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…