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The Actor "Acting is a masochistic form of exhibitionism. It is not quite the occupation of an adult." Sir Laurence Olivier |
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Shepard began his acting career in earnest when he was cast as the handsome but doomed land baron in Terrence Malick's "Days of Heaven" (1978), opposite Richard Gere and Brooke Adams. This led to other important films and roles, most notably his portrayal of Chuck Yeager in "The Right Stuff", earning him an Oscar nomination in 1984. Shepard has been quoted as saying: "I don't think of myself as an actor. I think of myself as a writer. Acting affords me the time to write." By 1986, one of his plays, "Fool for Love", was being made into a film directed by Robert Altman; his play "A Lie of the Mind" was on Broadway with an all-star cast including Harvey Keitel and Geraldine Page; he was living with Jessica Lange; and he was working steadily as a film actor -- all of which put him on the cover of Newsweek magazine. Earlier in his life, during the rebellion of the 1960s, Shepard had vowed famously, "I never want to be on the cover of Newsweek." Things had changed. Although he played a famous pilot in The Right Stuff and went through an airliner crash in the film "Voyager" (1992), Shepard is known for his aversion to flying. According to one account, he vowed never to fly again after a very rocky trip on an airliner coming back from Mexico in the '60's. However, he allowed the real Chuck Yeager to take him up in a jet plane in 1984, when he was preparing for his role as Yeager in "The Right Stuff." Whether he is playing a frontier lawman who needs a shot at redemption in "Purgatory" (1999), a former Texas Ranger who reluctantly joins a manhunt in "Streets of Laredo" (1995), or, most recently, a burned-out Western movie star who wants to repair frayed family ties in Wim Wenders' "Don't Come Knocking", Shepard effortlessly conveys the authority and authenticity that audiences traditionally associate with the strong-and-silent icons who gallop through our collective pop culture consciousness. |
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FILMOGRAPHY |
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To J's Magic |