Shepard & Dark

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Shepard & Dark paints an indelible portrait of a complex friendship and its winding journey over 40 years. Sam Shepard and Johnny Dark met in Greenwich Village in the early 1960s and, despite leading very different lives, remained close friends ever since. Shepard became a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright (Buried Child) and an Academy Award-nominated actor (The Right Stuff), while Dark was a homebody with a penchant for letter writing, photography, and supporting himself with odd jobs from dog-catcher to deli worker. Through the decades, they stayed bonded by family ties, as Dark married an older woman named Scarlett and Shepard married her daughter. For years the two couples lived together, until Shepard broke away in 1983 for a relationship with Jessica Lange, leaving Johnny to help father his first son. Nevertheless, he and Dark continued writing to each other, amassing hundreds of letters.