Sam Peckinpah

Sam Peckinpah (1925-1984), American motion-picture director, who achieved notoriety for his violent, spectacular Westerns made during the 1960s and 1970s. Born David Samuel Peckinpah in Fresno, California, to a politically influential family, he served in the United States Marine Corps during World War II (1939-1945). After the war, Peckinpah studied drama at Fresno State College and at the University of Southern California. In the early 1950s he worked in various television and theater positions before becoming an assistant director to American motion-picture director Don Siegel, who specialized in action films. During this period, Peckinpah also wrote scripts for a number of television programs set in the American West, including “Gunsmoke” (aired 1955-1975). In the late 1950s he directed several episodes of the television Western series “The Rifleman” (1958-1963) and “The Westerner” (1960).

Peckinpah directed his first feature film, The Deadly Companions in 1961. In 1962 he won critical acclaim with his film Ride the High Country, a Western considered by many to be a classic of the genre. During the mid-1960s, as a result of his repeated conflicts with film studios, Peckinpah's career lagged. He regained the attention of film critics with The Wild Bunch (1969), an epic Western starring American actors William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, and Warren Oates as aging gunfighters embittered by their sense that history has passed them by. The film established Peckinpah as one of the most innovative filmmakers in Hollywood, although its grisly slow-motion and freeze-frame murder sequences sparked heated controversy among critics and audiences alike.

Peckinpah continued to draw both controversy and acclaim for his subsequent films, which include The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970), another Western; Straw Dogs (1971), a violent sexual drama set in an English village; The Getaway (1972), a crime thriller; and Junior Bonner (1972), a light comedy. Peckinpah achieved his greatest commercial success with Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973), a Western starring American actors James Coburn and Kris Kristofferson. His last film was The Osterman Weekend (1983).