High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Jean Parker Shepherd (July 26, 1921 October 16, 1999) was an American raconteur, radio and TV personality, writer and actor who was often referred to by the nickname Shep. With a career that spanned decades, Shepherd is best-known to modern audiences for the film A Christmas Story (1983), which he narrated and co-scripted, based on his own semi-autobiographical stories.