United States-based playwright, actor, author, screenwriter and director Sam Shepard passed away on July 30 at his home in Kentucky at the age of 73, BroadwayWorld reported on Monday. Shepard had been suffering from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis for some time.

Shepard received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play, Buried Child. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as pilot Chuck Yeager in the 1983 film The Right Stuff.

Shepard received the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater award in 2009. Cowboys, The Rock Garden, Chicago, Icarus’s Mother, 4-H Club, Red Cross, La Turista, Cowboys #2, Forensic & the Navigators, The Unseen Hand and Oh! Calcutta! are some of his famous plays.

He authored 44 plays and several short stories, essays and memoirs.