Sam Shepard, whose death at 73 was announced on Monday, will be remembered for his cross-discipline versatility. As a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, he penned classic off-Broadway plays including "True West," "Buried Child" and "Fool for Love." An Oscar-nominated actor, he starred in films including "Days of Heaven," "The Right Stuff," "Crimes of the Heart" and "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford." To fans of underground music, however, Shepard served a lesser-known role as the drummer for seminal New York avant-garde folk band the Holy Modal Rounders, with whom he performed on the crucial late 1960s albums "Indian War Whoop" and "The Moray Eels Eat the Holy Modal Rounders." It was in his capacity as a percussionist, in fact, that he drew the attention of a young Patti Smith, who, in her memoir "Just Friends," recounted their first early '70s meeting at seminal music club the Village Gate.

Source: Los Angeles Times July 31, 2017 17:29 UTC