaMa Archives Digital Collections |access-date=August 29, 2018}} Bleckner then directed The Unseen Hand alongside Forensic and the Navigators at the nearby Astor Place Theatre in 1970.{{cite web |url=https://catalog.lamama.org/Detail/Occurrences/635 |title=Production: Two By Sam Shepard (1970) |date=2015 |website=La MaMa Archives Digital Collections |access-date=August 29, 2018}}

Shepard's play Shaved Splits was directed at La MaMa in 1970 by Bill Hart.{{cite web |url=https://catalog.lamama.org/Detail/Occurrences/748 |title=Production: Shaved Splits (1970) |date=2015 |website=La MaMa Archives Digital Collections |access-date=August 29, 2018}} Seth Allen directed Melodrama Play at La MaMa the following year.{{cite web |url=https://catalog.lamama.org/Detail/Occurrences/995 |title=Production: Melodrama Play (1971) |date=2015 |website=La MaMa Archives Digital Collections |access-date=August 29, 2018}} In 1981, Tony Barsha directed The Unseen Hand at La MaMa. The production then transferred to the Provincetown Playhouse and ran for over 100 performances.{{cite web |url=https://catalog.lamama.org/Detail/Occurrences/2370 |title=Production: Unseen Hand, The (1981) |date=2015 |website=La MaMa Archives Digital Collections |access-date=August 29, 2018}} Syracuse Stage co-produced The Tooth of Crime at La MaMa in 1983.{{cite web |url=https://catalog.lamama.org/Detail/Occurrences/2492 |title=Production: Tooth of Crime, The (1983) |date=2015 |website=La MaMa Archives Digital Collections |access-date=August 29, 2018}} Also in 1983, the Overtone Theatre and New Writers at the Westside co-produced Shepard's plays Superstitions and The Sad Lament of Pecos Bill on the Eve of Killing His Wife at La MaMa.{{cite web |url=https://catalog.lamama.org/Detail/Occurrences/2545 |title=Production: Superstitions and The Sad Lament of Pecos Bill on the Eve of Killing His Wife (1983) |date=2015 |website=La MaMa Archives Digital Collections |access-date=August 29, 2018}} John Densmore performed in his own play Skins and Shepard and Joseph Chaikin's play Tongues, directed as a double bill by Tony Abatemarco, at La MaMa in 1984.{{cite web |url=https://catalog.lamama.org/Detail/Occurrences/2674 |title=Production: Tongues and Skins (1984) |date=2015 |website=La MaMa Archives Digital Collections |access-date=August 29, 2018}} Nicholas Swyrydenko directed a production of Geography of a Horse Dreamer at La MaMa in 1985.{{cite web |url=https://catalog.lamama.org/Detail/Occurrences/2790 |title=Production: Geography of a Horse Dreamer (1985) |date=2015 |website=La MaMa Archives Digital Collections |access-date=August 29, 2018}}

Several of Shepard's early plays, including Red Cross (1966) and La Turista (1967), were directed by Jacques Levy. A patron of the Chelsea Hotel scene, he also contributed to Kenneth Tynan's Oh! Calcutta! (1969) and drummed sporadically from 1967 through 1971 with the band The Holy Modal Rounders, appearing on their albums Indian War Whoop (1967) and The Moray Eels Eat The Holy Modal Rounders (1968). After winning six Obie Awards between 1966 and 1968, Shepard emerged as a screenwriter with Robert Frank's Me and My Brother (1968) and Michelangelo Antonioni's Zabriskie Point (1970).

