Trivia - Sam Peckinpah

In honor of my latest Hollywood Obsessed podcast interview with the incredible Katherine Haber—producer of the sci-fi classic “Blade Runner” and longtime collaborator of the legendary Sam Peckinpah—I'm thrilled to celebrate the life and legacy of one of cinema’s most uncompromising visionaries.

And with what would have been Sam Peckinpah’s 100th birthday upon us, it’s the perfect time to take a look back at the man, the myth, and the unforgettable movies that made him a towering figure in film history.

Peckinpah wasn’t just a director—he was a storyteller of raw, emotional truth. His films explored the gritty tension between ideals and survival, violence and virtue, honor and desperation. Whether it was “The Getaway”, “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid”, “Cross of Iron”, or “Convoy”, his characters were often loners and outcasts struggling to stay true to themselves in a world teetering on the edge.

Yes, he was a fiercely combative artist—his battles with producers, fueled by years of substance abuse, often overshadowed his genius. But the truth is, no one made movies like Peckinpah. His work still pulses with energy, pain, beauty, and rebellion—and it continues to inspire filmmakers and audiences around the world.

So, in celebration of his centennial and Katherine Haber’s personal, behind-the-scenes stories from their years together, I’ve put together a fun and fascinating Peckinpah Trivia Challenge!

Test your knowledge, relive the unforgettable moments, and rediscover why Sam Peckinpah remains one of the most influential—and controversial—filmmakers of the 20th century.

Let’s raise a glass (and maybe a squib or two) to Sam. Enjoy!

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Sam Peckinpah was voted the 32nd Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly.

Peckinpah worked as a dialogue coach on several films in the 1950’s and 1960s including “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”, in which he appeared as ‘Charlie’ the meter reader. The film starred Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter. It became one of the most critically praised science fiction films of the 1950s. Peckinpah claimed to have done an extensive rewrite on the film's screenplay, a statement which remains controversial.

He served in the US Marine Corps during World War II, but did not see combat.

Ida Lupino hired him to work on her series “Mr. Adams and Eve” 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.

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.

Peckinpah wrote a screenplay from the novel “The Authentic Death of Hendry Jones”, a draft that evolved into the 1961 Marlon Brando film “One-Eyed Jacks” (1961)

In 1958, Peckinpah wrote a script for “Gunsmoke” that was rejected due to content. He reworked the screenplay, titled “The Sharpshooter”, and sold it to Zane Grey Theater. The episode received popular response and became the television series “The Rifleman,” starring Chuck Connors. Peckinpah directed four episodes of the series (with guest stars R. G. Armstrong and Warren Oates), but left after the first year. “The Rifleman” ran for five seasons and achieved enduring popularity in syndication.

He was given the nickname "Bloody Sam" owing to the violence in his films.

“The Wild Bunch” (1969) was adapted from a story thought up by Roy N. Sickner, an actor and stuntman. Walon Green wrote the script, which was then rewritten by Sam Peckinpah. Green felt that Peckinpah's rewrite was substantial enough to deserve credit, but he had to lobby the WGA (Writers Guild of America) to allow Peckinpah a credit. Green has always said he was grateful to Peckinpah for not rewriting too much of the script just to get credit. Green, Sickner and Peckinpah all shared Academy Award nominations for best screenplay (the only Oscar nomination Peckinpah ever received in his entire career.) They didn't win.

After filming the scene in “The Wild Bunch” where Ernest Borgnine and William Holden sit by a campfire and their characters vow they "wouldn't have it any other way", it was hard for director Sam Peckinpah to yell, "Cut!" because he was crying.

Before filming began on “The Wild Bunch”, William Holden and Sam Peckinpah argued over the mustache Peckinpah felt that Holden's character, Pike Bishop, would wear, because Holden reportedly did not like his image on film with one. Peckinpah won the argument, and Holden wore a false mustache during filming.

The 1969 Western epic “The Wild Bunch” received two Academy Award nominations and was ranked No. 80 on the American Film Institute's top 100 list.

Stella Stevens was always Sam Peckinpah's first choice for the role of Hildy in his film “The Ballad of Cable Hour” (1970), and he reassured her, even when Stevens doubted she was right for the part. As Stevens and the producers clashed over money and billing, executive producer Phil Feldman looked at Joanne Woodward as a possible replacement, but she wanted too much money, so Stevens got the part.

Despite “The Ballad of Cable Hour” failing at the box office and supposedly ruining Sam Peckinpah's career, two years later he wound up with a huge box office smash with “The Getaway,” in which, according to Stella Stevens, Peckinpah wanted her to play opposite Steve McQueen, but McQueen had told her during auditions, "You're competition", as in, he didn't want her to outdo his performance, and Ali MacGraw (who turned in an extremely understated performance) was hired.

In a scene  from “Straw Dogs” (1971) where David Sumner (Dustin Hoffman) first enters the local pub, director Sam Peckinpah was unhappy with the other actors' reaction to this stranger entering their world. Eventually, he decided to do one take where Hoffman entered the scene without his trousers on. He got his reaction, and these are the shots shown in the final film.

The future of the film “Straw Dogs” was put in jeopardy when co-writer and director Sam Peckinpah caught pneumonia after an all-night drinking session with Ken Hutchison in the sea at Land's End. Having recuperated at a clinic in London, Peckinpah was only reinstated after promising that he would remain sober.

