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Samuel Shepard Rogers IIIΒ (November 5, 1943 β July 27, 2017) was an American playwright, actor, director, screenwriter, and author whose career spanned half a century. He wrote 58 plays as well as several books of short stories, essays, and memoirs. He won 10Β Obie AwardsΒ for writing and directing, the most by any writer or director. Shepard received theΒ Pulitzer Prize for DramaΒ in 1979 for his playΒ Buried Child. He was nominated for anΒ Academy Award for Best Supporting ActorΒ for portraying pilotΒ Chuck YeagerΒ in the 1983 filmΒ The Right Stuff. He received theΒ PEN/Laura Pels Theater AwardΒ as a master American dramatist in 2009.Β New YorkΒ magazine described Shepard as "the greatest American playwright of his generation."
Shepard's plays are known for their bleak, poetic, surrealist elements,Β black comedy, and rootless characters living on the outskirts of American society.Β His style evolved from the absurdism of his earlyΒ off-off-BroadwayΒ work to the realism of later plays likeΒ Buried ChildΒ andΒ Curse of the Starving Class.