Cowboy Mouth, a collaboration with his then-lover Patti Smith, was staged at The American Place Theatre in April 1971, providing early exposure for Smith, who would become a well-known musician. The story and characters in Cowboy Mouth were inspired by Shepard and Smith's relationship. After opening night, he abandoned the production and fled to New England without a word to anyone involved.{{cite book |chapter-url=http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma95/blackbrn/cmouth.html |title=Portrait of the Artist: Sam Shepard and the Anxiety of Identity |chapter=III. Cowboy Mouth |first=John |last=Blackburn |date=May 1, 1996 |website=University of Virginia |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151206225941/http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma95/blackbrn/cmouth.html |archive-date=December 6, 2015 }}

Shortly thereafter, Shepard relocated with his wife and son to London. While in London, he immersed himself in the study of G.I. Gurdjieff's Fourth Way, a recurring preoccupation for much of his life. Returning to the United States in 1975, he moved to the 20-acre Flying Y Ranch in Mill Valley, California, where he raised a young colt named Drum and rode double with his young son on an appaloosa named Cody.{{cite news |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/san-rafael-daily-independent-journal-aug-19-1963-p-13/ |title=The Flying Y Ranch |date=August 19, 1963 |page=13 |newspaper=San Rafael Daily Independent Journal |quote=The Flying Y Ranch above Mill Valley is a popular place throughout the year with 4-H groups and Southern Marin Horsemen's Assn. members... |via=NewspaperARCHIVE.com |url-access=subscription}}{{cite news |url=https://www.mvhistory.org/history-of/history-of-homestead-valley/where-is-homestead-valley/ |title=Where is Homestead Valley? |first=Chuck |last=Oldenburg |date=July 2001 |website=Mill Valley Historical Society |access-date=August 16, 2018}}{{cite news |url=https://www.mvhistory.org/history-of/history-of-homestead-valley/4-h-valley-riders/ |title=4-H Valley Riders |first=Chuck |last=Oldenburg |date=August 2013 |website=Mill Valley Historical Society |access-date=August 16, 2018}}{{cite web |url=http://www.sam-shepard.com/jesseshepard.html |title=Jesse Mojo Shepard |website=Sam Shepard.com |access-date=August 16, 2018}}{{cite web |url=https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Sam-Shepard-s-kid-in-writing-game-Like-his-2668747.php |title=Sam Shepard's kid in writing game / Like his father's, Jesse's stories are filled with horses |first=Heidi |last=Benson |date=February 21, 2003 |newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle |access-date=August 16, 2018}} Shepard continued to write plays and served for a semester as Regents' Professor of Drama at the University of California, Davis.

Shepard accompanied Bob Dylan on the Rolling Thunder Revue of 1975 as the screenwriter for Renaldo and Clara that emerged from the tour. However, because much of the film was improvised, Shepard's work was seldom used. Rolling Thunder Logbook, his diary of the tour, was published in 1978. A decade later, Dylan and Shepard co-wrote the 11-minute song "Brownsville Girl", included on Dylan's 1986 album Knocked Out Loaded and on later compilations.

In 1975, Shepard was named playwright-in-residence at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco, where he created many of his notable works, including his Family Trilogy. One of the plays in the trilogy, Buried Child (1978), won the Pulitzer Prize, and was nominated for five Tony Awards.{{cite web |url=http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/31/entertainment/sam-shepard-dies/index.html |title=Sam Shepard, playwright and actor, dead at 73 |last1=Chan |first1=Stella |last2=Thomas |first2=Megan |date=August 1, 2017 |work=CNN |access-date=June 13, 2019 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170802032536/http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/31/entertainment/sam-shepard-dies/index.html |archive-date=August 2, 2017 }} This marked a major turning point in his career, heralding some of his best-known work, including True West (1980), Fool for Love (1983), and A Lie of the Mind (1985). A comic tale of reunion, in which a young man drops in on his grandfather's Illinois farmstead only to be greeted with indifference by his relations, Buried Child saw Shepard stake a claim to the psychological terrain of classic American theater. True West and Fool for Love were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-40777076 |title=Sam Shepard: US actor and playwright dies aged 73 |date=July 31, 2017 |work=BBC News |access-date=June 13, 2019 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170802065837/http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-40777076 |archive-date=August 2, 2017 }}{{cite web |url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sam-shepard-dead-broadway-dim-lights-memory-aug-2-1025722 |title=Broadway to Dim Lights in Memory of Sam Shepard |first=Ashley |last=Lee |date=August 1, 2017 |work=The Hollywood Reporter |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170801224004/http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sam-shepard-dead-broadway-dim-lights-memory-aug-2-1025722 |archive-date=August 1, 2017 }} Some critics have expanded the trilogy to a quintet, including Fool for Love and A Lie of the Mind. Shepard won a record-setting ten Obie Awards for writing and directing between 1966 and 1984.

