Sam Peckinpah Biography: Age, Parents, Ethnicity, Relationship

Known for movies

Short Info

Died	December 28, 1984, Inglewood, California, United States
Spouse	Joey Gould, Begoña Palacios, Marie Selland
Mark	Often collaborated with Jerry Fielding and Lucien Ballard
Fact	The last project he directed was a music video for John Lennon's son Julian Lennon.

Sam Peckinpah was an American film director and screenwriter who became known for his highly stylized and often controversial films. His best-known works include The Wild Bunch (1969) and Straw Dogs (1971). Peckinpah’s films often deal with themes of violence and betrayal, and his characters are often anti-heroes.

Peckinpah was born on February 21, 1925, in Fresno, California. His father, Leo, was a doctor, and his mother, Edith (née Steinberg), was a schoolteacher. He had two older sisters, Gloria and Joanne. Peckinpah’s parents were Jewish, but he was raised in a Christian household.

Peckinpah’s father died when he was eight years old, and his mother remarried soon after. His stepfather, Fred Maas, was an abusive man, and Peckinpah later said that he was beaten by Maas on a regular basis.

Peckinpah’s early education was sporadic; he attended several different schools in the Fresno area before finally graduating from high school in 1943. He then enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and served in the Pacific Theater during World War II.

After the war, Peckinpah attended Stanford University on the G.I. Bill. He initially studied English literature, but he eventually switched to drama. He graduated from Stanford in 1950.

Peckinpah’s first job in the entertainment industry was as a writer for the TV series The Rifleman. He also wrote for a number of other TV shows, including The Westerner and Gunsmoke.

In 1961, Peckinpah made his directorial debut with The Deadly Companions. The film was not a success, but it did catch the attention of producer Jerry Bresler, who hired Peckinpah to direct The Wild Bunch.

The Wild Bunch was a critical and commercial success, and it cemented Peckinpah’s reputation as a director who was not afraid to push the envelope. The film’s graphic violence caused controversy, but it also earned Peckinpah a reputation as a master filmmaker.

Peckinpah followed up The Wild Bunch with another controversial film, Straw Dogs (1971). The film was denounced by many critics, but it was also a box office success.

In the 1970s, Peckinpah’s career began to decline. His films were not as successful as they had been in the previous decade, and he began to struggle with alcoholism.

Peckinpah’s final film was The Osterman Weekend (1983). The film was not well-received by critics or audiences, and it marked the end of Peckinpah’s Hollywood career.

Peckinpah died of heart failure on December 28, 1984, at the age of 59. He was survived by his wife, Joie Lee, and their two daughters, Gabrielle and Amanda.

Peckinpah was a controversial figure during his lifetime, but his films have since been recognized as classics of American cinema. His work is characterized by its brutal violence, complex characters, and moral ambiguity.

General Info

Full Name	Sam Peckinpah
Died	December 28, 1984, Inglewood, California, United States
Height	1.75 m
Profession	Actor, Film director, Screenwriter, Television Director, Television producer
Education	California State University, Fresno, University of Southern California
Nationality	American

Family

Spouse	Joey Gould, Begoña Palacios, Marie Selland
Children	Lupita Peckinpah, Matthew Peckinpah, Kristen Peckinpah, Sharon Peckinpah
Parents	Fern Louise Church, David Edward Peckinpah

Accomplishments

Nominations	Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film, DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Television, Writers Guild of America Award for Best TV Anthology, Any Length, Writers Guild of America Award for Television Be...
Movies	The Wild Bunch, Straw Dogs, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, The Getaway, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, The Ballad of Cable Hogue, Ride the High Country, Cross of Iron, Convoy, Major Dundee, Junior Bonner, The Osterman Weekend, The Killer Elite, The Deadly Companions, Invasion of the Body Snatc...
TV Shows	The Rifleman, The Westerner

Social profile links

IMDB	http://imdb.com/name/nm0001603

Marks

#	Marks / Signs
1	His characters often die graphic and emotionally agonizing deaths.
2	Often collaborated with Jerry Fielding and Lucien Ballard
3	Frequently cast Jason Robards, James Coburn, Emilio Fernández, Warren Oates, Kris Kristofferson, Ben Johnson, David Warner, Slim Pickens and L.Q. Jones.
4	The lead character (or characters) in most of his films live by a code of conduct or honor that proves to be obsolete in the face of changing times.
5	Mirrored Sunglasses
6	Balletic, slow-motion action sequences, edited so that the deaths of two or more characters are shown simultaneously.
7	The films he directed were notorious for their extremely violent and bloody action sequences and climaxes.

