Shepard was born in Fort Sheridan, Illinois and worked on a farm as a adolescent. His father, Samuel Shepard Rogers II, was a tutor, grower, and served in the Air Force as a bomber pilot during World War II; his mother, Jane Elaine Schnook was a tutor and a resident of Chicago. After high school Shepard temporarily attended college, but dropped out to join a wandering theater group. He avoided the plan during the Vietnam period by claiming to be a heroin devotee. The year 1963 found him working as a busboy in Greenwich town. During this time Shepard was using criminal drugs. He was also a drummer for the weird late 1960s rock band Holy Modal Rounders, featured in the movie Easy condition. Shepard began his acting profession in earnest when he was cast as the handsome land magnate in Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven (1978), opposite Richard Gere and Brooke Adams. This led to other main films and roles, most especially his portrayal of Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff, earning him an Oscar nomination in 1984. By 1986, one of his plays, Fool for Love, was being made into a film directed by Robert Altman; his play A Lie of the Mind was on Broadway with an all-star cast as well as Harvey Keitel and Geraldine Page; he was existing with Jessica Lange; and he was working gradually as a film actor -- all of which put him on the cover up of Newsweek journal. Earlier in his life, all through the defiance of the 1960s, Shepard had vowed legendary, "I never want to be on the cover up of Newsweek."
Sam Shepherd was out of action Saturday in Illinois for drunken driving and speeding. The correct Stuff star told officers in the town of usual that he had made a pitstop at a limited watering gap before description to a hotel around 2 a.m. He was pulled over for liability 46 in a 30 mph zone, and his blood-alcohol level registered double the authorized limit, police said. Shepard posted $300 and was on the loose from the McLean County jail a few hours later, and he most likely resumed his road tour back the Kentucky home he shares with Jessica Lange. No court date has been planned. As an actor, Shepherd's best known for his Oscar-nominated turn as Chuck Yeager in The Right things; other credits comprise Black Hawk Down, The Notebook and contrary Brad Pitt in The shooting of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. As a playwright, he won a Pulitzer Prize for Buried Child. He's also been chosen for Tony, Emmy and Golden Globe awards.
