Sam Shepard, born in 1943, American playwright and actor, whose plays deal with modern social concerns such as individual alienation and the destructive effects of family relationships in an ailing American society. Born Samuel Shepard Rogers, Jr., in Fort Sheridan, Illinois, he attended San Antonio Junior College, located in California, but did not graduate. In 1963 he moved to New York City, where he wrote the one-act plays Cowboys and The Rock Garden, which were produced in 1964 as part of the off-off-Broadway theater movement. Other short plays were produced by La Mama Experimental Theater Club in 1964 and 1965, and by the Cherry Lane's New Playwrights series in 1965 and 1966.

Shepard's first full-length play, La Turista (1967), won an Obie Award (given for off-Broadway theater productions) for distinguished play. It was followed by Operation Sidewinder (1970), Curse of the Starving Class (1977), Buried Child (1978; Pulitzer Prize, 1979; rewritten by Shepard, 1995), True West (1980), Fool for Love (1983), A Lie of the Mind (1985), and Simpatico (1994), among others. Shepard became known for his oblique story lines, slightly mysterious characters, verbal skills, and use of surreal elements with images of popular culture. He also worked on motion pictures, coauthoring the screenplay for Zabriskie Point (1970) and writing the screenplay for Paris, Texas (1984); and wrote two short-story collections, Motel Chronicles (1982) and Cruising Paradise (1996). Shepard acted in a number of motion pictures, including Days of Heaven (1978), Frances (1982), The Right Stuff (1983), Fool for Love (1985), Baby Boom (1987), Crimes of the Heart (1987), Thunderheart (1992), and Safe Passage (1994).