A Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright (for 1979's Buried Child), an Oscar-nominated actor, and a director and screenwriter to boot, multi-talented Sam Shepard has made a career of plumbing the darker depths of middle-American rural sensibilities and Western myths. The son of a military man, he was born Samuel Shepard Rogers on November 3, 1943, in Fort Sheridan, IL. Following a peripatetic childhood, part of which was spent on a farm, Shepard left home in late adolescence to move to New York City, where by the age of 20, he already had two plays produced.
As a playwright, Shepard went on to win a number of Obies for such dramas as Curse of the Starving Class (1977), which he made into a film in 1994, and True West (aired on PBS in 1986). As an actor, the lanky and handsome Shepard made his feature film debut with a small role in Bronco Bullfrog (1969) and didn't resurface again until Bob Dylan's disastrous Renaldo and Clara (1978). The film followed Shepard's residence in London during the early '70s, where he worked on-stage as an actor and director when not playing drums for his band, The Holy Modal Rounders, which had performed as part of Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue in 1975. Also in 1978, Shepard made a big impression playing a wealthy landowner in Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven, but it was not until he received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for playing astronaut Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff (1983) that he became a well-known actor. Following this success, he went on to specialize in playing drifters, cowboys, con artists, and eccentric characters with only the occasional leading role. Some of his more notable work included Paris, Texas (1984), which he also wrote; Fool For Love (1985), which was adapted from his play of the same name; Baby Boom (1987), Steel Magnolias (1989), and The Pelican Brief (1993). In addition to acting and writing, Shepard has also directed: in 1988, he made his debut with Far North, a film he wrote especially for his off-screen leading lady, Jessica Lange, with whom he has acted in Frances (1982), Country (1984), and Crimes of the Heart (1986).
In 1999, Shepard could be seen on both the big and small screen. He appeared in Snow Falling on Cedars and Dash and Lilly, a made-for-TV movie for which he won an Emmy nomination in the role of the titular Dashiell Hammett. In addition, he also lent his writing skills to Simpatico, a Nick Nolte vehicle about friendship and loss adapted from Shepard's play of the same name.
| Title | Year | Editors' Rating | User Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Out of the Furnace
Actor |
2013 | NOT YET RELEASED | ||
|
Darling Companion
Actor |
2012 | |||
|
Killing Them Softly
Actor |
2012 | NOT YET RELEASED | ||
|
Safe House
Actor |
2012 | |||
|
Blackthorn
Actor |
2011 | |||
|
Mud
Actor |
2011 | |||
|
Fair Game
Actor |
2010 | |||
|
Inhale
Actor |
2010 | |||
|
Brothers
Actor |
2009 | |||
|
Felon
Actor |
2008 | |||
|
Patti Smith: Dream of Life
Participant |
2008 | |||
|
The Accidental Husband
Actor |
2007 | |||
| 2007 | ||||
|
Bandidas
Actor |
2006 | |||
|
Charlotte's Web
Voice |
2006 | |||
|
Ruffian
Actor |
2006 | |||
|
The Return
Actor |
2006 | |||
|
Walker Payne
Actor |
2006 | |||
|
Bound to Lose
Participant |
2005 | |||
|
Don't Come Knocking
Actor, Screen Story, Screenwriter |
2005 | |||
|
Stealth
Actor |
2005 | |||
|
Blind Horizon
Actor |
2004 | |||
|
See You in My Dreams
Short Story Author |
2004 | |||
|
The Notebook
Actor |
2004 | |||
|
New York Profile: Joe Chaikin's Life in Theater
Interviewee |
2003 | |||
|
This So-Called Disaster
Participant |
2003 | |||
|
Leo
Actor |
2002 | |||
|
True West
Play Author |
2002 | |||
|
After the Harvest
Actor |
2001 | |||
|
Black Hawk Down
Actor |
2001 | |||
|
Kurosawa
Voice |
2001 | |||
|
Swordfish
Actor |
2001 | |||
|
The Pledge
Actor |
2001 | |||
|
All the Pretty Horses
Actor |
2000 | |||
|
Hamlet
Actor |
2000 | |||
|
One Kill
Actor |
2000 | |||
|
Dash and Lilly
Actor |
1999 | |||
|
Purgatory
Actor |
1999 | |||
|
Simpatico
Play Author |
1999 | |||
|
Snow Falling on Cedars
Actor |
1999 | |||
|
Curtain Call
Actor |
1998 | |||
| 1997 | ||||
|
The Only Thrill
Actor |
1997 | |||
|
Lily Dale
Actor |
1996 | |||
|
Streets of Laredo
Actor |
1995 | |||
|
The Good Old Boys
Actor |
1995 | |||
|
Curse of the Starving Class
Play Author |
1994 | |||
|
Safe Passage
Actor |
1994 | |||
|
Silent Tongue
Director, Screenwriter |
1994 | |||
|
The Pelican Brief
Actor |
1993 | |||
|
Thunderheart
Actor |
1992 | |||
|
Bright Angel
Actor |
1991 | |||
|
Defenseless
Actor |
1991 | |||
|
Voyager
Actor |
1991 | |||
|
Steel Magnolias
Actor |
1989 | |||
|
Far North
Director, Screenwriter |
1988 | |||
|
Baby Boom
Actor |
1987 | |||
|
Crimes of the Heart
Actor |
1986 | |||
|
True West
Screenwriter |
1986 | |||
|
Fool for Love
Actor, Screenwriter |
1985 | |||
|
Country
Actor |
1984 | |||
|
Paris, Texas
Actor, Screenwriter |
1983 | |||
|
The Right Stuff
Actor |
1983 | |||
|
Frances
Actor |
1982 | |||
|
Raggedy Man
Actor |
1981 | |||
|
Resurrection
Actor |
1980 | |||
|
Days of Heaven
Actor |
1978 | |||
|
Renaldo and Clara
Actor, Screenwriter |
1978 | |||
|
Oh! Calcutta!
Play Author |
1971 | |||
|
Bronco Bullfrog
Actor |
1970 | |||
|
Zabriskie Point
Screenwriter |
1970 | |||
|
Me and My Brother
Screenwriter |
1968 |




































