"If they move", hisses stern-eyed William Holden, "kill 'em". So begins The Wild Bunch, Sam Peckinpah's bloody, high-body-count eulogy to the mythologized Old West. "Pouring new wine into the bottle of the Western, Peckinpah explodes the bottle", observed critic Pauline Kael. That exploding bottle also christened the director with the nickname that would forever define his films and reputation: "Bloody Sam".

David Samuel Peckinpah was born and grew up in Fresno, California, when it was still a sleepy town surrounded by pine forests. Young Sam was a loner. The child's greatest influence was grandfather Denver Church Peckinpah, a judge, congressman and one of the best shots in the Sierra Nevadas. Sam served in the Marine Corps during World War II but - to his disappointment - did not see combat. He married Marie Selland in Las Vegas in 1947 and enrolled as a theater graduate student at the University of Southern California the next year.

After drifting through several jobs--including a stint as a floor-sweeper on The Liberace Show--he got a gofer job with director Don Siegel(Invasion of the Body Snatchers--in which Sam had a small part--who took a shine to him and used him on several of his pictures. Peckinpah eventually became a scriptwriter for such TV programs as Gunsmoke and The Rifleman and was the creator of the critically acclaimed western series The Westerner.

In 1961, he directed his first film, the nondescript western The Deadly Companions. The next year, things got better, however. His four-star Ride the High Country featured the final screen appearances of Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea plus an aging-gunfighter storyline that anticipated The Wild Bunch. Then came major problems with Major Dundee, the film that brought to light his volatile reputation. During hot, on-location work in Mexico, Peckinpah's abrasive manner, exacerbated by booze and marijuana, provoked usually even-keeled Charlton Heston to threaten to run him through with a cavalry saber. Post-production conflicts led to a bitter and ultimately losing battle with the film's producer and Columbia Pictures over the final cut and, as a result, the disjointed effort fizzled at the box office. This contributed to Peckinpah's losing out the job of directing The Cincinnati Kid with Steve McQueen to Norman Jewison.

His second marriage now failing, Peckinpah did not begin his next project for two years, but it was the one for which he will always be remembered. The success of The Wild Bunch rejuvenated his career and propelled him through highs and lows in the 1970s. He would provoke more rancor over violence with Straw Dogs, introduced Ali MacGraw to Steve McQueen in The Getaway, oversee a muttering Bob Dylan in Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid and direct from good (The Ballad of Cable Hogue) to bad (Convoy) to worse (Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia). His last solid effort was the Eastern Front WW II anti-epic Cross of Iron (Maximilian Schell, James Coburn), bringing the picture in successfully despite severe financial problems,

Peckinpah lived life to its fullest. He drank hard and abused drugs, producers and collaborators. Being considered for the Stephen King-scripted "The Shotgunners", he died from heart failure in Mexico at age 59. At a gathering after wards, Coburn remembered the director as a man "who pushed me over the abyss and then jumped in after me. He took me on some great adventures".


At the time of his death, Peckinpah was in pre-production on an original script by Stephen King entitled "The Shotgunners." (Source: Cinefantastique magazine, 2/91) Ida Lupino hired him to work on her series "Mr. Adams and Eve" (1957) after she found him living in a shack behind her property. He paid her back by casting her in Junior Bonner (1972) some years later. Was voted the 32nd Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly. Served in the Marines Corps during World War II, but did not see combat. Was hired by Marlon Brando to adopt Charles Neider's novella about Billy the Kid, "The Authentic Death of Hendry Jones," that served as the basis for Brando's directorial debut, One-Eyed Jacks (1961). (The Western was the only film that the immortal actor ever directed.) While Stanley Kubrick was still slated to be the project's director, Peckinpah wrote what he believed was a good script; subsequently, he was devastated when he was let go after turning it in. Later, some of the thematic elements and scenes that survived and were showcased in "Jacks" also became part of Peckinpah's own take on the legendary outlaw, Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973). In 1954 director Don Siegel and producer Walter Wanger had been desperately trying to persuade the warden of San Quentin Prison to allow the use of the facility to film Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954), but the warden had adamantly refused. After the final meeting in the prison, when the warden had said there was nothing Siegel or Wanger could do to persuade him to allow filming there, Siegel turned to speak to Peckinpah, who at the time was his assistant. When the warden heard Peckinpah's name, he asked, "Are you related to Denver Peckinpah?". Sam replied that Denver was his father. Denver Peckinpah was a well-known judge in northern California who had a reputation as a "hanging judge" and the warden had long been an admirer of his. He immediately granted the company permission to shoot the movie in San Quentin. His nephew was the television writer and producer David E. Peckinpah Was offered the chance to direct King Kong (1976) but turned it down. Was to have worked with Joan Didion on Play It As It Lays (1972), but these plans never materialized.