SAM SHEPARD

Ruggedly handsome, multi-talented Sam Shepard died recently at 73. He was a true modern day renaissance man. He wrote and directed many off-Broadway and Broadway plays, including True West and Fool For Love. He won not only a Tony, but the Pulitzer Prize for Buried Child. 
His filmography as an actor is varied and impressive. He knew how to pick his spots. 
Shepard’s first film appearance of note is in Terence Malik’s Days Of Heaven (1978). He is billed, simply, as The Farmer. This film is more noted for its glorious cinematography than the story, but Shepard is quite convincing as a rich but dying landowner. Richard Gere and Brooke Adams scheme to entice him into a quick marriage so they can inherit the farm. From there it gets complicated. 
Nobody could have played the iconic test pilot Chuck Yeager as well as Sam Shepard, and he garnered an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in The Right Stuff (1983). He lost to Jack Nicholson for Terms Of Endearment. Fred Ward, Dennis Quaid, Scott Glenn and Ed Harris join a stellar cast in this highly popular movie about the early days of the US space program. 
Sam Shepard appeared twice in movies that are practically all-girl. They needed a manly man and he fit the part to a tee. He was Doc Porter in Beth Henley’s Crimes of the Heart (1986) and Spud Jones in Steel Magnolias (1989). Both are excellent movies and if Shepard didn’t have a whole lot to do in them, let’s just say he did what needed to be done quite well. 
Snow Falling On Cedars (1999) is a good adaptation of David Guterson’s novel of murder and racial prejudice. Ethan Hawke plays reporter Ishmael Chambers, sent to cover the trial of a young Japanese-American accused of murdering a white fisherman. Sam Shepard plays the reporter’s father, mostly in scenes of Hawke’s early childhood. There’s also a contentious subplot involving the thwarted sale of part of a farm to a Japanese-American family that has worked the land for years. When the sale is interrupted by the outbreak of World War II, things fall apart. 
2007 brought about the big break for current stars Casey Affleck and Brad Pitt. It also brought the film with the longest title this side of Doctor Strangelove. The Assasination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford is based on Ron Hansen’s excellent novel. Pitt is the legendary Jesse, Affleck the turncoat Ford, and Sam Shepard plays Jesse’s brother Frank. Oddly enough, Robert Ford became something of a folk hero for a while and even had a traveling tent show. But audiences turned on him when they learned he had shot Jesse in the back. 
The stars of Mud (2012) are young Tye Sheraton and Jacob Lofland, who play two kids growing up pretty much on their own in Arkansas. Matthew McConaughey is the title character, on the run from the law and washed up on a deserted island where the boys find him and try to help him. Sam Shepard is Tom, who at first refuses to help Mud but later lends a hand (ok, a gun) when things get hairy. 
All of the films in this article are available on DVD. All are for grown-ups.