In 2010, A Lie of the Mind was revived in New York at the same time as Shepard's new play Ages of the Moon opened there.{{cite news |url=http://theater.nytimes.com/2010/02/19/theater/reviews/19lie.html |title=Theater Review: Home Is Where the Soul Aches |first=Ben |last=Brantley |date=February 19, 2010 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=June 13, 2019 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100225161908/http://theater.nytimes.com/2010/02/19/theater/reviews/19lie.html |archive-date=February 25, 2010 }} Reflecting on the two plays, Shepard said that the older play felt "awkward", adding, "All of the characters are in a fractured place, broken into pieces, and the pieces don't really fit together," while the newer play "is like a Porsche. It's sleek, it does exactly what you want it to do, and it can speed up but also shows off great brakes."{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/theater/13shepard.html |title=Getting Faster With Age: Sam Shepard's New Velocity |last=Healy |first=Patrick |date=February 13, 2010 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=February 13, 2010 }} The revival and the new play also coincided with the publication of Shepard's collection Day out of Days: Stories.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/17/books/review/Kirn-t.html?ref=theater |title=Sam Shepard: The Highwayman – Review of Day out of Days: Stories by Sam Shepard |newspaper=The New York Times |first=Walter |last=Kirn |date=January 17, 2010 |access-date=February 13, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100218065244/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/17/books/review/Kirn-t.html?ref=theater |archive-date=February 18, 2010 }} The book includes "short stories, poems and narrative sketches... that developed from dozens of leather-bound notebooks [Shepard] carried with him over the years."

Shepard began his film acting career when cast in a major role as the land baron in Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven (1978), opposite Richard Gere and Brooke Adams. This led to other film roles, including that of Cal, Ellen Burstyn's character's love interest in Resurrection (1980), and, most notably, Shepard's portrayal of Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff (1983). The latter performance earned Shepard an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. By 1986, Fool for Love was adapted by Robert Altman with Shepard in the lead role; A Lie of the Mind was being performed Off Broadway (with Harvey Keitel and Geraldine Page); and Shepard was working steadily as a film actor. Together, these achievements put him on the cover of Newsweek.

Over the years, Shepard taught extensively on playwriting and other aspects of theater. He gave classes and seminars at various theater workshops, festivals, and universities. Shepard was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1986, and was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1986.{{cite web |url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterS.pdf |title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter S |website=American Academy of Arts and Sciences |access-date=April 22, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170730204911/http://www.thewittliffcollections.txstate.edu/research/a-z/shepard.html |archive-date=July 30, 2017 }} In 2000, Shepard demonstrated his gratitude to the Magic Theatre by staging The Late Henry Moss as a benefit for the theater, in San Francisco. The cast included Nick Nolte, Sean Penn, Woody Harrelson, and Cheech Marin. The limited, three-month run was sold out. In 2001, Shepard played General William F. Garrison in the film Black Hawk Down. Although he was cast in a supporting role, Shepard enjoyed renewed interest in his talent for screen acting.

Shepard performed Spalding Gray's final monologue Life Interrupted for the audiobook version, released in 2006. In 2007, Shepard contributed banjo to Patti Smith's cover of Nirvana's song "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on her album Twelve. Although many artists had an influence on Shepard's work, one of the more significant was Joseph Chaikin, a veteran of The Living Theatre and founder of The Open Theater. The two worked together on various projects, and Shepard has stated that Chaikin was a valuable mentor.