Quotes

#	Quote
1	[on how screenwriting allowed him to become a director] Yeah, but it was hell, because I hate writing. I suffer the tortures of the damned. I can't sleep and it feels like I'm going to die any minute. Eventually, I lock myself away somewhere, out of reach of a gun, and get it on in one big push. I'd always been around writers and had friends who were writers, but I'd never realized what a lot of goddamned anguish is involved. But it was a way to break in. I paid my dues in this business. I was a go fer, a stagehand. I swept studios and I watch a few good people work. The I started writing and finally selling TV scripts. And after a while I decided to try my hand at movies. I always had two or three projects going at a time. I'd put everything into them and I'd sell a few and then they'd disappear.
2	The whole underside of our society has always been violence and still is. Churches, laws--everybody seems to think that man is a noble savage. But he's only an animal. A meat-eating, talking animal. Recognize it. He also has grace and love and beauty. But don't say to me we're not violent.
3	[on R.G. Armstrong] R.G. Armstrong played righteous villainy better than anybody I've ever seen.
4	[Responding to critics of his films as being too violent] Well, killing a man isn't clean and quick and simple. It's bloody and awful. And maybe if enough people come to realize that shooting somebody isn't just fun and games, maybe we'll get somewhere.
5	[on Four Star Productions, Dick Powell, and the genesis of The Rifleman (1958)] I did this one script for Gunsmoke (1955) that Charles Marquis Warren turned down--said it was a piece of shit! I knew it was one of the best things I'd written, so I took it back and reworked it and Dick Powell at Four Star bought it as a pilot for "The Rifleman". Dick Powell was really a fine gentleman and the eagle behind Four Star's success; he helped me a great deal. I didn't direct the first "Rifleman"; Arnold Laven did that. I just wrote it. I did direct four of them before I left, however. The first one I directed I also wrote, called "The Marshal" [The Rifleman: The Marshal (1958)]. It was the episode that brought in Paul Fix as the reformed drunk who became the marshal--a part he played for five years.
6	[on his departure from The Rifleman (1958)] I walked from the series because Jules V. Levy and that group had taken over my initial concept and perverted it into pap. They wouldn't let [Johnny Crawford] grow up; they refused to let it be the story of a boy who grows to manhood learning what it's all about.
7	[Discussing the protagonist of his series, The Westerner (1960)] I wanted to create a truly realistic saddle bum of the west. I wanted to make him as honest and real as I could do it. I drew him unlettered--most of these guys couldn't read or write. Not too bright. Certainly unheroic. I know cowboys. I grew up on a cattle ranch--in Merced County [California]. I wanted to draw a real one. No hero, no lawman, no bounty--a real saddle tramp. That's what Dave Blassingame is--a saddle tramp. Sure, sometimes he gets into funny situations--like in "Libby". Sometimes he tries to be a hero, like in "Jeff", tries to rescue a girl from a lousy life and the bum she's in love with. But he fails because he's not cut from any heroic mold.
8	[recalling how close 1963's _"The Dick Powell Theatre" (1961) {The Losers (#2.16)}_ came to becoming a series] "The Losers" was a funny show. We had Keenan Wynn and Lee Marvin locked up for a series with it until Tom McDermott wouldn't pay Lee's price. Well, after the show continued to draw a large segment of the audience around the sixth time out, McDermott called Lee and raised the ante to something like a million dollars and Lee told him to go stick it up his ass! I've always liked Lee for that--it cost me a lot of money at the time but I would've done the same thing in Lee's place.
9	[on Kris Kristofferson] I like Kris because he writes poetry and he's a fucking good man. Working with Kris on Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973) was one of the great experiences of my life.
10	[interview in Le Devoir, 10/12/74] I don't want to hear it said that I don't like women! I tried to show in [Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)] that I adore them. They represent the positive pole of the film, the life force and instinct.
11	The end of a picture is always an end of a life.
12	I want to be able to make westerns like [Akira Kurosawa] makes westerns.

