Sam Shepard, Pulitzer prize-winning playwright, actor and director, has died at 73 after battling Lou Gehrig's disease.
He had been battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and reportedly died from complications on Thursday at his home in Kentucky. A progressive neurodegenerative disease, ALS affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord.
Broadway World said Shepard passed away peacefully while surrounded by family and friends.
USA Today said he leaves behind two sons, Jesse Mojo Shepard and Samuel Walker Shepard, daughter Hannah Jane and two sisters, Sandy and Roxanne Roger.
Shepard’s career spanned several decades and an extensive list of accolades.
According to Sam-Shepard.com, a website dedicated to documenting his career, Shepard wrote close to 50 plays and enjoyed critical acclaim in theater, as well as outside the industry, as an actor, director and author.
In 1979 the play “Buried Child” earned Sam Shepard a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, solidifying his career.
On bestowing the award, jurors said:
"In recommending Mr. Shepard for the Pulitzer Prize, we of the jury have felt entitled to consider that, beyond the high quality of the play itself, Mr. Shepard's substantial body of work and its inspiring determination to come to grips with American life are worthy of honoring."
In 1984 he was awarded the Golden Palm Award at the Cannes Film Festival for the screenplay, “Paris, Texas” and, according to Theatre Database, he was elected into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1986.
That same year he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor after his performance as Chuck Yeager in the film “The Right Stuff.” (1983).
In 1994 Sam Shepard was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame and, in 2009, he received the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award in 2009.
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