In 2011, Shepard starred in the film Blackthorn. His final film appearance is Never Here, which premiered in June 2017 but had been filmed in 2014.{{cite magazine |url=https://www.backstage.com/casting/you-were-never-here-50117/ |title=Feature Films: 'You Were Never Here' |date=November 2014 |magazine=Backstage |access-date=June 13, 2019 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170802081105/https://www.backstage.com/casting/you-were-never-here-50117/ |archive-date=August 2, 2017 }} Shepard also appeared in the television series Bloodline from 2014 to 2017.{{cite web |url=http://www.sam-shepard.com/bloodline.html |title=Bloodline |website=The Sam Shepard Web Site |access-date=June 13, 2019}}

At the beginning of his career, Shepard did not direct his own plays. His early plays had a number of different directors, but were most frequently directed by Ralph Cook, the founder of Theatre Genesis. Later, while living at the Flying Y Ranch, Shepard formed a successful playwright-director relationship with Robert Woodruff, who directed the premiere of Buried Child (1982). During the 1970s, Shepard decided that his vision for his plays required him to direct them himself. He directed many of his own plays from that point onward. With only a few exceptions, he did not direct plays by other playwrights. He also directed two films but reportedly did not see film directing as a major interest.

When Shepard first arrived in New York City, he roomed with Charlie Mingus III, a friend from Duarte High School and the son of jazz musician Charles Mingus. Shepard then lived with actress Joyce Aaron.

Between 1967 and 1970 he was part of the New York psychedelic rock group The Holy Modal Rounders as drummer, participating in the recording of two albums of the band Indian War Whoop released in 1967 and The Moray Eels Eat The Holy Modal Rounders in 1968.

From 1969 to 1984, he was married to actress O-Lan Jones, with whom he had one son, Jesse Mojo Shepard (b. 1971).{{cite web | url=https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1519742.Jesse_Shepard | title=Jesse Shepard }}

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."{{cite book |chapter-url=http://www.oceanstar.com/patti/bio/shepard2.htm |title=Mapplethorpe: A Biography |chapter=Patti Smith and Sam Shepard |last=Morrisroe |first=Patricia |date=1995 |via=Ocean Star}}

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."{{Cite web |date=February 21, 2021 |title=The story behind Joni Mitchell's classic song 'Coyote' |url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/the-story-behind-joni-mitchell-song-coyote/ |first=Atreyi|last= Banerji|access-date=June 11, 2022 |website=faroutmagazine.co.uk |language=en-US}} Meanwhile, in "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter", written during the same tour, Mitchell referenced the closeness between their birthdays, calling them "twins of spirit".David Yaffe, Daughter – A Portrait of Joni Mitchell, Sarah Crichton Books, 2019, pp. 204, 206.

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.{{cite magazine |url=http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/rep-jessica-lange-and-sam-shepard-have-separated-20111912 |title=Rep: Jessica Lange and Sam Shepard Have Separated |magazine=Us Weekly |first=Zach |last=Johnson |date=December 19, 2011 |access-date=May 22, 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120320235223/http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/rep-jessica-lange-and-sam-shepard-have-separated-20111912 |archive-date=March 20, 2012 }} They had two children, Hannah Jane Shepard (b. 1986) and Samuel Walker Shepard (b. 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.{{cite news |url=http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/THE-SCENE-Sam-Shepard-joins-Jesse-Shepard-for-a-2652564.php |title=The Scene: Sam Shepard joins Jesse Shepard for a reading at City Lights |newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle |first=James |last=Sullivan |date=April 26, 2003 |access-date=April 24, 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202233202/http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/THE-SCENE-Sam-Shepard-joins-Jesse-Shepard-for-a-2652564.php |archive-date=December 2, 2013 }}

In 2014 and 2015, Shepard dated actress Mia Kirshner.[https://www.rexfeatures.com/preview/printable/4267408003 "Sam Shepard and girlfriend Mia Kirshner shopping in Soho, New York, America"], rexfeatures.com, November 23, 2014[https://www.rexfeatures.com/preview/printable/4592814008 "Sam Shepard out and about, New York, America"], rexfeatures.com, March 30, 2015