Facts

#	Fact
1	Drank up to four bottles of whisky or vodka a day.
2	The character Roger the Alien from American Dad! (2005) has a pet parrot called Lady Peckinpah in one episode.
3	Worked for 12 days as second-unit director in Jinxed! (1982) while director Don Siegel was recovering from a heart-attack while shooting the movie. Though Peckinpah wasn't popular--or even liked very much--in Hollywood in the late 1970s due to his many troubled productions, Siegel insisted on hiring him (as he had been a mentor to the future director many years earlier) and he wanted to help his friend. Though working uncredited in Siegel's film, their collaboration was noted in the movie industry, and that resulted in Peckinpah returning to directing with The Osterman Weekend (1983), which would be his final film.
4	According to an interview with L.Q. Jones available on YouTube, one time Slim Pickens proposed to loan $5000 to his friend Sam, who was broke at this time. The offer resulted in Peckinpah never speaking to Pickens again.
5	Was to have worked with Joan Didion on Play It As It Lays (1972), but it never materialized.
6	In an interview with Jim Silke, Peckinpah listed the following as his favorite films: Rashômon (1950); The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), which he called "possibly the finest motion picture ever made"; La Strada (1954), a film that he named as one he would have liked to have made; Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959); Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole (1951); Carol Reed's Odd Man Out (1947); Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (1948); La Dolce Vita (1960); On the Waterfront (1954); Last Year at Marienbad (1961); Pather Panchali (1955), the first film in Satyajit Ray's "Apu" trilogy; John Ford's Tobacco Road (1941); A Place in the Sun (1951); My Darling Clementine (1946); Viva Zapata! (1952); Shane (1953); Jirí Sequens' Zakázané hry (1959); High Noon (1952); The Great Armored Car Swindle (1961), Howard Hawks' adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's To Have and Have Not (1944); and Ingmar Bergman's The Magician (1958).
7	Was offered the chance to direct King Kong (1976) but turned it down.
8	Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume One, 1981-1985, pages 631-633. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998.
9	His nephew was television writer and producer David E. Peckinpah.
10	Father of Sharon Peckinpah, Kristen Peckinpah and Matthew Peckinpah with first wife Marie Selland, and father of Lupita Peckinpah with second wife Begoña Palacios.
11	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 brother. 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.
12	Producer Martin Ransohoff felt compelled to fire Peckinpah after the beginning of principal shooting on The Cincinnati Kid (1965) due to disagreements over the conception of the film. The incident led to a physical altercation between the two. In the early 1970s, remarking on their fight, Peckinpah claimed Ransofhoff got the worst of it: "I stripped him as naked as one of his badly told lies", claimed the director known as "Bloody Sam" for the violence in his films. Peckinpah was replaced with Norman Jewison, a relative newcomer to feature film directing at the time, whose long and successful career as a journeyman filmmaker and producer brought him three Oscar nominations as best director and the Irving Thalberg Award in 1999 from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. Peckinpah, a master before he was discombobulated by substance abuse, received only one Academy Award nomination in his career, for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Wild Bunch (1969).
13	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 only film Brando 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).
14	In his January 1972 Playboy interview, Peckinpah was asked to comment about critic Pauline Kael's assertion that in Straw Dogs (1971), he endorsed rape by having the protagonist's wife seemingly enjoy being violated by her ex-boyfriend. Pointing out that the scene in question was actually the first stage of a gangbang and that the wife clearly did not enjoy being taken by the second man, he went on to gently criticize Kael, who was a great admirer and supporter of his. Noting that he had shared a drink with Kael and liked her personally, Peckiinpah said that on the subject of his movie endorsing rape, "she's cracking walnuts with her ass."
15	Served in the US Marine Corps during World War II, but did not see combat.
16	In 1976 he signed a contract to film "Cukoo's Progress", a novel by Swedish author Sture Dahlström. The novel is about Xerxes Sonson Pickelhaupt, whose life's ambition is to impregnate every women on the face of the earth. He died before the movie was made, but Dahlstrom still got paid.
17	Was voted the 32nd Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
18	He wrote his scripts by hand in his nearly illegible scribble. Only two women were ever employed as his secretaries because they were the only ones who could transcribe his terrible handwriting.
19	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.
20	The last project he directed was a music video for John Lennon's son Julian Lennon.
21	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)

