LOS ANGELES - Pulitzer Prize-winning author and actor Sam
Shepard, has died. He was 73.
He died at his home in Kentucky on Thursday, July 27, due to
complications of ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, according to a statement issued
by family spokesman, Chris Boneau. It had not been previously disclosed that
Shepard suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Shepard was the author of 44 plays along with several books
of short stories, essays, and memoirs. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama
for his play “Buried Child” in 1979. He earned an Academy Award nomination for
Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of pilot Chuck Yeager in The Right
Stuff (1983). Shepard was the recipient of the PEN/Laura Pels International
Foundation for Theater Award as a master American dramatist in 2009. New York magazine
described him as "the greatest American playwright of his
generation."
Shepard's plays are known for their bleak, poetic, oftentimes
surrealist elements, dark humor, and for characters living on the edge of
American society. His style evolved over the years, from the absurdism of his
early Off-Off-Broadway work to the realism of “Buried Child” and “Curse of the
Starving Class” which were published in 1978.
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