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 He won 10 Obie Awards for writing and directing the most by any writer or director He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play Buried Child which was nominated for five Tony Awards 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 PENLaura Pels Theater Award as a master American dramatist in 2009 New York magazine described him as the greatest American playwright of his generation He wrote 58 plays as well as several books of short stories essays and memoirs As an actor his best known roles are as Calvin Meyer in Midnight Special Robert Rayburn on Netflixs series Bloodline Beverly Weston in August Osage County Harlan Whitford in Safe House Hank Cahill in Brothers Frank James in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford George Cummings in Stealth Frank Calhoun in The Notebook Master General William F Garrison in Black Hawk Down JC Franklin in All the Pretty Horses Thomas Callahan in The Pelican Brief Frank Coutelle in Thunderheart Spud Jones in Steel Magnolias Dr Jeff Cooper in Baby Boom Doc Porter in Crimes of the Heart and Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff Over the years he taught extensively on playwriting and other aspects of theater He gave classes and seminars at various theater workshops festivals and universities He 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 From 1969 to 1984 he was married to actress OLan Jones with whom he had one son Jesse Mojo Shepard born 1970 From 1970 to 1971 he was involved in an extramarital affair with musician Patti Smith Canadian singersongwriter Joni Mitchell wrote two songs about her affairs with him during Bob Dylans Rolling Thunder Revue tour of 1975 In Coyote from her eighth studio album Hejira she recounts his seduction of her at a period while he was both married and having an extramarital affair with tour manager Christine ODell with the lines Hes got a woman at home another woman down the hall but he seems to want me anyway He met actress Jessica Lange on the set of the 1982 film Frances in which they both acted He moved in with her in 1983 and they were together for 27 years they separated in 2009 They had two children Hannah Jane Shepard born 1986 and Samuel Walker Shepard born 1987 In 2014 and 2015 he dated actress Mia Kirshner His 50year friendship with Johnny Dark stepfather to OLan Jones was the subject of the 2013 documentary Shepard Dark by Treva Wurmfeld A collection of Shepard and Darks correspondence Two Prospectors was also published that year He died on July 27 2017 at his home in Midway KY aged 73 from complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ALS
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