Sam Shepard (1943-2017) was an American playwright, author, actor, screenwriter, and director. He wrote forty-four plays as well as several books of short stories, essays, and memoirs. He received the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Buried Child. As an actor, he appeared in more than sixty films and received an Oscar nomination in 1984 for his role as Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff. In 2009 he received the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award as a master American dramatist. He was a finalist for the W. H. Smith Literary Award for his story collection Great Dream of Heaven. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, he was awarded the Gold Medal for Drama from the Academy and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. |