Check out the most anticipated movies and shows premiering during the summer season, from [i]Ballerina[/i] to [i]Thunderbolts*[/i].

IMDb Summer Watch Guide

Check out the most anticipated movies and shows premiering during the summer season, from <em>Ballerina</em> to <em>Thunderbolts*</em>.

These actors totally transform for their roles. See them in some of their most memorable moments.

The Greatest Character Actors of All Time

IMDb celebrates the cinematic contributions of Asians and Pacific Islanders with a list of some iconic films, new classics, and hidden gems to add to your Watchlist.

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Bob Dylan and Sam Shepard in Rolling Thunder Revue (2019)

Sam Shepard in Rolling Thunder Revue (2019)

Don Johnson, Sam Shepard, and Michael C. Hall in Cold in July (2014)

Sam Shepard in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

Sam Shepard in Don't Come Knocking (2005)

Ellen Burstyn and Sam Shepard in Resurrection (1980)

Susan Sarandon and Sam Shepard in Safe Passage (1994)

Matthew McConaughey and Sam Shepard in Mud (2012)

Sam Shepard in August: Osage County (2013)

Sissy Spacek and Sam Shepard in Bloodline (2015)

Sam Shepard and Ben Mendelsohn in Bloodline (2015)

Sissy Spacek, Sam Shepard, Linda Cardellini, Norbert Leo Butz, Kyle Chandler, Glenn Kessler, Todd A. Kessler, Ben Mendelsohn, and Daniel Zelman in Bloodline (2015)

Brooke Adams and Sam Shepard in Days of Heaven (1978)

Christian Bale and Sam Shepard in Out of the Furnace (2013)

Christian Bale, Sam Shepard, and Forest Whitaker in Out of the Furnace (2013)

Sam Shepard and Johnny Dark in Shepard & Dark (2012)

Sam Shepard and Vera Farmiga in Safe House (2012)

Diane Keaton and Sam Shepard in Baby Boom (1987)

Dermot Mulroney and Sam Shepard in Inhale (2010)

Sam Shepard and Naomi Watts in Fair Game (2010)

Barbara Hershey and Sam Shepard in The Right Stuff (1983)

Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Sam Shepard, Sam Rockwell, Garret Dillahunt, Jeremy Renner, and Paul Schneider in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

Sam Shepard and Jeremy Renner in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

Dolly Parton and Sam Shepard in Steel Magnolias (1989)

Val Kilmer, Graham Greene, and Sam Shepard in Thunderheart (1992)

Val Kilmer and Sam Shepard in Thunderheart (1992)

Sam Shepard was born Samuel Shepard Rogers in Fort Sheridan, IL, to Jane Elaine (Schook), a teacher, and Samuel Shepard Rogers, a teacher and farmer who was also in the army. As the eldest son of a US Army officer (and WWII bomber pilot), Shepard spent his early childhood moving from base to base around the US until finally settling in Duarte, CA. While at high school he began acting and writing and worked as a ranch hand in Chino. He graduated high school in 1961 and then spent a year studying agriculture at Mount San Antonio Junior College, intending to become a vet.

In 1962, though, a touring theater company, the Bishop's Company Repertory Players, visited the town and he joined up and left home to tour with them. He spent nearly two years with the company and eventually settled in New York where he began writing plays, first performing with an obscure off-off-Broadway group but eventually gaining recognition for his writing and winning prestigious OBIE awards (Off-Broadway) three years running. He flirted with the world of rock, playing drums for the Holy Modal Rounders, then moved to London in 1971, where he continued writing.

Back in the US by 1974, he became playwright in residence at San Francisco's Magic Theater and continued to work as an increasingly well respected playwright throughout the 1970s and into the '80s. Throughout this time he had been dabbling with Hollywood, having most notably in the early days worked as one of the writers on Zabriskie Point (1970), but it was his role as Chuck Yeager in 1983's The Right Stuff (1983) (co-starring Fred Ward and Dennis Quaid) that brought him to the attention of the wider, non-theater audience. Since then he has continued to write, act and direct, both on screen and in the theater.

He died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis--commonly known as Lou Gehrig's Disease--in Kentucky on July 27, 2017.

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Sam Shepard

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