Sam Shepard

Johan Callens (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)

Ed. by Aleks Sierz, Independent Scholar - Europe
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

Born 5 Sep 1943
Activity 1964-ongoing

Places

Born in United States
Active in United States; United Kingdom

Activities

Primary

Film Actor
Film Director
Film/TV Script-writer/ Screenwriter
Playwright / Dramatist
Theatre actor
Theatre Director

Other

Story-writer

Resources

Shepard's Works

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Sam Shepard Rogers III, nicknamed Steve Rogers, was born 5 November 1943, in Fort Sheridan, Illinois. The son of Jane Elaine Shook Rogers, a teacher, and an army pilot, he spent his early childhood moving from one military base to the next. Around 1949, the family settled in rural Duarte, Southern California, where Shepard received his formal education, including three semesters as an agricultural science major at Mount San Antonio Junior College. As a student he acted in college productions, amongst others of Thornton Wilder's

The Skin of Our Teeth

, and had a play of his own,

Mildew

, derivative of Tennessee Williams, published in the campus literary magazine,

MoSaiC

. It was Beckett's

Waiting for Godot

, though, which opened his eyes to the potential of drama. Soon enough he got fed up…

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3543 words

Citation: Callens, Johan. "Sam Shepard". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 January 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4052, accessed 19 April 2024.]

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