title: Azathoth

text: Ronald Shea, the narrator of Campbell's story, enters the temple after visiting the forest and discovers a twenty-foot idol that "represented the god Azathoth—Azathoth as he had been before his exile Outside":


title: Azathoth

text: In "The Mine on Yuggoth", Edward Taylor had found Azathoth's other name, N______ (not given in full) in the Revelations of Glaaki. If one is confronted by a mythos being, the name, if spoken, will scare it away. Edward Taylor fails to use it.


title: Azathoth

text: Gary Myers makes frequent mention of Azathoth in his stories, both those set in the Lovecraftian Dreamlands and those set in the waking world. In "The Snout in the Alcove" (1977), the dreamer protagonist is distressed to find himself in the Dreamlands to which he had vowed never to return. He had made his vow because of a prophecy which said that:


title: Azathoth

text: In Myers' story "The Web" (2003)(in Edward P. Berglund, ed "The Disciples of Cthulhu II: Blasphemous Tales of the Followers" (Chaosium), the two teen protagonists read this passage from an internet version of the "Necronomicon":


title: Azathoth

text: Thomas Ligotti's short story "The Sect of the Idiot" (1988) mentions a circle of non-human worshippers composed of wizened, hideous creatures. The story's epigram—a "quotation" from the "Necronomicon"—reads "The primal chaos, Lord of all... the blind idiot god—Azathoth," suggesting that it is that entity whom the creatures worship.


title: Azathoth

text: Ligotti has stated that many of his short stories make allusions to Lovecraft's Azathoth, although rarely by that name. An example of this is the story "Nethescurial", which portrays an omnipresent, malevolent, creator deity once worshipped by the inhabitants of a small island. This being slowly infiltrates the life of the story's narrator, first via a manuscript describing its cult.


title: Azathoth

text: Nick Mamatas's 2004 novel "Move Under Ground", set in a world where Cthulhu has taken power and only the Beats oppose him, the power of the Great Old Ones twists the constellations into new shapes, using them as vessels for his surrogates; among them, Jack Kerouac observes the "red stars of Azathoth". Neal Cassady later becomes a chosen one of Azathoth, gaining immense powers to be used against Cthulhu in the process.


title: Azathoth

text: Joseph Dale's novel 'Azathoth Rising' is a series of vignettes where the Necronomicon is completed by Abdul Ad-Hazred, then throughout history is discovered and translated (sometimes with great difficulty). The book is watched over by another of Lovecraft's characters, Nyarlathotep, who attempts to get various people of power to cast one or other of the spells in the fabulous book ostensibly to gain power. This is of course a trap, as several of the people find out to their chagrin. Dale has, as he says in his prelude, taken considerable license with historical accuracy, but he apologizes to the purist and asks the reader to enjoy the story anyway.


title: Azathoth

text: In the "Call of Cthulhu" RPG, Azathoth is categorized as an Outer God together with Nyarlathotep, Yog-Sothoth, and others.


title: Azathoth

text: In 1995, Chaosium published "The Azathoth Cycle", a Cthulhu Mythos anthology focusing on works referring to or inspired by the entity Azathoth. Edited by Lovecraft scholar Robert M. Price, the book includes an introduction by Price tracing the roots and development of the Blind Idiot God. The contents include:


title: Ranks and insignia of the German Army (1935–1945)

text: The as the German army and part of the inherited its uniforms and rank structure from the of the Weimar Republic (1921–1935). There were few alterations and adjustments made as the army grew from a limited peacetime defense force of 100,000 men to a war-fighting force of several million men.


text: These ranks and insignia were specific to the Heer and in special cases to senior Wehrmacht officers in the independent services; the uniforms and rank systems of the other branches of the , the (Air Force) and (Navy), were different, as were those of the SS which was a Party organization outside the . The Nazi Party also had its own series of paramilitary uniforms and insignia.


