Playwright, actor and director Sam Shepard has died at the age of 73.

BroadwayWorld broke the news that Shepard, who had been ill with ALS for some time, died peacefully on July 30th at home in Kentucky, surrounded by his children and sisters.

Shepard wrote forty-four plays as well as several books spanning short stories, essays, and memoirs.

He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play Buried Child and the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award as a master American dramatist in 2009.

He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of pilot Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff (1983). More recent credits of his include Mud opposite Matthew McConaughey and August: Osage Country. He also starred in Black Hawk Down and Swordfish.

Shepard is survived by his three children, including Jesse Mojo Shepard, 47, from his marriage to O-Lan Jones, and Hannah Jane Shepard, 31, and Samuel Walker Shepard, 30, from his longtime relationship with Jessica Lange. He was married to Jones from 1969 until their divorce in 1984. His relationship with Lange lasted from 1982 until 2009, when they separated.