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"If they move", hisses stern-eyed William Holden, "kill 'em". So begins The Wild Bunch (1969), 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" (1952)--he got a gofer job with director Don Siegel(Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)--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" (1955) and "The Rifleman" (1958) and was the creator of the critically acclaimed western series "The Westerner" (1960).

In 1961, he directed his first film, the nondescript western The Deadly Companions (1961). The next year, things got better, however. His four-star Ride the High Country (1962) featured the final screen appearances of Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea plus an aging-gunfighter storyline that anticipated The Wild Bunch (1969). Then came major problems with Major Dundee (1965), 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 (1965) 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 (1969) rejuvenated his career and propelled him through highs and lows in the 1970s. He would provoke more rancor over violence with Straw Dogs (1971), introduced Ali MacGraw to Steve McQueen in The Getaway (1972), oversee a muttering Bob Dylan in Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973) and direct from good (The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970)) to bad (Convoy (1978)) to worse (Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)). His last solid effort was the Eastern Front WW II anti-epic Cross of Iron (1977) (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".

Alternate Bio

One of Hollywood's great mavericks, this outstanding filmmaker had a life as colorful and turbulent as any of his movies; his battles with studio heads have achieved a legendary status. He began as a protégé to action-movie director Don Siegel, often working uncredited on scripts (and even acting: he played the meter reader in 1956's Invasion of the Body Snatchers). In the late 1950s he wrote and directed numerous episodes of TV Westerns, one of which, "The Westerner" (1960), he created, produced, and directed. It lasted just three months.

Peckinpah made his feature directorial debut in 1961 with a modest oater, The Deadly Companions followed the next year by the extraordinary, elegiac Western Ride the High Country which starred Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea. In 1965, he saw Major Dundee butchered by its studio-the first of many such incidentsfollowed immediately by his quick firing from The Cincinnati Kid More or less persona non grata, he worked sporadically in TV over the next few years, returning to the big screen in 1968 as coscripter (with Robert Towne) of Villa Rides He won the opportunity to direct a large-scale Western again, but The Wild Bunch (1969) wasn't quite like any Western that preceded it. Teamed with a simpatico cinematographer (Lucien Ballard), a solid Oscar-nominated script (which he wrote with Walon Green and Roy N. Sickner), and a strong cast (including William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, and "regulars" Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, L. Q. Jones, Bo Hopkins, and Strother Martin), Peckinpah emphasized what has come to be called "balletic violence," lingering in slow-motion on scenes of then-startling blood-letting. The film was hailed in some circles, reviled in others, and it made Peckinpah a much publicized enfant terrible in Hollywood.

He went West again for the kinder, gentler The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970) before making waves with the controversially violent everyman melodrama Straw Dogs (1971), then turned around and confounded his critics with another relaxed, sweet-natured film, Junior Bonner (1972), starring Steve McQueen as an aging rodeo star. McQueen then paired with Ali MacGraw in Peckinpah's biggest boxoffice hit, The Getaway (1972), a slick, sexually charged, typically violent piece of entertainment. He never enjoyed that level of success again. Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973) was mutilated by MGM, but it was championed by many critics; Peckinpah's version remained unseen until 1988. His subsequent output was erratic; no one would name Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974), The Killer Elite (1975), Cross of Iron (1977), Convoy (1978), or The Osterman Weekend (1983) among his finest work, but his films remained distinctively his just the same. (In 1978 he was persuaded to act by Monte Hellman in his China 9, Liberty 37) His last directing assignments were a pair of Julian Lennon music videos, "Too Late for Goodbyes" and "Valotte." A wild, tempestuous, hard-living man, Peckinpah alternately seduced and outraged his friends and coworkers. His talent was admired by everyone except, perhaps, the producers and studio heads for whom he worked. He was the subject of a television documentary, Sam Peckinpah: Man of Iron (1993).

Trademarks:

The films he directed were notorious for their extremely violent and bloody climaxes.

Balletic, slow-motion action sequences.

The Wild Bunch - gun battle shootout

Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia, 1974