Sam was like some washed-out sun-bleached bone you find out in the desert. Even when he was young it felt like there was something very ancient about him. I never had any long conversations with him. He was an observer. He certainly liked the ladies. I think he had some difficult early family experiences with alcohol and there was certainly an emotional response to drinking. He didn’t want people around him to be sloppy. It took him to places he didn’t want to go to.
On the surface, he was a very charming, easy guy. There was a level of gregariousness about him that he could be one of the boys. There was a desert cowboy thing about him, where he was at home being alone — but happy when he got to town and took his boots off.
I think he felt comfortable with that persona. The Coyote. It fit him. It was comfortable for him and didn’t seem inauthentic. That feeling of seeing his plays that come through, that was certainly drawn out of his own experience and his own essential view of the universe.
Read the rest NEXT…