Sam Shepard, Pulitzer-Winning Playwright and Actor, Is Dead at 73

[GradyPhilpott]

Sam Shepard, the celebrated avant-garde playwright and Oscar-nominated actor, died on Thursday at his home in Kentucky. He was 73.

A spokesman for the Shepard family said the cause was complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

One of the most important and influential early writers in the Off Broadway movement, Mr. Shepard captured and chronicled the darker sides of American family life in plays like “Buried Child,” which won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1979, and “Curse of the Starving Class” and “A Lie of the Mind.”

Mr. Shepard was also an accomplished actor, nominated for an Academy Award for his supporting role in “The Right Stuff.”

Working at Off Broadway landmarks like La MaMa and Caffe Cino, Mr. Shepard almost immediately received critical acclaim upon embarking on his career, winning Obie Awards for “Chicago” and “Icarus’s Mother” in 1965 and then “Red Cross” and “La Turista” in 1966. He would win seven more.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/31/t...pard-dead.html

[wantonebad]

ALS claims another one... I remember when this disease used to be rare?

RIP Sam!!!

I can never pass The Right Stuff if it's playing on a channel without stopping to watch it. Crimson Tide, Hunt for Red October, The Right Stuff if their on, all else stops and my wife leaves the room LOL

[AzPaul]

Originally Posted by wantonebad

I can never pass The Right Stuff if it's playing on a channel without stopping to watch it. Crimson Tide, Hunt for Red October, The Right Stuff if their on, all else stops and my wife leaves the room LOL

Who would have guessed Sam would be gone before Chuck Yeager.
Love that movie, too.

"Hey Ridley, got any Beeman's?"

RIP Mr Shepard.

[MonBK]

Rip

[Hollister]

Originally Posted by wantonebad

ALS claims another one... I remember when this disease used to be rare?

RIP Sam!!!

I can never pass The Right Stuff if it's playing on a channel without stopping to watch it. Crimson Tide, Hunt for Red October, The Right Stuff if their on, all else stops and my wife leaves the room LOL

ALS is relatively rare, thank goodness.

RIP Sam.

[Cobain]

rip

[SearChart]

It's a terrible disease. RIP.

[dddrees]

RIP

Really enjoyed a number of things he was in.

[gmh1013]

This year has been bad for some of my fav actors and actresses Bill Paxton, Roger Moore, Batman, Flounder,MTM, Greg Allman,Chris Cornell, J Geils, Chuck Berry, Butch Trucks, John Hurt.....list goes on. It tells me IM GETTIN OLD.

[nick c]

Rip

[Psmith]

Rip

[Bluside]

Loved him in The Right Stuff.

RIP.

[BLACKHORSE 6]

When I was a kid, my grandfather was diagnosed with ALS and we watched him struggle for six years against the disease. Terrible to say the least.

RIP, Mr. Shepard. Well done.