Died Today (December 28th): Sam Peckinpah (1925–1984)

Sam Peckinpah (1925–1984)

Born: February 21, 1925 in Fresno, California, USA
Died: December 28, 1984 (age 59) in Inglewood, California, USA

[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.

Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid 1973 dir. Sam Peckinpah Starring James Coburn Kristofferson

Bring me the Head of Alfredo Garcia 1974 dir. by Sam Peckinpah starring Warren Oates

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