After a turbulent trip on an airliner returning from Mexico in the 1960s, he apparently vowed never to fly again.{{cite book |last=Callens |first=Mark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UBh5QcK92rEC&q=sam+shepard+mexico+flying&pg=PA79 |title=Sam Shepard V8, Part 4 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-20398-989-0 |page=79 |access-date=December 14, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140707040711/http://books.google.com/books?id=UBh5QcK92rEC&pg=PA79&lpg=PA79&dq=sam%2Bshepard%2Bmexico%2Bflying&source=bl&ots=hqI0-lirwm&sig=MMI0E5qUXwNEMkwptZ8lrSR66Fw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Tzp3UZLcPKjDiwLPh4HICw&ved=0CEQQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=sam%20shepard%20mexico%20flying&f=false |archive-date=July 7, 2014 |url-status=live }} 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.{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T-ECAAAAMBAJ&q=sam+shepard+fear+of+flying&pg=PA64 |title=Tales of Two Hipsters |magazine=New York |first=Walter |last=Kirn |date=May 13, 1996 |access-date=April 24, 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140707040949/http://books.google.com/books?id=T-ECAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA64&lpg=PA64&dq=sam%2Bshepard%2Bfear%2Bof%2Bflying&source=bl&ots=D8qWPCdlFT&sig=PvfFd04EkqMENoQEpZiVOQVdVMw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Oy53UYfhLu3AiwK7jYHYBg&ved=0CDcQ6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q=sam%20shepard%20fear%20of%20flying&f=false |archive-date=July 7, 2014 }}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lbd5BqD-ZNYC&q=sam+shepard+fear+of+flying&pg=PA42 |title=Dis/figuring Sam Shepard |last=Lang |first=Peter |publisher=P.I.E Peter Lang |location=Brussels |year=2007 |isbn=978-9-05201-352-7 |page=42 |access-date=December 14, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141217010203/http://books.google.com/books?id=lbd5BqD-ZNYC&pg=PA42&lpg=PA42&dq=sam%2Bshepard%2Bfear%2Bof%2Bflying&source=bl&ots=-TT3Evj_QN&sig=j2sjiNnDligYos46sBBjR5yZSbg&hl=en&sa=X&ei=mS13Uf6JBIeCjAKN8IDQDQ&ved=0CG4Q6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=sam%20shepard%20fear%20of%20flying&f=false |archive-date=December 17, 2014 |url-status=live }} Shepard cited his fear of flying as a source for a character in his 1966 play Icarus's Mother.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J1QaJLyijIYC&q=sam+shepard+fear+of+flying&pg=PA41 |title=The Theatre of Sam Shepard: States of Crisis |last=Bottoms |first=Stephen J. |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-52158-791-4 |page=41 |access-date=December 14, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141209035658/http://books.google.com/books?id=J1QaJLyijIYC&pg=PA41&lpg=PA41&dq=sam%2Bshepard%2Bfear%2Bof%2Bflying&source=bl&ots=W2-RR29vKt&sig=C_0bxfmxL9kixSfLepnbGs6WvjY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=6Bt3UcerL8fO2QXPmYHoDQ&ved=0CDsQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=sam%20shepard%20fear%20of%20flying&f=false |archive-date=December 9, 2014 |url-status=live }} 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.{{cite web |url=http://www.tmz.com/2009/01/03/sam-shepard-blows-it-big-time/ |title=Sam Shepard Arrested – Blows It Big Time |website=TMZ |date=January 3, 2009 |access-date=February 16, 2009 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090217232705/http://www.tmz.com/2009/01/03/sam-shepard-blows-it-big-time |archive-date=February 17, 2009 }} 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.{{cite web |url=http://www.tmz.com/2009/02/11/sam-shepard-guilty-of-very-drunken-driving/ |title=Sam Shepard Guilty of Very Drunken Driving |website=TMZ |date=February 11, 2009 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090213120024/http://www.tmz.com/2009/02/11/sam-shepard-guilty-of-very-drunken-driving/ |archive-date=February 13, 2009 }} On May 25, 2015, Shepard was arrested again in Santa Fe, New Mexico, for aggravated drunk driving.{{cite magazine |url=http://www.people.com/article/sam-shepard-drunk-driving-charges-santa-fe |title=Actor/Playwright Sam Shepard Arrested on Drunk Driving Charges in Santa Fe |magazine=People |first=Drew |last=Mackie |date=May 26, 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150527072436/http://www.people.com/article/sam-shepard-drunk-driving-charges-santa-fe |archive-date=May 27, 2015 }} Those charges were later dismissed as having no likelihood of conviction at trial.{{cite news |url=https://www.abqjournal.com/692812/santa-fe-dwi-charge-against-playwrightactor-sam-shepard-dismissed.html |title=Playwright Sam Shepard's DWI charge dismissed |first=Edmundo |last=Carrillo |date=December 17, 2015 |newspaper=Albuquerque Journal |access-date=June 13, 2019}}

