Samuel Shepard Rogers III
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Sam Shepard won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and multiple Obie Awards, and wrote over 30 produced plays by age 30. He made his film breakthrough as Chuck Yeager in the 1983 film The Right Stuff. Shepard also played drums for the Holy Modal Rounders and collaborated with Bob Dylan on the song Brownsville Girl. He died in 2017 from complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Sam Shepard — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Sam Shepard by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Sam Shepard — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
The son of an army officer and World War II bomber pilot, Sam Shepard was born Samuel Shepard Rogers III on November 5, 1943, at Fort Sheridan, Illinois. His family moved frequently before settling in Duarte, California. He attended Duarte High School and worked as a ranch hand in Chino. After graduating in 1961, Shepard studied agriculture at Mount San Antonio Junior College with plans to become a veterinarian. A touring theater company changed that path.
In 1962, Shepard joined the Bishop’s Company Repertory Players and toured with them for nearly two years before settling in New York City. He began writing plays and won Obie Awards three years in a row. He played drums for the Holy Modal Rounders and Lothar and the Hand People, and co-wrote Brownsville Girl with Bob Dylan in 1986. Shepard’s film breakthrough came in 1983 playing Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff. He contributed to Michelangelo Antonioni’s Zabriskie Point 1970 and served as playwright in residence at San Francisco’s Magic Theater. He continued acting in films like Days of Heaven 1978, Steel Magnolias 1989, and The Notebook 2004, and his work earned him the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Shepard married O-Lan Jones in 1969, and they had a son, Jesse Mojo Shepard, in May 1970. From 1982 to 2009, he lived with actress Jessica Lange, and they had two children: Hannah Jane born 1986 and Samuel Walker born 1987. The couple lived outside Stillwater, Minnesota. He later dated actress Mia Kirshner as of 2014. Shepard had two younger sisters, Sandy and Roxanne Rogers. He suffered from a fear of flying and was arrested for drunk driving in 2009 in Normal, Illinois, and again in 2015 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Shepard won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Two of his films, The Right Stuff and Days of Heaven, are in the National Film Registry. He played drums for the Holy Modal Rounders and co-wrote Brownsville Girl with Bob Dylan. His honors include a star on the Playwrights’ Sidewalk and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Every award, honor, and recognition received by Sam Shepard — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
A wall of memorable lines from Sam Shepard — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
Collaboration – That’s the Word Producers Use. That Means, Don’t Forget to Kiss Ass from Beginning to End.
Personality Is Everything That’s False in a Human, Everything That’s Been Added on to Him and Contrived.
I Was Different on Drugs-crystal Methedrine, Which Had More of an Edge. When You Walked Down the Street, Your Heels Made Sparks.
Don’t You Find It Kind of Self-indulgent for Actors to Go Around Writing Parts for Themselves?
There Are Places Where Writing Is Acting and Acting Is Writing. I’m Not so Interested in the Divisions. I’m Interested in the Way Things Cross Over.
I’m Not in Demand. I’m All Washed Up.
Hollywood Is Geared Toward Teenage Idiocy.
You’re Still Much More Afraid of the Audience, and Yet, on the Other Hand, You Desperately Want to Plunge into New Territory. so Every Once in a While, the Opportunity to Make This Leap Gets Handed to You. It’s Like Jumping into Cold Water.
It’s One of the Great Tragedies of Our Contemporary Life in America, That Families Fall Apart. Almost Everybody Has That in Common.
I Didn’t Go Out of My Way to Get into This Movie Stuff. I Think of Myself as a Writer.
Little-known facts about Sam Shepard — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
From 1982 to 2009, Shepard lived in a relationship with actress Jessica Lange.
Shepard suffered from a chronic fear of flying.
Together with Lange and their children, Shepard lived outside Stillwater, Minnesota.
Shepard rode broncos and bulls in the rodeo circuit, including a performance in Salinas, California, the hometown of E.M. Frederic and John Steinbeck.
Shepard had three children: son Jesse Mojo Shepard born May 1970 with his wife O-Lan Jones, and daughter Hannah Jane born January 11, 1986 and son Samuel Walker born June 14, 1987 with longtime partner Jessica Lange.
He received a Rockefeller Foundation grant in 1967 and a Guggenheim Foundation grant in 1968.
By age 30, Shepard had already written 30 produced plays in New York.
Shepard co-wrote the 1971 play Cowboy Mouth with girlfriend Patti Smith, playing the role of Slim in the first production. It is the only time he performed one of his own characters. He was so disturbed by the experience that he abandoned the role after the first night.
Shepard collaborated with Bob Dylan on the song Brownsville Girl, which appeared on Dylan’s 1986 album Knocked Out Loaded. The 11-minute song is a highlight of Dylan’s creative work from that period.
In the late 1960s, Shepard was the drummer for the bands Lothar and the Hand People and The Holy Modal Rounders, as noted in a 1970 Playboy interview.
Shepard was awarded fellowships from Yale University in 1968 and the University of Minnesota in 1969.
He played drums and guitar.
Shepard grew up on military bases before his family settled on a farm near Duarte, California; he worked on a ranch in Chino from 1958 to 1960.
Shepard turned down the male lead role in the 1986 film 9½ Weeks.
He was a member of the rock band The Holy Modal Rounders from 1968 to 1971.
Shepard was the oldest of three children, with sisters named Sandy Rogers and Roxanne Rogers.
His parents were Jane Elaine Schook Rogers, born 1917, and Samuel Shepard Rogers, who died in 1984; both were teachers.
Brandeis University awarded Shepard the Creative Arts Medal in 1976.
Shepard lived in London, England, from 1971 to 1974.
He played the father of Ethan Hawke’s character in both Snow Falling on Cedars 1999 and Hamlet 2000.
Shepard was arrested for drunk driving in Normal, Illinois, in January 2009, and again in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in May 2015.
As of 2014, Shepard was dating actress Mia Kirshner.
His sister Sandy Rogers is a composer and musician.
Two films featuring Shepard have been selected for the National Film Registry: Days of Heaven 1978 and The Right Stuff 1983.
His sister Roxanne Rogers, a stage director, graduated from Antioch College in 1978.
Shepard was the third cast member of Steel Magnolias 1989 to die, 28 years after the film’s release.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Sam Shepard.
Celebrities similar to Sam Shepard — same craft, ranked by reach.
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