Actor and playwright Sam Shepard is dead at the age of 73. "Broadway World" is reporting Shepard passed yesterday at his home in Kentucky. Shepard earned an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of pilot Chuck Yeager in the 1983 movie "The Right Stuff." Shepard also wrote 45 plays, including the "Buried Child" that won a Pulitzer Prize in 1979. Shepard had been ill for some time with ALS. Shepard lived with actress Jessica Lange since 1982 before they split in 2011.