Born: February 21, 1925
Died: December 28, 1984
Service Summary
| Branch | United States Marine Corps |
| Years of Service | 1943-1946 |
| Age at Induction | 18 |
| Conflict | World War II |
Born David Samuel Peckinpah in Fresno, California, Sam Peckinpah was a feisty kid who didn’t shy away from a fight or adventure. His frequent fighting and disciplinary problems eventually led his parents to send him to the San Rafael Military Academy for his senior year of high school. In 1943, just before his eighteenth birthday, Peckinpah joined the United States Marine Corps.
Sam and his father David Peckinpah, 1941
His early Marine service was spent in the United States. Marine Corps muster rolls place him first with a Marine V-12 unit at Arizona State Teachers College in Flagstaff, Arizona, in 1943, then with another V-12 unit at Southwestern Louisiana Institute in Lafayette in 1944. By the spring of 1945, he was at the Marine Corps' Platoon Commanders' School at Quantico, Virginia. A July 1945 muster roll lists him as a Platoon Sergeant.
Then the war ended. Peckinpah did not see combat during World War II, but in September 1945, the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines was redeployed to Tientsin, China, as part of the American occupation of North China that lasted through October 1947.
A July 1946 Marine Corps muster roll lists David S. Peckinpah as a Private First Class with 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines, 1st Marine Division, Fleet Marine Force. The record gives the Fleet Post Office in San Francisco as the mailing address... which coincides when his battalion was still serving in China.
July 1946 Muster Roll - David S. Peckinpah
September 1946 Draft Registration Card - filed after his discharge
While Peckinpah's duty did not include conventional combat, he later claimed that he witnessed horrifying acts of violence in China, including torture and the killing of a laborer by sniper fire. According to accounts from people who knew him, American Marines were not permitted to intervene. He also claimed that he was shot during an attack by Communist forces. These specific incidents are difficult to independently verify, so they are best treated as Peckinpah's own recollections rather than verified facts.
He also told stories about falling in love with a Chinese woman and trying to get discharged in Peking so he could remain in China. The Marine Corps sent him back to the United States instead. In a later interview, Peckinpah himself recalled trying to get discharged in China after the war.
Whatever the embellishments that may have accumulated around his wartime stories, his presence in postwar China is no longer simply anecdotal. His Marine Corps records place him in the very battalion that was occupying North China.
In his civilian life, Peckinpah became famous for his graphic depictions of violence, earning the nickname “Bloody Sam,” but violence in his films was rarely presented as uncomplicated heroism. Again and again, he returned to men caught between violence and restraint, old codes and a changing world, loyalty and survival.
Perhaps nowhere is that more fascinating than in Cross of Iron (1977), his only feature-length war film. Starring James Coburn, Maximilian Schell and James Mason, Cross of Iron follows German soldiers on the Eastern Front during World War II. The film was heavily financed by a German producer Wolf C. Hartwig, who was known primarily for pornographic films.
The production became legendary for its own kind of chaos. Peckinpah was drinking as many as four bottles of whiskey or vodka a day while barely sleeping.
This film marked a turning point in his career, his subsequent films are not considered among his best (although I disagree on Convoy!) - perhaps reflecting the turmoil present in his personal life. It begs the question, did the movie bring him face to face with the violent visions of his past that couldn’t be erased? Kind of like facing a magic mirror that’s lost it’s spell and now only reflects the bleak horror of the truth.
Cross of Iron (1977) Trailer
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