Pulitzer-Winning Playwright Sam Shepard Dies At 73

Sam Shepard, the award-winning playwright and Oscar-nominated actor, died at his home in Kentucky on Thursday due to complications from ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease, a spokesman for his family said in a statement. He was 73. Shepard was with loved ones at the time of his death.

"The family requests privacy at this difficult time,” Chris Boneau, the family spokesman, said in the statement.

Shepard received a Pulitzer Prize for his 1979 play "Buried Child" and was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Chuck Yeager in the 1983 movie "The Right Stuff." Shepard's 1983 play "True West" and 1984 play "Fool for Love" were both nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Most recently, Shepard played Robert Rayburn in the Emmy nominated Netflix series "Bloodline," which marked his last on-camera appearance.

As a playwright, Shepard was active in the off-Broadway theatre scene and worked at theatre groups including La MaMa and Caffe Cino. Eleven of his plays, including the 1965 shows "Chicago" and "Icarus's Mother" and the 1966 play "La Turista" won Obie Awards, or Off-Broadway Theatre awards presented by the Village Voice. He directed plays at San Francisco's Magic Theater and the Royal Court in London and taught classes in drama and playwriting at the University of California, Davis. He also wrote a number of screenplays, including the winner of the 1984 Palme d'Ore at the Canne Film Festival, "Paris, Texas."

Shepard was born in Fort Sheridan, Illinois on Nov. 5, 1943 to a teacher from Chicago and a farmer and former bomber pilot. He grew up in Cody, Wyoming and Duarte, California. He dropped out of college to join a theater group and began to write plays after beginning his acting career in New York, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Funeral arrangements for Shepard remain private and any plans for a public memorial have not yet been determined. He is survived by his children Jesse, Hannah and Walker, and his sisters Sandy and Roxanne Rogers.

Patch Editor Feroze Dhanoa Contributed.

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