Playwright Sam Shepard dies aged 73

American playwright Sam Shepard has passed away at the age of 73, according to his agent.

The playwright was the author of over 40 plays, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play Buried Child. The piece opened at Trafalgar Studios this year starring Shepard's long-term collaborator Ed Harris.

Shepard's other plays include A Lie of the Mind, which ran at Southwark Playhouse in May this year and A Fool for Love which was staged at Found111 in Charing Cross in September 2016.

The playwright's work was often characterised by a surreal, hyper-American edge. Buried Child, probably his most famous piece, was about a nuclear family set to the backdrop of 1970s economic slowdown in rural America. As well as winning Shepard the Pulitzer, the play also won the Obie Award for Playwrighting. It was nominated for five Tony Awards in 1995.

Harris and Shepard regularly worked together and in 1983 the playwright wrote the role of Eddie in A Fool for Love for Harris.

Shepard was also an actor and director and had appeared in films such as Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven as well as Resurrection in 1980 and The Right Stuff in 1983. It was his role as Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff which earned him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Shepard died at his home in Kentucky on Thursday following complications from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease. A spokesman for the family announced the news today.

In 1986, Shepard was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1992, he received the Gold Medal for Drama from the Academy, and in 1994, he was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame. In 2009 he received the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award as a master American dramatist.

Performers and writers took to social media to pay their respects to the legend of American drama.

Sam Shepard is one of the greats. These eyes saw so much, and he wrote of what he saw with fearless, timeless honesty. RIP maestro. pic.twitter.com/pIY4FWxXtZ

Is that a man?
You're damn right it is.
RIP Sam Shepard. pic.twitter.com/dOCSuqItW9

One of the most iconic shots in cinema was the final moment of Sam Shepard as Chuck Yeager in THE RIGHT STUFF. pic.twitter.com/G7YStE2XOU