Born in Fresno, California.
Onetime enfant terrible of the cinematic world, Sam Peckinpah's films were spectacularly violent, and liable to interpretation in often contradictory fashions. He worked initially as a scriptwriter and director of Western genre television series such as Gunsmoke and The Rifleman prior to becoming one of the most influential cinema directors of his generation.
Peckinpah's violent films had many fans, and not only among the public but fans such as Pauline Kael who reviewed films in bravura style for the New Yorker magazine. His films were visually inventive.
What disturbed Peckinpah's critics was not only how much blood and gore was spilled in his movies, but how often violence was cast as a redeeming action, bringing closure to its perpetrators and a brand of rough justice to its victims.
Filmography includes: