A quadruple threat as an actor, director, screenwriter and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright (for "Buried Child"), Sam Shepard was born Nov. 5, 1943, in Fort Sheridan, Ill. After a nomadic upbringing, he headed for New York City and soon had a pair of plays produced; in the early 1970s, Shepard was the resident playwright at San Francisco's Magic Theater.His acting career kicked into gear with impressive turns in Days of Heaven (1978) and Raggedy Man (1981). In 1983, his performance as test pilot Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff brought Shepard not only stardom but an Oscar nod as Best Supporting Actor. His other noteworthy films include Baby Boom (1987), Steel Magnolias (1989), The Pelican Brief (1993) and Black Hawk Down (2001).
No stranger to the small screen, the lanky actor copped Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for his work in the made-for-TV movie Dash and Lilly (1999).
BlackthornThis Western imagines the later career of Butch Cassidy, who escapes to Bolivia where he leads a quiet life with the woman he loves. That is until he meets up with a Spanish robber who promises him one last adventure he can't refuse. Read More
The Right StuffDirector Philip Kaufman and a stellar cast -- including Sam Shepard, Scott Glenn and Ed Harris -- chronicle NASA's early transition from breaking the sound barrier in 1947 to the expeditions of the Mercury astronauts in the 1960s. Richly variegated and surprisingly funny, this film adaptation of a... Read More
PurgatoryBig guns Eric Roberts, Sam Shepard, Donnie Wahlberg and Randy Quaid star in this offbeat Western, in which a band of rowdy outlaws ride into the town of Refuge, a settlement where no one carries a gun, there's no jail, and swearing is not allowed. The desperadoes hatch a plan to take over the... Read More
ThunderheartWhen the FBI can't crack a string of murders on a South Dakota Indian reservation, they send in fresh-faced field agent Ray Levoi (Val Kilmer), who lacks experience but holds a trump card: his quarter Sioux heritage. His cynical boss (Sam Shepard) and the local medicine man (Marvin Thin Elk) try to... Read More
Baby BoomIn this light-hearted comedy, high-powered management consultant J.C. Wiatt (Diane Keaton) claims her inheritance from a distant relative, only to find out it's a baby. Children are not in her busy life plan, so she intends to put the child up for adoption. But when she realizes she's grown fond of... Read More