His 50-year friendship with Johnny Dark, stepfather to O-Lan Jones, was the subject of the 2013 documentary Shepard & Dark by Treva Wurmfeld.{{cite news |url=https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/2013/03/07/shepard_dark_a_testament_to_friendship_review.html |title=Shepard & Dark, a testament to friendship: review |newspaper=Toronto Star |first=Bruce |last=DeMara |date=March 7, 2013 |access-date=April 24, 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130404192509/http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/2013/03/07/shepard_dark_a_testament_to_friendship_review.html |archive-date=April 4, 2013 }} A collection of Shepard and Dark's correspondence, Two Prospectors, was also published that year.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iZ4AAQAAQBAJ&pg=PR6 |title=Two Prospectors: The Letters of Sam Shepard and Johnny Dark |last1=Shepard |first1=Sam |last2=Dark |first2=Johnny |date=November 2013 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=978-0-29275-422-5 |language=en}}

Shepard died on July 27, 2017, at his home in Midway, Kentucky, aged 73, from complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/31/theater/sam-shepard-dead.html |title=Sam Shepard, Pulitzer-Winning Playwright and Actor, Is Dead at 73 |last=Brantley |first=Ben |date=July 31, 2017 |work=The New York Times |access-date=June 13, 2019 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170731155033/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/31/theater/sam-shepard-dead.html |archive-date=July 31, 2017 }}{{cite news |last1=Hill |first1=Libby |title=Sam Shepard, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and Oscar-nominated actor, dies at 73 |url=http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-sam-shepard-20170731-story.html |access-date=August 1, 2017 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=July 31, 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170731230715/http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-sam-shepard-20170731-story.html |archive-date=July 31, 2017 }}{{cite magazine |last=Desta |first=Yohana |date=July 31, 2017 |title=Sam Shepard, Prolific Playwright and Actor, Dies at 73 |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/07/sam-shepard-obit |magazine=Vanity Fair |access-date=May 17, 2018}} Patti Smith paid homage to their long collaboration in The New Yorker.{{Cite magazine |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/my-buddy-sam-shepard |title=My Buddy |last=Smith |first=Patti |date=August 1, 2017 |magazine=The New Yorker |access-date=September 3, 2017}} 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."{{cite magazine|url=https://variety.com/2017/film/news/matthew-mcconaughey-sam-shepards-death-reactin-video-1202512693/|title= Matthew McConaughey Learned About Sam Shepard's Death on Red Carpet|first= Rebecca|last= Rubin|magazine=Variety|date=August 1, 2017}}{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHMF4LlWgZI |title=Matthew McConaughey reacts to the news that Sam Shepard passed away |date=2017-07-31 |last=Associated Press |access-date=2025-05-09 |via=YouTube}}

