Sam Shepard

Sam Shepard (1943-2017) was an American actor, playwright, author, director, and screenwriter. Over his five-decade career, he won 10 Obie Awards, the most by any writer or director. Shepard wrote 58 plays, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Buried Child, and several books of short stories, essays, and memoirs. He was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Right Stuff. Known as the greatest American playwright of his generation, Shepard's plays were characterized by their bleak, poetic, and surrealist elements, as well as black comedy and rootless characters. He was honored with the PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award in 2009 as a master American dramatist.