Actor and playwright Sam Shepard has passed away at the age of 73.

Sam Shepard wrote more than 40 plays and won the Pulitzer Prize for drama for Buried Child in 1979.

He went on to be nominated for the best supporting actor Oscar for 1983’s The Right Stuff and starred in movies like Black Hawk Down as well as co-writing 1984’s Paris, Texas.

Sam Shepard died at home in Kentucky on July 27, his family have confirmed.

His death came after he experienced complications from motor neuron disease, also known as ALS.

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Sam Shepar’s first major acting role was in Terrence Malik’s Days of Heaven in 1978, in which he starred alongside Richard Gere.

Other movie credits include Steel Magnolias, The Pelican Brief and The Accidental Husband.

More recently, Sam Shepard was seen as Robert Rayburn in two series of Netflix thriller Bloodline.

He also appears in psychological thriller Never Here, which had its premiere last month.

Sam Shepard was nominated for two other Pulitzers, for Broadway plays Fool for Love and True West. He was also nominated for two Tony Awards.

His final play was A Particle of Dread, which was first performed in New York in 2014.

Sam Shepard wrote the screenplay for Robert Altman’s big screen adaptation of his play Fool for Love. His novel, The One Inside, was published earlier this year.

A spokesman said Sam Shepard’s family was with him when he died. He is survived by children Jesse, Hannah and Walker Shepard and sisters Sandy and Roxanne Rogers.