Sam Shepard's papers are split between the Wittliff Collections of Southwestern Writers at Texas State University, comprising 27 boxes (13 linear feet){{cite web |url=http://www.thewittliffcollections.txstate.edu/research/a-z/shepard.html |title=Sam Shepard Papers, 1972–1999 |website=Texas State University – San Marcos |access-date=August 2, 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170730204911/http://www.thewittliffcollections.txstate.edu/research/a-z/shepard.html |archive-date=July 30, 2017 }} and the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, comprising 30 document boxes (12.6 linear feet).{{Cite web |url=http://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadid=00546 |title=Sam Shepard: An Inventory of His Papers at the Harry Ransom Center |website=University of Texas at Austin |others=Processed by: Liz Murray (2011), Daniela Lozano (2012) |access-date=September 4, 2017}}

{{Main|Sam Shepard filmography}}

{{Columns-list|

• 1964: Cowboys
• 1964: The Rock Garden
• 1964: Up to Thursday{{cite book | last=Winters | first=J.J. | title=Sam Shepard: A Life | publisher=Catapult | year=2017 | isbn=978-1-61902-984-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f-AREAAAQBAJ&pg=PT93 | access-date=May 23, 2023 | page=93}}
• 1965: Chicago
• 1965: Icarus's Mother
• 1965: 4-H Club
• 1966: Red Cross
• 1966: Fourteen Hundred Thousand
• 1967: La Turista
• 1967: Cowboys #2
• 1967: Forensic & the Navigators
• 1969: The Unseen Hand
• 1969: Oh! Calcutta! (contributed sketches)
• 1970: The Holy Ghostly
• 1970: Operation Sidewinder
• 1970: Shaved Splits
• 1971: Mad Dog Blues
• 1971: Back Bog Beast Bait
• 1971: Cowboy Mouth (with Patti Smith)
• 1972: The Tooth of Crime
• 1974: Geography of a Horse Dreamer
• 1974: Little Ocean
• 1975: Killer's Head
• 1975: Action
• 1976: Angel City
• 1976: Suicide in B Flat
• 1977: Inacoma
• 1978: Curse of the Starving Class
• 1978: Buried Child
• 1978: Tongues (with Joseph Chaikin)
• 1979: Seduced: a Play in Two Acts
• 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
• 1987: The War in Heaven (Angel's Monologue) (with Joseph Chaikin and Rick Harris)
• 1991: States of Shock
• 1993: Simpatico
• 1996: When the World Was Green (A Chef's Fable) (with Joseph Chaikin)
• 1996: Tooth of Crime (Second Dance)
• 1998: Eyes for Consuela
• 2000: The Late Henry Moss
• 2004: The God of Hell
• 2007: Kicking a Dead Horse
• 2009: Ages of the Moon
• 2012: Heartless
• 2014: A Particle of Dread (Oedipus Variations)|colwidth=22em}}

• 1973: Hawk Moon, Black Sparrow Press; {{ISBN|0-933826-23-0}}
• 1983: Motel Chronicles, City Lights; {{ISBN|0-87286-143-0}}
• 1984: Seven Plays, Dial Press, 368 pages; {{ISBN|0-553-34611-3}}
• 1984: Fool for Love and Other Plays, Bantam Books, 320 pages; {{ISBN|0-553-34590-7}}
• 1996: The Unseen Hand: and Other Plays, Vintage Books, 400 pages; {{ISBN|0-679-76789-4}}
• 1996: Cruising Paradise, Vintage Books, 255 pages; {{ISBN|0-679-74217-4}}
• 2003: Great Dream of Heaven, Vintage Books, 160 pages; {{ISBN|0-375-70452-3}}
• 2004: Rolling Thunder Logbook, Da Capo Press, 176 pages (reissue); {{ISBN|0-306-81371-8}}
• 2004: Day Out of Days: Stories, Knopf, 304 pages; {{ISBN|978-0-307-26540-1}}
• 2013: Two Prospectors: The Letters of Sam Shepard and Johnny Dark, University of Texas Press, 400 pages; {{ISBN|978-0-292-76196-4}}