text: The visual acknowledgement of the new National Socialist reality came on 17 February 1934, when the Commander-in-Chief, Werner von Blomberg, ordered the Nazi Party eagle-and-swastika, then Germany's National Emblem, to be worn on uniform blouses and headgear effective 1 May. The design adopted, in silver for the (army) and in gold for the (navy), was a stylized eagle with outstretched, beveled wings clutching a wreathed mobile swastika, later to be called the ("armed forces eagle").


text: On tunics this took the form of a cloth patch about 9 cm (3⅝") wide worn on the right breast, above the pocket. For enlisted uniforms it was jacquard-woven ("BeVo") or sometimes machine-embroidered in silver-grey rayon, for officers machine- or hand-embroidered in white silk or bright aluminum wire, and for generals hand-embroidered in gold bullion. The backing was "badge-cloth" (), a close-woven velvetish fabric; this was originally grey, but in late 1935 the renamed changed its color to a dark blue-green called (bottle-green).


text: The war brought several variations to the breast eagle, although it should be kept in mind that none of them was replaced or de-authorized, and all were being worn side by side at war's end. When hostilities began in 1939, on the enlisted or field blouse the eagle was changed from silver-white to matte grey for reduced visibility; and in 1940 backings began to be produced in field-grey (). Another version appeared with the advent of the Model 1944 Field Blouse, which used a triangular backing for speed and simplicity of manufacture. Very late in the war some were simply printed on thin fabric.


text: There were also versions for other uniforms: both white and grey variants on black for the Panzer uniform, and in dull grey-blue on tan backing for the tropical () uniform. A stamped metal pin-on breast eagle was worn with the officers' white summer tunic.


text: Caps and helmets bore two common insignia elements, in various forms: the National Emblem and the national colors. World War I caps had carried dual cockades or roundels, one in Imperial black-white-red and one in the colors of the particular State within the Empire. The changed this to a single cockade in the Weimar Republic's black, red and gold; almost as soon as Hitler took power he restored the pre-1919 tricolor flag, and ordered the Army to return to black-white-red.


text: Belt buckles for enlisted men were of box type, made of aluminum or stamped steel and bearing a circular device with a version of the called the Army eagle or (an eagle with downswept wings clutching an unwreathed swastika) surmounted by the motto ("God with us"). For field wear these were usually painted field-grey to reduce visibility and had a smooth finish; on the other hand, dress buckles were silver-washed with a pebbled surface surrounding the .


text: Officers' field and service buckles were of a two-pronged frame type. With dress uniform officers wore a belt of silver braid with a circular silver-washed or -plated aluminum buckle, in the form of an oakleaf wreath surrounding a . Generals' were the same but gilt or gold-plated.


text: With the tropical uniform and its belt of cotton webbing, officers wore a buckle identical to the dress buckle but painted olive-drab.


text: In 19th century German armies, Guard and other elite regiments wore lengths of double braid () encircling all or most of the collar as a mark of distinction. By the middle of World War I these ornate collars had been reduced to an embroidered representation of short lengths of braid joined at the ends, sewn to patches worn at the front of the collar. When the was established in 1921 as Germany's first national army were prescribed as the universal collar device for all personnel other than generals, and the Third Reich continued the practice.


text: For clarification, however, a distinction must be made between a "collar patch" (), and NCO braid ( or – the badge of rank of all German NCO ranks), encircling the collar of the uniform tunic. An NCO wore both collar patches and the braid encircling the collar. Commissioned officers wore collar patches only.


text: On both collar points of any uniform jacket there was a collar patch. Each patch consisted of the padding, and two parallel facings (), the so-called , symbolising the double braid of the 19th century.


text: The padding of full-dress collar patches showed the wearer's (corps color). The dress tunic version was embroidered in fine aluminum thread on a patch of "badge cloth" (). The backing also showed through in the space between the two parallel facings of the collar patch, and formed so a colour center stripe.


text: On field – and service uniforms, beginning in late 1935, the collar patch was dark bottle-green to match the collar; the "showed through" (in fact colored cord was sewn into) the center strip of each braid, the .