Before shooting “Straw Dogs”, co-writer and director Sam Peckinpah instructed Dustin Hoffman and Susan George to live together for two weeks, with co-writer David Zelag Goodman in tow. Some of their interactions during this period were worked into the film's script.

According to the Sam Peckinpah biography, "If They Move ... Kill 'Em!", about one-third of the viewers of “Straw Dogs” walked out of the movie's first preview, presumably put off by its violence.

Katherine Haber MBE was hired as Sam’s secretary in 1971 for the film “Straw Dogs” and by the end of the shoot, she was dialogue director, and so much more.

Best known for her work as Production Executive on “Blade Runner” (1982) Katherine Haber collaborated with Sam Peckinpah on 8 of his films, including “Straw Dogs”, “The Getaway”, “Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid” and “Cross of Iron.”

Many critics consider “Junior Bonner” (1972) to be the warmest and most gentle of Peckinpah's films.

Although “Junior Bonner”was unwisely promoted as a typical Steve McQueen action vehicle, critical reception was still fairly good, but not enthusiastic. Peckinpah remarked, "I made a film where nobody got shot and nobody went to see it."

Stinging from the financial failure of “Junior Bonner”, but eager to work with Peckinpah again, McQueen presented him Walter Hill's screenplay to “The Getaway,” which they would film months after completing “Junior Bonner.” The second collaboration proved to be a financially successful one, as the action film became one of the biggest box-office successes of their careers

Sam shot the opening prison scenes of “The Getaway” (1972) at the Huntsville penitentiary, with Steve McQueen surrounded by actual convicts.

Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw began an affair during production of “The Getaway”. She would eventually leave her husband Robert Evans and become McQueen's second wife.

Under his contract with First Artists, Steve McQueen had final cut on the film “The Getaway” and when Sam Peckinpah found out, he was upset. According to actor Richard Bright, McQueen chose takes that "made him look good" and Peckinpah felt that the actor played it safe: "He chose all these Playboy shots of himself. He's playing it safe with these pretty-boy shots."

Peckinpah rewrote the screenplay, for the film “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid” (1973) establishing the main characters as friends, and attempted to weave an epic tragedy from the historical legend. Filmed on location in the Mexican state of Durango, the film starred James Coburn and Kris Kristofferson in the title roles

In the eyes of his admirers, “Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia”(1974) was the "last true Peckinpah film." The director himself claimed that it was the only one of his films to be released exactly as he intended it.

'Alfredo Garcia' was the only movie directed by Sam Peckinpah that he had final cut on - all the others were re-cut by the studios.

Peckinpah was originally scheduled to direct “Triumphs of a Man Called Horse” at the behest of star Richard Harris (both had previously worked together on “Major Dundee”). Due to Peckinpah's unofficial blacklist after his erratic behavior whilst directing “Convoy”; he was later replaced by John Hough.

While filming “The Killer Elite” (1975), the action-filled espionage thriller starring James Caan and Robert Duvall as rival American agents, on location in San Francisco, Peckinpah allegedly discovered cocaine for the first time thanks to Caan and his entourage. This led to increased paranoia and his once legendary dedication to detail deteriorated.  At one point he overdosed on cocaine, ending up in a hospital with a second pacemaker.

In 1975, Peckinpah was offered the opportunity to direct the eventual blockbusters “King Kong” (1976) and “Superman” (1978). He turned down both offers and chose instead the bleak and vivid World War II drama “Cross of Iron” (1977).

“Cross of Iron” was reportedly a favorite of Orson Welles, who said that after “All Quiet on the Western Front” (1930) it was the finest anti-war film he had ever seen.

Peckinpah drank up to four bottles of whisky or vodka a day.

Filmed in New Mexico and starring Kris Kristofferson, Ali MacGraw and Ernest Borgnine, “Convoy” turned out to be yet another troubled Peckinpah production, with the director's health a continuing problem.

Peckinpah allowed actor and long-time associate James Coburn to work on “Convoy” (1978) as a second-unit director to get his DGA card. Rumor has it that Coburn actually directed some scenes when Peckinpah was "unwell."

“The Osterman Weekend” (1983), would be his final film.

Peckinpah's last work as a filmmaker was undertaken two months before his death. He was hired by producer Martin Lewis to shoot two music videos featuring Julian Lennon—"Valotte" and "Too Late For Goodbyes." The critically acclaimed videos led to Lennon's nomination for Best New Video Artist at the 1985 MTV Video Music Awards.

He died of heart failure at age 59 on December 28, 1984, in Inglewood, California. At the time, he was working on the script for “On the Rocks”, a projected independent film to be shot in San Francisco.

He died on the same day his wife Begoña Palacios was having her 44th birthday. They married three times.

Peckinpah has directed two films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: “Ride the High Country” and “The Wild Bunch”.

John Belushi portrayed Peckinpah as a deranged lunatic who directs his first romantic comedy, by beating up his leading lady in the fifth episode of the first season of “Saturday Night Live”.

Kris Kristofferson recorded "Sam's Song (Ask Any Working Girl)", a brief tribute to the director, for his 1995 release A Moment of Forever

Some facts are taken from IMDB & Wikipedia.

Don’t miss listening to my fascinating interview with the fabulous Katherine Haber M.E.B. - who tells me all about being the "Girl Friday" for legendary director Sam Peckinpah - in the latest two episodes of the Hollywood Obsessed podcast! Where you get exclusive insights and stories you won’t find anywhere else!

Click the links below to listen now and be inspired!

Episode 113 - HERE

Episode 114 - HERE