Pictures

Movies

Writer

Title	Year	Status
Straw Dogs	2011	earlier screenplay
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia	1974	screenplay / story
Straw Dogs	1971	screenplay
The Wild Bunch	1969	screenplay
Villa Rides	1968	screenplay
ABC Stage 67	1966	TV Series writer - 1 episode
The Glory Guys	1965
Major Dundee	1965	screenplay
The Dick Powell Theatre		TV Series story - 1 episode, 1963 teleplay - 1 episode, 1962
Ride the High Country	1962	uncredited
The Westerner		TV Series 3 episodes, 1960 creator - 9 episodes, 1960 written by - 1 episode, 1960
Klondike		TV Series writer - 1 episode, 1960 story - 1 episode, 1960 teleplay - 1 episode, 1960
Pony Express	1960	TV Series writer - 1 episode
Zane Grey Theater		TV Series 1 episode, 1960 writer - 3 episodes, 1958 - 1959
The Rifleman		TV Series teleplay - 3 episodes, 1958 - 1959 written by - 3 episodes, 1958 - 1959 story - 2 episodes, 1958 - 1959
Broken Arrow		TV Series teleplay - 2 episodes, 1957 writer - 1 episode, 1958
Man Without a Gun	1958	TV Series written by - 1 episode
Gunsmoke	1955-1958	TV Series screenplay by - 11 episodes
Tombstone Territory	1958	TV Series teleplay - 1 episode
Have Gun - Will Travel	1958	TV Series written by - 1 episode
Trackdown	1957	TV Series writer - 1 episode
Tales of Wells Fargo	1957	TV Series teleplay and story - 1 episode
The 20th Century-Fox Hour	1957	TV Series teleplay - 1 episode
Mr. Adams and Eve	1957	TV Series

Director

Title	Year	Status
Essential Music Videos: Classic '80s	2004	Video short video "Too Late for Goodbyes"
Julian Lennon: Too Late for Goodbyes	1984	Video short
Julian Lennon: Valotte	1984	Video short
The Osterman Weekend	1983
Convoy	1978
Cross of Iron	1977
The Killer Elite	1975
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia	1974
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid	1973
The Getaway	1972
Junior Bonner	1972
Straw Dogs	1971
The Ballad of Cable Hogue	1970
The Wild Bunch	1969
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre	1967	TV Series 1 episode
ABC Stage 67	1966	TV Series 1 episode
Major Dundee	1965
The Dick Powell Theatre	1962-1963	TV Series 2 episodes
Ride the High Country	1962
Route 66	1961	TV Series 1 episode
The Deadly Companions	1961
The Westerner	1960	TV Series 5 episodes
Klondike	1960	TV Series
Zane Grey Theater	1959-1960	TV Series 3 episodes
The Rifleman	1958-1959	TV Series 4 episodes
Broken Arrow	1958	TV Series 1 episode

Producer

Title	Year	Status
The Ballad of Cable Hogue	1970	producer
The Dick Powell Theatre	1962-1963	TV Series producer - 2 episodes
The Westerner	1960	TV Series producer - 13 episodes

Actor

Title	Year	Character
The Osterman Weekend	1983	Maxwell danforth's aide (uncredited)
The Visitor	1979	Dr. Sam Collins
China 9, Liberty 37	1978	Wilbur Olsen, Dime Novelist
Convoy	1978	News Crew Director (uncredited)
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid	1973	Will (uncredited)
Junior Bonner	1972	Man in Palace Bar (uncredited)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers	1956	Charlie
Wichita	1955	Bank Teller (uncredited)
An Annapolis Story	1955	Pilot (uncredited)
Dial Red O	1955	Cook in Diner (uncredited)

Miscellaneous

Title	Year	Status
Morbo	1972	screenplay supervisor - uncredited
Crime in the Streets	1956	dialogue coach - as David S. Peckinpah
World Without End	1956	dialogue director - uncredited
An Annapolis Story	1955	dialogue coach
Dial Red O	1955	dialogue coach
Private Hell 36	1954	dialogue director - as David Peckinpah
Riot in Cell Block 11	1954	production assistant - uncredited

