An American playwright, actor and television and film director. He is the author of several books of short stories, essays and memoirs and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play Buried Child. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of pilot Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff (1983).

He was also screenwriter on Antonioni's Zabriskie Point and drummed sporadically between 1967 and 1971 with psychedelic folk band The Holy Modal Rounders. It is said but not confirmed that he wrote the screenplay for Paris, Texas.