On This Day
Birthday of Sam Peckinpah
February 21st 1925
09:29 21 February 2024
American film director and screenwriter Sam Peckinpah was born on this day in 1925. Peckinpah began directing plays when he attended California State University, before going on to obtain a master's degree in drama from the University of Southern California in 1952. In 1954 he was hired as an assistant to director Don Siegel and worked with Siegel on several films including 'Riot in Cell Block 11' (1954) and 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' (1956).
By the late 1950s Peckinpah was writing for and directing western TV shows including 'Gunsmoke' and 'The Westerner'. He made his feature film directorial debut with 'The Deadly Companions' (1961), a low-budget western that went largely unnoticed. His next movie, another western 'Ride the High Country (1962) fared better although it was initially given a lukewarm reception in the United States, it was a success in Europe where it was released as 'Guns in the Afternoon' and has since been acknowledged as one of his best films.
Peckinpah's unique take on the western continued with 'Major Dundee' (1965) but he had started to gain a reputation for volatile behaviour, fuelled by heavy drinking, and stories of bitter fighting with studios and clashes with cast and crew began to surface. His troubles continued when he was fired from directing the Steve McQueen movie 'The Cincinnati Kid' (1965).
It would be four years before he was given the opportunity to direct another feature film. That film was 'The Wild Bunch' (1969), his brutal yet beautiful masterpiece about a group of aging outlaws operating on the US-Mexico border in 1913. Other notable credits include 'Straw Dogs' (1971), 'The Getaway' (1972), 'Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid' (1973), 'Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia' (1974) and 'Cross of Iron' (1977).
Sam Peckinpah died of heart failure aged just 59 in December 1984. His influence is still very much alive today in the work of directors ranging from Quentin Tarantino to Edgar Wright to Kathryn Bigelow. "Bloody Sam" a unique visionary artist and one of American cinema's greatest film directors.