Biography for
Sam Shepard

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Trivialidades

Won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his three-act play "Buried Child."

Living with Jessica Lange (1982-present). They have two children. [1982 - present]

Suffers from fear of flying.

Has a son named Jesse Mojo (May 1970) from his marriage to O-Lan Jones and two children, Hannah Jane (1985) and Samuel Walker (June 1987), from his longtime relationship with Jessica Lange.

Was the drummer for late 1960s bands "Lothar and the Hand People" and "The Holy Modal Rounders" per a short interview in the August, 1970 issue of Playboy (the former confirmed by the interviewer, who was at the Astor Place Theater in NYC to see a twin-bill of the then-26-year-old Shepard's plays, "The Unseen Hand" and "Forensic and the Navigators") and encountered Shepard drumming away in the lobby with Lothar et al.

He wrote the 1971 play "Cowboy Mouth" with girlfriend Patti Smith and played in the very first production the role of Slim (with Smith in the role of Cavale). It is the only time he has played one of his own characters. Just before the second night's performance, Shepard was so disturbed about the experience of playing Slim, he abandoned the role without a word to anyone and left town. He has always had a fear of live audiences.

Currently lives with Jessica Lange and their children outside of Stillwater, Minnesota. [2005]

Has twice been nominated for Broadway's Tony Award as author of a Best Play nominee: in 1996 for "Buried Child" and in 2000 for "True West."

Born in Illinois and grew up in California.

By the time he was 30, he had already written 30 produced plays in New York.

Collaborated with Bob Dylan in writing the song "Brownsville Girl," which appeared on Dylan's 1986 album "Knocked Out Loaded." The eleven-minute song is considered by many to be a bright spot in what was otherwise a creative drought for Dylan from the late seventies to the early nineties.

He did the rodeo circuit, riding broncs and bulls.

Son of Jane Elaine Rogers (b. 1917) and Samuel Shepard (died in 1984), both teachers.

He rodeo-ed in E.M. Fredric's hometown, Salinas, California. "Steinbeck" country.

Lived in England between 1971 and 1973.

Plays drums and guitar.

Was a member of the rock band Holy Modal Rounders (1968-1971).

Moved to New York in 1963.

Worked in a ranch in Chino between 1958 and 1960.

He's the oldest of three children. Has two sisters named Sandy Rogers and Roxanne Rogers.

Personal Quotes

"Collaboration - that's the word producers use. That means, don't forget to kiss ass from beginning to end."

"Personality is everything that's false in a human, everything that's been added on to him and contrived."

"The people the critics write for aren't important to me. As far as I'm concerned, Broadway just doesn't exist." Quoted in the August, 1970 issue of Playboy (page 19).

[On working in films] "It's all about narcissism. Terrence Malick called it 'sanctioned vanity'. Everything is attended to. Would you like some Perrier? Anything we can do? May we throw ourselves on the ground in front of you? This unbelievable barrage of indulgence".

"I was different on drugs - crystal Methedrine, which had more of an edge. When you walked down the street, your heels made sparks."

"Don't you find it kind of self-indulgent for actors to go around writing parts for themselves?"

"There are places where writing is acting and acting is writing. I'm not so interested in the divisions. I'm interested in the way things cross over."

"I'm not in demand. I'm all washed up."

"Hollywood is geared toward teenage idiocy."

"You're still much more afraid of the audience, and yet, on the other hand, you desperately want to plunge into new territory. So every once in a while, the opportunity to make this leap gets handed to you. It's like jumping into cold water."

"It's one of the great tragedies of our contemporary life in America, that families fall apart. Almost everybody has that in common."

I didn't go out of my way to get into this movie stuff. I think of myself as a writer.

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