NAMES IN THE NEWS : Shepherd at 40: Soul-Searching

Cybill Shepherd turned 40 this year, and her age has prompted some soul-searching. As an actress gets older, she says, “there are doors that close for every door that opens.”

“John Wayne once said, when he was asked whether he would be an actor again if he had it to do all over, ‘Well, I would, as long as I wasn’t a woman,’ ” Shepherd said in July’s McCall’s magazine. “We don’t have much acceptance of aging, period, and it’s more difficult to be a woman.”

Shepherd recently completed filming “Texasville,” the Larry McMurtry novel that is a sequel to her first movie triumph, “The Last Picture Show.” “Texasville” reunited Shepherd and the stars of “The Last Picture Show” in the same Texas town 20 years after the original was filmed.

“But going back made me realize where I am, what my limitations are,” Shepherd said. “I just turned 40 and I’m realizing my finiteness. It’s a cliche, but it really did come home to me that I don’t have forever with the people I love.”