Playwright and actor Sam Shepard died on July 27 due to complications from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. He was seventy-three years old.

Shepard wrote forty-four plays, including Buried Child, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1979. Two other plays, True West and Fool for Love, were also nominated for the Pulitzer. His dramatic work also earned him thirteen Obie awards.

Reviewing True West for The New York Times in 1984, Frank Rich wrote, “Mr. Shepard, as much as any contemporary American playwright, gives our theater its claim to seriousness and its connection to other art.”

In 1971, he co-wrote and performed Cowboy Mouth with musician and writer Patti Smith.

Profiling Shepard in 2010 for The New Yorker, theater critic John Lahr wrote, “In their verbal and visual daring, Shepard’s early plays aspired to match the anarchic wallop of rock and roll.”

Shepard’s writing also included screenplays, stories, and co-written songs, one of which was “Brownsville Girl” with Bob Dylan.

Also an actor in more than fifty films, he earned a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination for his role as Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff.

Photo Credit: Sam Shepard’s website