Sam Shepard (1943-2017)

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RIP General Garrison
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A great actor of our time, lost to ALS.
We just lost the initiative.
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I was sad to hear that news today. And he was way more than just the actor some of us know. He was a good playwrite, which is way harder. He was also a "man's man" who partied with rock stars (check out his relationship with Patti Smith!), acted, wrote plats, then went home to raise kids and ride horses and get out of the limelight and be real. I've admired him a long time.

We are also heading to Kentucky for a family funeral this week, so a weird coincidence.
 
Originally Posted By: Oro_O
I was sad to hear that news today. And he was way more than just the actor some of us know. He was a good playwrite, which is way harder. He was also a "man's man" who partied with rock stars (check out his relationship with Patti Smith!), acted, wrote plats, then went home to raise kids and ride horses and get out of the limelight and be real. I've admired him a long time.

We are also heading to Kentucky for a family funeral this week, so a weird coincidence.


Shepard's relationship with Smith was very interesting...he was married to O-lan Jones at the time, if you have seen "Natural Born Killers" she was the waitress who flirts with Woody/Mickey over key lime pie and ends up getting shot. Smith wrote that she got along very well with Jones at the time, despite being in a romantic relationship with her husband.
Shepard was a drummer in a band at the time and also wrote a play called "Cowboy Mouth" with Smith during their time together. I don't know offhand if Sam wrote an autobiography, but I found Smith's "Just Kids" to be quite fascinating. Not much of a fan of Smith's music, but I do like some of her poems and she is a most interesting person all around.
 
Sam Shepard's portrayal of Chuck Yeager was outstanding. Best part of a great movie, and he was nominated for an Oscar for that role.

Ironically - Chuck Yeager is still with us.
 
Originally Posted By: Astro14
Sam Shepard's portrayal of Chuck Yeager was outstanding. Best part of a great movie, and he was nominated for an Oscar for that role.

Ironically - Chuck Yeager is still with us.


I was in my teens when "The Right Stuff" came out and thought that Shepard was just THE MAN.
I was amazed when I read that he was also a playwright.
Still watch this movie from time to time, usually just in pieces while I'm on the treadmill. Shepard/Yeager's over the shoulder return toast to Crossfield as he dances with Glennis is one of the coolest moments in film to me...
 
"The Right Stuff" was an excellent movie. Loved the way he portrayed Chuck. Did you know that Chuck made a cameo appearance as the bar owner in the beginning of the movie?
 
Originally Posted By: Schmoe
"The Right Stuff" was an excellent movie. Loved the way he portrayed Chuck. Did you know that Chuck made a cameo appearance as the bar owner in the beginning of the movie?


Well, actually, the bar owner, Pancho Barnes, was a woman. The real Chuck Yeager played something akin to a bar-back. I was able to attend a performance of selected scenes from Shepard's plays when I was in college. Interesting stuff.
 
Pancho, haven't heard that name since I read the book The Right Stuff. What a novel. Tom Wolfe has written some great books.
 
Pancho Barnes was quite the female aviation pioneer herself. Look her up if you're interested.
 
Originally Posted By: DBMaster
Pancho Barnes was quite the female aviation pioneer herself. Look her up if you're interested.



The Happy Bottom Riding Club......what a character she was.
 
Originally Posted By: Astro14
Sam Shepard's portrayal of Chuck Yeager was outstanding. Best part of a great movie, and he was nominated for an Oscar for that role.

Ironically - Chuck Yeager is still with us.

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Outstanding movie and portrayal of Chuck Yeager by Sam Shepard. He also won a Pulitzer Prize as a playwright. I've always been a fan of his.

I heard about his death yesterday ... such sad news. When I read that he was battling ALS, I didn't know anything about that. So sorry to hear that he was battling that terrible disease. A friend of mine passed away from ALS when he was 50.
 
He was awesome in some more laid back parts too, such as the husband and father in "Country", and Dolly Parton's husband in "Steel Magnolias", our even the small town vet in "Baby Boom"...he was very versatile at many things and he will be missed...
 
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