Although not complete or refined to his satisfaction, director Sam Peckinpah still preferred the director's cut, as it was more inclusive and thorough than the 105-minute cut.

Lennon's first-ever tour in the spring of 1985 was documented as part of the film Stand By Me: A Portrait Of Julian Lennon — a film profile started by Sam Peckinpah, but completed by Martin Lewis after Peckinpah's death.

Marvin was originally cast as Pike Bishop ( later played by William Holden ) in The Wild Bunch ( 1969 ), but fell out with director Sam Peckinpah and pulled out in order to star in the Western musical Paint Your Wagon ( 1969 ), in which he was top-billed over a singing Clint Eastwood.

David Samuel " Sam " Peckinpah ( February 21, 1925 – December 28, 1984 ) was an American film director and screenwriter who achieved prominence following the release of the Western epic The Wild Bunch ( 1969 ).

Sam Peckinpah's nephew is David Peckinpah, who was a television producer and director, as well as a screenplay writer.

David Samuel " Sam " Peckinpah was born February 21, 1925, in Fresno, California, where he attended both grammar school and high school.

Peckinpah also claimed he was shot during an attack by Communist forces.

He was asked to stay on another year, but Peckinpah began working as a stagehand at KLAC-TV in the belief that television experience would eventually lead to work in films.

Even during this early stage of his career, Peckinpah was developing a combative streak.

In 1954, Peckinpah was hired as a dialogue coach for the film Riot in Cell Block 11.

Reportedly, the warden was reluctant to allow the filmmakers to work at the prison until he was introduced to Peckinpah.

Throughout much of his adult life, Peckinpah was affected by alcoholism, and, later, drug addiction.

An experienced hunter, Peckinpah was fascinated with firearms and was known to shoot the mirrors in his house while abusing alcohol, an image which occurs several times in his films.

Peckinpah was seriously ill during his final years, as a lifetime of hard living caught up with him.

In 1958, Peckinpah wrote a script for Gunsmoke that was rejected due to content.

Peckinpah wrote and directed a pilot called Trouble at Tres Cruzes, which was aired in March 1959 before the actual series was made in 1960.

By most accounts, the low-budget film shot on location in Arizona was a learning process for Peckinpah, who feuded with Fitzsimons ( brother of the film's star Maureen O ' Hara ) over the screenplay and staging of the scenes.

Peckinpah was hired as director after Heston viewed producer Jerry Bresler's private screening of Ride the High Country.

The movie, detailing themes and sequences Peckinpah mastered later in his career, was taken away from him and substantially reedited.

Peckinpah held for the rest of his life that his original version of Major Dundee was among his best films, but his reputation was severely damaged.

The script offered Peckinpah the opportunity to explore themes that appealed to him: two former partners forced by changing times onto opposite sides of the law, manipulated by corrupt economic interests.

The production abruptly ran out of funds, and Peckinpah was forced to completely improvise the concluding sequence, filming the scene in one day.

The studio, however, forced Peckinpah to wrap up shooting very abruptly.

The film's producer made a deal with Paramount Pictures ' production chief Robert Evans who allowed Peckinpah to do his personal project if he would first direct The Getaway.

Suffering from a damaged reputation due to alcohol and drug addictions noted most recently on the set of his 1978 film Convoy, Peckinpah had been given the opportunity to do second unit work on Don Siegel's Jinxed!

Peckinpah largely discarded this, and began making the movie into a complex character study about Dundee, making him a glory-hungry officer who would do anything to gain fame and recognition.

Addictions or not, Peckinpah still felt compelled to turn the genre exercise into something more significant.

" Peckinpah loved it and began writing on it then and also in England while making Straw Dogs.

In May 1971, weeks after completing Straw Dogs in England, Sam Peckinpah returned to the United States to begin immediate work on Junior Bonner.

Unable to rewrite the screenplay or edit the picture, Peckinpah vowed to never again direct a film unless he had script control.

Peckinpah was next signed to direct The Cincinnati Kid, a gambling drama about a young prodigy who takes on an old master during a big New Orleans poker match.

In 1967, Warner Bros .- Seven Arts producers Kenneth Hyman and Phil Feldman were interested in having Peckinpah rewrite and direct an adventure film, The Diamond Story.

In retrospect, it was a damaging career move as Deliverance and Jeremiah Johnson, critical and enduring box office hits, were in development at the time and Peckinpah was considered the first choice to direct both films.

Still renowned in 1975, Peckinpah was offered the opportunity to direct the eventual blockbusters King Kong ( 1976 ) and Superman ( 1978 ).

In 1967, Warner Bros .- Seven Arts producers Kenneth Hyman and Phil Feldman were interested in having Sam Peckinpah rewrite and direct an adventure film called The Diamond Story.

When Peckinpah was brought on to direct, he wanted to cast Stella Stevens, whom he worked with on The Ballad of Cable Hogue, with Angie Dickinson or Dyan Cannon as possible alternatives.

According to Leone, Sam Peckinpah agreed to direct the film after Bogdanovich's departure, only to be turned down for financial reasons by United Artists.

Both William Friedkin and Sam Peckinpah were also offered the chance to direct.

Also Stanley Kubrick ( in Paths of Glory, and Dr. Strangelove, among others ) as well as Orson Welles ( in The Trial, partly Orson Welles ' London, segment Four Clubmen ), Sam Peckinpah ( in Straw Dogs ), and Sidney Lumet ( in The Offence ) have occasionally done the same in the past, though mostly in moderation, for single shots or sequences only, while Gilliam hardly ever uses any lens longer than 14mm, which has garnered lenses of that particular focal length the informal nickname " The Gilliam " among film-makers.

With the screenplay completed they went looking for a director, and an offhand comment led them to Sam Peckinpah, the controversial and troubled man who had helmed The Wild Bunch ( 1969 ) and Straw Dogs ( 1971 ).

Although the Peckinpah film roles are his best-known, his most critically acclaimed role is GTO in Monte Hellman's 1971 cult classic Two-Lane Blacktop.