Samuel Shepard Rogers III was born on 5 November 1943, in Ford Sheridan, Illinois USA, and is a screenwriter, director, author, actor, and playwright, best known for authoring over 44 plays. He’s also written other projects, but notably won a Pulitzer Prize for his play “Buried Child”. All of his efforts have helped put his net worth to where it is today.
How rich is Sam Shepard? As of mid-2016, sources estimate a net worth that is at $8 million, mostly earned through his success both on and off camera. He’s been nominated for an Academy Award for his work in “The Right Stuff”, and has been called “the greatest American playwright of his generation”. All of these have ensured the position of his wealth.
Sam Shepard Net Worth $8 million
In his teens, Shepard worked on a ranch, and attended Duarte (California) High School. After matriculating, he attended Mt. San Antonio College, studying agriculture before deciding to leave school and join a touring repertory group called the Bishop’s Company.
Sam persevered trying his hand at theatre, and would make appearances in several Off-Off-Broadway productions, his efforts in stage plays proved fruitful, winning him six Oble Awards from 1966 to 1968. This elevated his status as a potential screenwriter, and then he started to work on “Me and My Brother”. Some of his early works include “La Turista”, “Oh! Calcutta!” and “Indian War Whoop”. He tried writing various genres, working on the science fiction “The Unseen Hand” and the stage musical “The Rocky Horror Show”, but he decided to abandon the production of “Cowboy Mouth” after the opening night, and went to the University of California, Davis to work as a Regents’ Professor of Drama. He continued to improve his writing during this time and eventually became the playwright-in-residence at the Magic Theatre. His net worth was well advanced.
During his time there, he would produce many well-known works including “Buried Child” which would win him a Pulitzer Prize. Other projects he worked on include “A Lie of the Mind”, “Fool for Love” and “True West”. He was gaining popularity as one of the best playwrights of the time and would continue working on several more productions. In 1978, he tried his hand at an acting career in “Days of Heaven” opposite Richard Gere, and this would lead to more acting projects including “Resurrection” and “The Right Stuff” which would earn him an Academy Award nomination. He continued working both as an actor and playwright, gaining recognition in both careers.
While improving upon his career, Sam would occasionally teach and conduct seminars on theatre. He would continue to write noteworthy plays such as “The Late Henry Moss”, and would appear in the film “Black Hawk Down” which was a box office hit. Among his latest projects are a revival of “A Lie of the Mind” and “Ages of the Moon”. He has released a collection called “Day out of Days: Stories” too, which features a lot of his written work over the years.
For his personal life, it is known that Sam was married to actress O-Lan Jones from 1969 to 1984 and they have a son. In 1970, he had an affair with Patti Smith but it ended after a year. After his marriage to Jones, he met actress Jessica Lange and moved in with her in 1983. They lived together for nearly 30 years and had two children, but separated in 2009.
Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play, Obie Award for Best New American Play, Independent Spirit Robert Altman Award, Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts, US & Canada, Obie Award for Direction, Obie Award for Playwriting, American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal ...
Nominations
Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Tony Award for Best Play, Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, Virgin Atlantic Best New Play, Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie, ...
Movies
Blackthorn, The Right Stuff, Days of Heaven, Black Hawk Down, August: Osage County, Mud, Don't Come Knocking, Paris, Texas, Cold in July, Thunderheart, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Notebook, Baby Boom, Midnight Special, Safe House, Out of the Furnace, The Pelican B...
TV Shows
Streets of Laredo, Bloodline
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Quote
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[on Harry Dean Stanton] He is one of those actors who knows that his face is the story.
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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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It's one of the great tragedies of our contemporary life in America, that families fall apart. Almost everybody has that in common.
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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.
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Hollywood is geared toward teenage idiocy.
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I'm not in demand. I'm all washed up.
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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.
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Don't you find it kind of self-indulgent for actors to go around writing parts for themselves?
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I was different on drugs - crystal Methedrine, which had more of an edge. When you walked down the street, your heels made sparks.
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[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".
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"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).
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Personality is everything that's false in a human, everything that's been added on to him and contrived.
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Collaboration - that's the word producers use. That means, don't forget to kiss ass from beginning to end.
His play, "Simpatico" at the A Red Orchid Theater in Chicago, Illinois was nominated for a 2013 Equity Joseph Jefferson Award for Midsize Play Production.
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His sister Sandy Rogers is a composer and a musician.
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His sister Roxanne Rogers, a stage director, graduated in 1978 from Antioch.
Was a member of the rock band Holy Modal Rounders (1968-1971).
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Plays drums and guitar.
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Lived in England between 1971 and 1973.
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He rodeo-ed in E.M. Fredric's hometown, Salinas, California. "Steinbeck" country.
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Son of Jane Elaine (Schook) Rogers (b. 1917) and Samuel Shepard Rogers (died in 1984), both teachers.
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He did the rodeo circuit, riding broncs and bulls.
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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.
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By the time he was 30, he had already written 30 produced plays in New York.
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Born in Illinois and grew up in California.
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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."
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Lived with Jessica Lange and their children outside of Stillwater, Minnesota.
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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.
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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.
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Has a son named Jesse Mojo Shepard (May 1970) from his marriage to O-Lan Jones and two children, Hannah Jane Shepard (January 13, 1986) and Samuel Walker Shepard (June 14, 1987), from his longtime relationship with Jessica Lange.
Won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the play "Buried Child" and was nominated for the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the play "True West" and the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the play "Fool for Love".