Sam Peckinpah

Sam Peckinpah David Samuel “Sam” Peckinpah (/ˈpɛkɪnˌpɑː/;[1] 2 Life February 21, 1925 – December 28, 1984) was an Amer- ican film director and screenwriter who achieved promi- nence following the release of the Western epic The Wild David Samuel “Sam” Peckinpah was born February 21, Bunch (1969). He was known for the visually innovative 1925, in Fresno, California, where he attended both [9] and explicit depiction of action and violence as well as his grammar school and high school. He spent much time revisionist approach to the Western genre. skipping classes with his brother to engage in cowboy ac- tivities on their grandfather Denver Church's ranch, in- Peckinpah’s films generally deal with the conflict between cluding trapping, branding, and shooting. During the values and ideals, and the corruption of violence in human 1930s and 1940s, Coarsegold and Bass Lake were still society. He was given the nickname “Bloody Sam” owing populated with descendants of the miners and ranchers to the violence in his films. His characters are often loners of the 19th century. Many of these descendants worked or losers who desire to be honorable, but are forced to on Church’s ranch. At that time, it was a rural area un- compromise in order to survive in a world of nihilism and dergoing extreme change, and this exposure is believed to brutality. have affected Peckinpah’s Western films later in life.[10] Peckinpah’s combative personality, marked by years of He played on the junior varsity football team while at alcohol and drug abuse, affected his professional legacy. Fresno High School, but frequent fighting and discipline Many of his films were noted for behind-the-scenes bat- problems caused his parents to enroll him in the San tles with producers and crew members, damaging his rep- Rafael Military Academy for his senior year.[11] In 1943, utation and career during his lifetime. Some of his films, he joined the United States Marine Corps. Within two including Straw Dogs (1971), Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid years, his battalion was sent to China with the task of dis- (1973) and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974), arming Japanese soldiers and repatriating them following remain controversial. World War II. While his duty did not include combat, he claims to have witnessed acts of war between Chinese and Japanese soldiers. According to friends, these included 1 Family origins several acts of torture and the murder of a laborer by sniper fire. The American Marines were not permitted to intervene. Peckinpah also claimed he was shot dur- The Peckinpahs originated from the Frisian Islands in the northwest of Europe. Both sides of Peckinpah’s fam- ing an attack by Communist forces. Also during his final ily migrated to the American West by covered wagon weeks as a Marine, he applied for discharge in Peking, in the mid-19th century.[2] Peckinpah and several rela- so he could marry a local woman, but was refused. His tives often claimed Native American ancestry, but this experiences in China reportedly deeply affected Peckin- [3] pah, and may have influenced his depictions of violence has been denied by surviving family members. Peck- [12] inpah’s great-grandfather, Rice Peckinpaugh, a merchant in his films. and farmer in Indiana, moved to Humboldt County, After being discharged in Los Angeles, he attended California, in the 1850s, working in the logging busi- California State University, Fresno, where he studied his- ness, and changed the spelling of the family name to tory. While a student, he met and married his first wife, “Peckinpah.”[4][5] Peckinpah Meadow and Peckinpah Marie Selland, in 1947. A drama major, Selland intro- Creek, where the family ran a lumber mill on a moun- duced Peckinpah to the theater department and he be- tain in the High Sierra north of Coarsegold, California, came interested in directing for the first time. During his have been officially named on U.S. geographical maps.[3] senior year, he adapted and directed a one-hour version Peckinpah’s maternal grandfather was Denver S. Church, of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie. After grad- a cattle rancher, Superior Court judge and United States uation in 1948, Peckinpah enrolled in graduate studies Congressman of a California district including Fresno in drama at University of Southern California. He spent County.[6] Sam Peckinpah’s nephew is David Peckinpah, two seasons as the director in residence at Huntington who was a television producer and director, as well as Park Civic Theatre near Los Angeles before obtaining his a screenplay writer.[7] Peckinpah’s parents were David master’s degree. He was asked to stay another year, but Edward Peckinpah and Fern Louise Church, and he is Peckinpah began working as a stagehand at KLAC-TV in a cousin of former New York Yankees shortstop Roger the belief that television experience would eventually lead Peckinpaugh.