Art Department

Title	Year	Status	Character
The Liberace Show	1952	TV Series stagehand

Assistant Director

Title	Year	Status	Character
Jinxed!	1982	second unit director - uncredited

Soundtrack

Title	Year	Status	Character
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia	1974	"Bad Blood Baby"

Thanks

Title	Year	Status
Palominas	2017	inspirational thanks pre-production
Santiago Violenta	2014	inspirational thanks
Nosferatu vs. Father Pipecock & Sister Funk	2014	special thanks
Edición Especial Coleccionista	2013	TV Series in memory of - 1 episode
Django Unchained	2012	dedicatee
Tráiganme la Cabeza de la Mujer Metralleta	2012	acknowledgment
Passion & Poetry: Sam's War	2011	Video documentary in memory of
Vixen Highway 2006: It Came from Uranus!	2010	special thanks
Dream House	2009	Video short special thanks
Henry John and the Little Bug	2009	Short special thanks
Little Red Riding Hood	2009/I	Video short special thanks
Ten Dead Men	2008	inspiration, thanks and love to the works of
Death Proof	2007	special thanks
Running Scared	2006	film dedicated to
Killer: A Journal of Murder	1995	dedicatee
Bring Me the Head of Charlie Brown	1986	Short dedicatee - as Sam 'The Man' Peckinpah

Self

Title	Year	Status	Character
Un pasota con corbata	1982		Himself (as Sam Peckimpah)
Dinah!	1975	TV Series	Himself
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson	1972	TV Series	Himself
On Location: Dustin Hoffman	1971	TV Short documentary	Himself
Cinema	1971	TV Series documentary	Himself
The David Frost Show	1970	TV Series	Himself
The Irv Kupcinet Show	1970	TV Series	Himself

Archive Footage

Title	Year	Status	Character
I Am Steve McQueen	2014	Documentary	Himself
The Greatest Ever War Films	2014	TV Movie documentary	Himself (1976)
Passion & Poetry: Sam's Trucker Movie	2013	Documentary	Himself
Edición Especial Coleccionista	2013	TV Series	Himself
Passion & Poetry: Sam's Killer Elite	2013	Video short	Himself
Passion & Poetry: Sam's War	2011	Video documentary	Himself
For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism	2009	Documentary	Himself
Passion & Poetry: Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs	2007	Video documentary short	Himself
Edge of Outside	2006	Documentary	Himself
Filmmakers in Action	2005	Documentary	Himself
Passion & Poetry: Major Dundee	2005	Video short	Himself
Passion & Poetry: The Ballad of Sam Peckinpah	2005	Documentary	Himself
Sam Peckinpah's West: Legacy of a Hollywood Renegade	2004	TV Movie documentary	Himself
Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession	2004	TV Movie documentary	Himself
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex, Drugs and Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood	2003	Documentary	Himself
Sam Peckinpah: Man of Iron	1993	TV Movie documentary	Himself
Hollywood Mavericks	1990	Documentary	Himself
La nuit des Césars	1985	TV Series documentary	In Memoriam

Awards

Won Awards

Year	Award	Ceremony	Nomination	Movie
2011	OFTA Film Hall of Fame	Online Film & Television Association	Creative
1984	Special Jury Prize	Cognac Festival du Film Policier		The Osterman Weekend (1983)
1984	TF1 Special Award	Cognac Festival du Film Policier		The Osterman Weekend (1983)
1984	Golden Boot	Golden Boot Awards
1971	KCFCC Award	Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards	Best Director	Straw Dogs (1971)

Nominated Awards

Year	Award	Ceremony	Nomination	Movie
1970	Oscar	Academy Awards, USA	Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Material Not Previously Published or Produced	The Wild Bunch (1969)
1970	DGA Award	Directors Guild of America, USA	Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures	The Wild Bunch (1969)
1970	Golden Laurel	Laurel Awards	Director	8th place.
1968	WGA Award (TV)	Writers Guild of America, USA	Best Written Dramatic Anthology	Noon Wine (1966)
1967	DGA Award	Directors Guild of America, USA	Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Television	Noon Wine (1966)
1958	WGA Award (TV)	Writers Guild of America, USA	Western	The 20th Century-Fox Hour (1955)
1957	WGA Award (TV)	Writers Guild of America, USA	Episodic Drama, 30 Minutes in Length	Gunsmoke (1955)