Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Sam Shepard dies at 73

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Sam Shepard died Sunday at the age of 73, Broadway World reports. Shepard had reportedly been suffering from ALS.

Also an actor and director, Shepard won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Buried Child and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in 1983's The Right Stuff.

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"Shepard's plays are chiefly known for their bleak, poetic, often surrealist elements, black humor, and rootless characters living on the outskirts of American society," Broadway World writes. "His style has evolved over the years, from the absurdism of his early Off-Off-Broadway work to the realism of Buried Child and Curse of the Starving Class."

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