[8] to work in films. Even during this early stage of his ca- 1 2 4 TELEVISION CAREER reer, Peckinpah was developing a combative streak. Re- son, and Martin Baum) in many of his films, and several portedly, he was kicked off the set of The Liberace Show of his friends and assistants stuck by him to the end of his for not wearing a tie, and he refused to cue a car sales- life. man during a live feed because of his attitude towards [13] Peckinpah spent a great deal of his life in Mexico after stagehands. his marriage to Palacios, eventually buying property in In 1954, Peckinpah was hired as a dialogue coach for the the country. He was reportedly fascinated by the Mex- film Riot in Cell Block 11. His job entailed acting as an as- ican lifestyle and culture, and he often portrayed it with sistant for the movie’s director, Don Siegel. The film was an unusual sentimentality and romanticism in his films. shot on location at Folsom Prison. Reportedly, the war- Four of his films, Major Dundee (1965), The Wild Bunch den was reluctant to allow the filmmakers to work at the (1969), Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973) and Bring Me prison until he was introduced to Peckinpah. The war- the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974), were filmed entirely den knew his family from Fresno and was immediately on location within Mexico, while The Getaway (1972) cooperative. Siegel’s location work and his use of actual concludes with a couple escaping to freedom there.[21] prisoners as extras in the film made a lasting impression on Peckinpah. He worked as a dialogue coach on four ad- ditional Siegel films: Private Hell 36 (1954), An Annapo- 3 Death lis Story, (1955, and co-starring L. Q. Jones), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and Crime in the Streets (1956).[14] Invasion of the Body Snatchers, in which Peck- Peckinpah was seriously ill during his final years, as a inpah appeared in a cameo as Charlie the meter reader, lifetime of hard living caught up with him. Regardless, starred Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter. It became he continued to work until his last months. He died [22] one of the most critically praised science fiction films of of heart failure on December 28, 1984. At the time, the 1950s. Peckinpah claimed to have done an extensive he was in preparation for shooting an original script by rewrite on the film’s screenplay, a statement which re- Stephen King entitled The Shotgunners, which later be- [23] mains controversial.[15] Nevertheless, Peckinpah’s associ- came a book called The Regulators. He lived at the ation with Siegel established him as an emerging screen- Murray Hotel in Livingston, Montana, from 1979 until [24] writer and potential director. his death in 1984. Throughout much of his adult life, Peckinpah was affected by alcoholism, and, later, other forms of drug addiction. According to some accounts, he also suf- 4 Television career fered from mental illness, possibly manic depression or paranoia.[16] It is believed his drinking problems be- On the recommendation of Don Siegel, Peckinpah es- gan during his service in the military while stationed in tablished himself during the late 1950s as a scriptwriter China, when he would frequent the saloons of Tianjin of western series of the era, selling scripts to Gunsmoke, and Beijing.[17] After divorcing Selland, the mother of Have Gun – Will Travel, The Rifleman, Broken Arrow, his first four children, in 1960, he married the Mexi- Klondike, and Dick Powell’s Zane Grey Theatre.[21][25] He can actress Begoña Palacios in 1965. A stormy relation- wrote one episode “The Town” (December 13, 1957) ship developed, and over the years they married on three for the CBS series, Trackdown, starring Robert Culp as separate occasions. They had one daughter together.[18] the Texas Ranger Hoby Gilman. The script is about a His personality reportedly often swung between a sweet, cowardly town afraid to resist the clutches of an outlaw soft-spoken, artistic disposition, and bouts of rage and vi- gang.[26] olence during which he verbally and physically abused Peckinpah wrote a screenplay from the novel The Authen- himself and others. An experienced hunter, Peckinpah tic Death of Hendry Jones, a draft that evolved into the was fascinated with firearms and was known to shoot 1961 Marlon Brando film One-Eyed Jacks.[27] His writ- the mirrors in his house while abusing alcohol, an im- ing led to directing, and he directed a 1958 episode of [19] age which occurs several times in his films. Peckin- Broken Arrow (generally credited as his first official di- pah’s reputation as a hard-living brute with a taste for vi- recting job) and several 1960 episodes of Klondike, (co- olence, inspired by the content in his most popular films starring James Coburn, L.

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