Actor and Playwright Sam Shepard Dies at 73

Pulitzer prize winning playwright, and stage/film/television actor Sam Shepard has passed away at 73 from complications with ALS. He died surrounded by family and loved ones at his home in Kentucky. He is survived by his children Jesse, Hannah, and Walker Shepard and his sisters Sandy and Roxane Rogers.

Shepard enjoyed a successful multi-hyphenate career, appearing in film, television, and Broadway. His most recent role was in the first season of Netflix’s Bloodline as the troubled family’s patriarch. He received an Academy award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in 1983 for The Right Stuff and a Pulitzer Prize in 1979 for his play Buried Child. Younger audiences will know him for playing Ryan Gosling’s father in the Nicholas Sparks hit The Notebook. Other of his notable works include The Pelican Brief, Black Hawk Down, Mud, and Swordfish.

Shepard was in a relationship with actress Jessica Lange from 1982 to 2009. In cover interview with AARP The Magazine, prior to the actor’s passing, Lange said, “I wouldn’t call Sammy easygoing and funny, but everybody has their dark side, and he always does it with a sense of humor.”

See the outpouring of love on social media from Shepard’s Hollywood peers and admirers below.