| Real Name: | Samuel Walker Shepard |
| Birthday: | June 14, 1987 |
| Net Worth: | N/A |
| Height: | 188 cm |
| Occupation: | American Musician, Son of Sam Shepard |
Samuel Walker Shepard is a special kind of celebrity child. Unlike most celebrity kids in Hollywood, he has chosen to work for his life and earn a living. Most celebrity children nowadays live off their parents’ money and fame.
But not Samuel. Yes, he is the son of Academy Award-winning actor, author, director, and playwright Sam Shepard. But he rose to prominence thanks to his career.
His father passed away in 2017, leaving behind three children, Jesse Shepard, Samuel, and Hannah Jane Shepard.
Samuel is the youngest in the family, but he might also be the most talented one. Let’s talk more about him.
Story Stages
Who Was His Father?
Born in November 1943 in Fort Sheridan, Illinois, Sam was an American actor, playwright, author, and director. His career spanned half a century. Born Samuel Shepard Rogers III, he won the Obie Award for writing and directing 10 times. That is the most by any writer or director. In total, Sam wrote 58 plays, several books, and short stories.
He remains one of the most celebrated dramatists in the United States of America. His work has been produced across the nation, from coffee shops to regional professional and community theaters.
Sam’s plays are regularly anthologized, and theater professors teach playwright Sam Shepard as a canonical American author. Outside of his stage work, Sam has also achieved fame as an actor and director in the film industry.
His career spanned more than 40 years, during which he amassed many awards, including the Pulitzer Prize and Cannes Palme d’Or.
Sam was the eldest of three children and led a nomadic life. His father was an army officer and former Air Force bomber during World War II. His mother, on the other hand, was a teacher. Because of his father’s career path, he had to move to different military bases.
Sam says he had a childhood living in a dysfunctional family, including an alcoholic father. That served as inspiration for the dark themes in his writings.
During his high school years, Sam began acting and writing poetry. In the beginning, he considered a veterinarian career and studied agriculture at Mount Antonio Junior College for a year. Yet, after a traveling theater group came through town, he joined them and left home. Sam toured with Bishop’s Company Repertory Players from 1962 to 1963 and then moved to New York City.
From there, his career began rising, and he continued writing amazing plays for decades. Some of his most famous plays include True West, Buried Child, Fool for Love, Cowboy Mouth, Curse of the Starving Class, A lie of the Mind, Angel City, The God of Hell, The Tooth of Crime, Simpatico, Action, La Turista, and many more.
In 1969, Sam married his first wife, actress O-Lan Jones Dark. Together, they had a son, Jesse Mojo Shepard. Then, in 1971, he had a high-profile relationship with singer Patti Smith, despite being married to Jones Dark.
He later married Samuel’s mother, Jessica Lange. More on that relationship later on. They had two children, Samuel Walker Shepard, and Hannah Jane Shepard.
Quick Bio
Born in June 1987, Samuel Walker Shepard is the son of Son Shepard, a well-known Hollywood actor, playwright, and director. His mother is Jessica Lange, an Academy Award-winning actress. He has a sister, Hannah Jane Shepard, and step-siblings, Jesse Mojo Shepard, and Shura Baryshnikov.
He is the second son of his father and third child. Born in Scottsville, Virginia, he grew up with his family. Following college, he decided to pursue a music career.
While he is a celebrity child, and his parents’ fortune could allow him a comfortable life, Samuel Shepard decided to make his own name.
In 2008, he became a member of the New York-based band, The Down Hill Strugglers, formerly known as The Dust Busters.
Obsessed with his music career, he pays little attention to his personal life. Samuel plays the guitar, the piano, and the stupid. During his spare time, he enjoys partying with his friends. Samuel lives in New York with his mother and sister.
His sister Hannah is an Academic professor, while Jesse is a writer and has authored several books. And his step-sister, Shura Baryshnikov, is an American dancer and choreographer.
Professional Career
As we said before, Samuel is a musician. He is an expert at playing banjo, guitar, fiddle, and harmonica. This contributes to The Down Hill Strugglers’ quest to bring back the spirit of Old Time Music.
He is part of the old-time string band trio from Brooklyn, New York. The band was formed in 2008 and was heavily influenced by the music that came out of rural America. They pay tribute to Appalachian traditions, music from the Deep South, and old Western States.
The original trio was Samuel Walker, Eli Smith, and Craig Judelman. Yet, in 2012, Craig left the band and was replaced by Jackson Lynch.
Smith says he developed a love for old-time music by listening to artists such as Gaither Carlton, B.F. Shelton, Roscoe Holcomb, and more.
Over the past several years, the band has toured across the United States and Europe. They appear at festivals and encourage the preservation of folk life and folk music. In 2010, they received an invitation from the US Embassy in Sofia to represent American folk music at the Bourgas International Folklore Festival.
So far, Samuel and The Dust Busters have released three albums, their self-titled album in 2009, Prohibition is a Failure in 2010 featuring John Cohen, and Old Man Below in 2012.
Inside His Parents’ Relationship
Sam Shepard was the god of American theater. He passed away at the age of 73 in 2013, following complications with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, commonly known as ALS.
For three decades, he was married to Oscar-winner Jessica Lange. She was beside him from 1982 to 2009, the longest from any of his other relationships.
In one interview, she said, “He’s a great man, a natural man, which is rare. I’ve been with a lot of men and I’ve known a lot of men. And you know I’ve had romances with what you’d call famous men, and none compare to Sam in terms of maleness”.
Speaking about the early days of their romance, she said they were in love, wild about each other, and absolutely inseparable.
They met on the set of the 1982 movie, Frances. At the time, Lange was involved with Mikhail Baryshnikov, but she began an onset affair with Shepard.
She then left Baryshnikov, a ballet dancer, and went on to have two children with Sam. Their first child, Hannah Shepard was born in 1985, and Samuel two years later.
Lange and Shepard separated in 2009 but didn’t announce they parted ways until 2011. In one interview, the Pulitzer writer said, “I’d never met anybody like her. She was astounding. One of the great things about her, aside from her natural beauty, which was remarkable, was her humbleness. I’ve never known her, ever, to lie about anything”.
Is He On Social Media?
Despite being the son of a famous Hollywood actor and playwright, Samuel has somehow managed to keep his personal life private. He is part of a successful band and still manages to keep his life private.
Samuel refrains from making his life public on social media. He doesn’t share details about himself. And you cannot find a social media profile under his name on any platform, be it Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter.
Net Worth
As we said before, Samuel Walker Shepard wanted to earn his own living and make a name for himself. While many celebrity children would happily live off their parent’s wealth, Samuel is a different kind. He earned millions thanks to his hard work.
There is no definite number about his net worth. With that in mind, we do know his father had a net worth of $1 million before his death. And his mother has a net worth of $15 million.
