Shepard, Sam

Shepard, Sam [ Steve Shepard Rogers] (1943– ), prolific American dramatist, whose plays, influenced by popular culture, reflect contemporary America, including the violent conflict between the dreams of the early American pioneers and modern industrialization. His early one-act plays, however, such as Cowboys (1964) and Icarus's Mother (NY, 1965; London, 1970), were poetic images lacking formal structure, his first full-length play being La Turista (NY, 1966; London, 1969). In the early 1970s he lived for some years in London, where his work included one of his best plays The Tooth of Crime (London, 1972; NY, 1973) about an ageing rock star who is displaced by a rival and commits suicide. The Curse of the Starving Class (London, 1977; NY, 1978) portrays the selfishness and indifference within a poor farming family in California; while the Pulitzer Prize-winning Buried Child (NY, 1978; London, 1980), also set on a farm, depicts a family in an even more advanced state of disintegration. Seduced (NY, 1979; London, 1980) features a dying recluse based on Howard Hughes, and True West (NY, 1980; Cottesloe, 1982) is about rival Californian brothers, one a successful Hollywood script writer and the other a petty crook. Both Fool for Love (NY, 1983; Cottesloe, 1984) and A Lie of the Mind (NY, 1985; London, 1987) portray sexual conflict; the first a stormy encounter in a desert motel room between a man and his half-sister and former mistress, the second the aftermath of an attempted wife-murder. He is also a film actor and script writer.