Shepard, Sam
Identification American playwright, actor,
director, and screenwriter
Born November 5, 1943; Fort Sheridan, Illinois
Considered one of the most influential playwrights of his
generation, Shepard helped shape contemporar y American
theater. In addition to penning numerous plays, the award-
winning dramatist became well known for his work as an
actor, director, and screenwriter throughout the 1980’s.
Sam Shepard began his career as an actor and play-
wright in the Off-Off-Broadway theaters of New York
in the early 1960’s. His work gained critical acclaim
throughout the 1970’s, earning him numerous
awards, including a Pulitzer Prize forBuried Child
(pr. 1978, pb. 1979) in 1979. Shepard continued to
establish himself as one of the great American dra-
matists during the 1980’s with the publication of
True West(pr. 1980, pb. 1981),Fool for Love(pr., pb.
1985), andA Lie of the Mind(pr. 1985, pb. 1986). A
theme central to Shepard’s work is loss; his charac-
ters often suffer from feelings of alienation and
search for connection and identity in an unstable
world. His plays also deal with the notion of mascu-
linity and examine the social role of the American
male. Shepard’s works are also deeply rooted in the
myth of the American West and the old frontier, a
landscape that is at once hopeful and destructive,
but is above all distinctly American.
During the 1980’s, Shepard’s career flourished,
and he became well known as an actor, director, and
screenwriter. Throughout the decade, Shepard per-
formed in multiple films, and it was on the set of
Frances(1982) that Shepard met his longtime part-
ner Jessica Lange, with whom he would have two
children. Shepard’s rise to fame in film was bol-
stered by an Academy Award nomination for his per-
formance inThe Right Stuffin 1983. From then on,
Shepard was known not only as a great American
playwright but also as a prominent presence in Amer-
ican film. Shepard’s popularity continued to in-
crease, and in 1984, the Palme d’Or at the Cannes
Film Festival was awarded toParis, Texas. Shepard
had written the film’s screenplay, adapting his own
book,Motel Chronicles(1982). He participated in
many other films of the decade, includingResurrec-
tion(1980),Fool for Love(1985),Crimes of the Heart
(1986),Baby Boom(1987),Far North(1988), andSteel
Magnolias(1989).
Impact In the span of his long career, Shepard ex-
perienced the height of his popularity during the
1980’s and was inducted into the American Acad-
emy of Arts and Letters in 1986. His works having
achieved national acclaim, he secured a permanent
place in American theater and became one of the
most produced playwrights in America. His influ-
ence on stage and screen are evident in the numer-
ous works of scholarship devoted to him, as well as in
the popularity of his plays with modern audiences.
Further Reading
Roudane, Matthew, ed.Cambridge Companion to Sam
Shepard. New York: Cambridge University Press,
2002.
Tucker, Martin.Sam Shepard. New York: Continuum,
1992.
Wade, Leslie A.Sam Shepard and the American Theatre.
Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1997.
Danielle A. DeFoeSee also Academy Awards; Film in the United
States; Mamet, David; Theater.The Eighties in America Shepard, Sam 871
Sam Shepard.(Martha Holmes)