• 2017: The One Inside, Knopf, 172 pages; {{ISBN|978-0-451-49458-0}}
• 2017: Spy of the First Person, Knopf, 96 pages (published posthumously); {{ISBN|978-0-525-52156-3}}

{{Main|List of awards and nominations received by Sam Shepard}}

• List of members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Department of Literature
• List of playwrights from the United States

{{Reflist}}

• {{Cite news |url=https://atticusreview.org/cruising-paradise-with-sam-shepard/ |title=Cruising Paradise with Sam Shepard |last=Corrigan |first=Michael |date=May 12, 2015 |work=Atticus Review |access-date=September 4, 2017|language=en-US}}
• Radavich, David. "Back to the (Plutonian) Midwest: Sam Shepard's The God of Hell". New England Theatre Journal 18 (2007): 95–108.
• Radavich, David. "Rabe, Mamet, Shepard, and Wilson: Mid-American Male Dramatists of the 1970s and '80s". The Midwest Quarterly XLVIII: 3 (Spring 2007): 342–58.
• {{cite journal |url=http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/1281/the-art-of-theater-no-12-sam-shepard |title=Sam Shepard, The Art of Theater No. 12|first1=Benjamin|last1=Ryder Howe|first2=Jeanne|last2=McCulloch|first3=Mona|last3=Simpson |journal=The Paris Review |year=1997|volume=Spring 1997|issue=142}}
• {{cite book |last=Shewey |first=Don |title=Sam Shepard |publisher=Da Capo Press |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-306-80770-1 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts}}
• {{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=Patti |author-link= Patti Smith|title=Year of the Monkey |title-link=Year of the Monkey (book) |date=2019 |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |location=New York |isbn=978-0525657682}}
• {{Cite book |last=Winters |first=John |title=Sam Shepard: A Life |year= 2017|isbn=978-1619027084 |location=Berkeley, California|oclc=960836493}}

{{Sister project links|commons=category:Sam Shepard | n=no|v=no|voy=no|b=no|q=no|species=no | wikt=no|mw=no|d=Q294583|s=no}}

• {{Official website}}

{{Archival records

| qid=Q294583

| title=Sam Shepard Papers

| fetchwikidata=all

| description_URL=https://www.thewittliffcollections.txstate.edu/research/a-z/shepard.html}}

• [http://bayareabarnsandtrails.com/forms/Flying_Y_Ranch.pdf The Flying Y Ranch] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180816125919/http://bayareabarnsandtrails.com/forms/Flying_Y_Ranch.pdf |date=August 16, 2018 }}
• [http://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadid=00546 Sam Shepard Papers] at the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin
• [http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/theatre_dance/shepard/shepard.html Sam Shepard] at Bucknell University
• {{IMDb name|1731}}
• {{IBDB name|8584}}
• {{iobdb name|492}}
• {{Tcmdb name|175941}}
• [http://archives.nypl.org/the/22443 Carol Benet collection of Sam Shepard research materials, 1970–1995] Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
• [https://catalog.lamama.org/Detail/entities/361 Sam Shepard] on [https://catalog.lamama.org/ La MaMa Archives Digital Collections]

{{Sam Shepard|state=expanded}}

{{PulitzerPrize DramaAuthors 1976–2000}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shepard, Sam}}

Category:1943 births

Category:2017 deaths

Category:20th-century American dramatists and playwrights

Category:20th-century American male actors

Category:20th-century American male writers

Category:21st-century American male actors

Category:American male dramatists and playwrights

Category:American male film actors

Category:American male screenwriters

Category:American male short story writers

Category:American male stage actors

Category:American postmodern writers

Category:Deaths from motor neuron disease in the United States

Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Category:The Holy Modal Rounders members

Category:Male actors from Illinois

Category:Male Western (genre) film actors

Category:Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters

Category:Mt. San Antonio College alumni

Category:Neurological disease deaths in Kentucky

Category:People from Fort Sheridan, Illinois

Category:Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners

Category:Screenwriters from Illinois

Category:Theatre of the Absurd