text: For enlisted men, service "collar patches" were machine-woven in silver-grey rayon; COs' were embroidered more elaborately in white silk or aluminium thread, and were somewhat larger to match their higher collars.


text: NCOs () wore standard enlisted collar patches but were distinguished by a strip of 9mm silver-grey diamond-woven rayon braid (, NCO-), sewn around the collar, except on the dress, where the NCO- was bright aluminum. However, the aluminum-embroidered NCO- on dress uniforms () encircled the collar's upper edge, the simpler NCO- on service – or field uniform encircled the collar's lower edge.


text: By 1938 the fast-growing had found that it was impractical, for the enlisted field uniform, to manufacture and stock a multitude of collar patches in assorted which also had to be sewn on and frequently changed by unit tailors. Accordingly, new universal collar patches were introduced with the and woven in dark green to match the backing patch, and which could be applied at the factory; was now displayed on the shoulder-straps, which simply buttoned on and were easily switched.


text: With the wartime change to lower-visibility insignia enlisted collar patches were woven in matte "mouse-grey" stripes, which were at first sewn to green collar patches as before but increasingly directly to the collar, which beginning in 1940 was made in like the uniform; grey collar patches were never produced. The troops however preferred the green patches (and collars) if they had or could get them, especially on "clean" uniforms for walking-out; and long-service veterans took particular pride in pre-38 versions.


text: In contrast, officers' service uniform collar patches never changed. While most officers in the front lines wore the enlisted field uniform as per wartime regulations, many opted to have their green-and-silver collar patches added instead of (or on top of) the factory versions.


text: On olive tropical uniforms the collar patches were tan with dull grey-blue for all personnel; officers again sometimes added their green collar patches. Tropical NCO collar were copper-brown, or sometimes olive drab.


text: A major exception to the wearing of was the "panzer wrap" (), the double-breasted jacket worn by crews of tanks and other armored vehicles. When the were established in 1935 they were issued a distinctive black uniform and as a badge the or Death's-head, versions of which had formerly been worn by the Imperial tank corps and . These skulls took the form of white-metal pins attached to black which were edged in piping.


text: In mid-1940 crews of assault guns () received a uniform of their own, identical in cut to the but in standard field-grey, which they wore with red artillery piping. Over the course of the war a bewildering and changing series of regulations governed the uniforms and insignia for assault guns, tank destroyers, armored cars and self-propelled guns (SPG). Depending on the unit and the date either the black or grey wrap or the standard might be authorized, and on the grey "assault gun" jacket the regulation collar patches could be black with skulls, or grey with skulls, , or no device at all. The result in practice was chaos; wartime photos show a mix of uniforms and insignia worn not only in the same battalion, but even in the same vehicle.


text: Officially both colours of panzer wrap were working and field uniforms to be worn only in or around the vehicle; this regulation was universally ignored. were issued standard uniforms for service-dress and walking out but rarely wore them, much preferring their unique jackets.


text: In North Africa, AFV crews wore the same tropical uniform as the other branches, including collar patches; many tankers however pinned their badges to their lapels.


text: In June 1939, the Wehrmacht Heer wanted to renew its ties with the Old Army tradition by introducing a new uniform for its most prestigious unit: which was renamed Infantry Regiment "Großdeutschland". The new dress uniform for I.R. "" had an elongated collar patch with single for NCOs and two for enlisted. Although shown to the press, this new uniform was not provided to the unit due to the outbreak of World War II and was placed in depot storage.


text: were officers carefully selected and trained to represent the German General Staff Corps in both command and staff functions. They ranked from (captain) through (colonel). All were, before 1939, graduates of the Military Academy, the . On division staffs they held the position of Ia (operational chief of staff) or Ib (chief of the rear echelon). In the higher echelons, the intelligence and training staff sections were most of the time in the personal charge of General Staff Corps officers. The General Staff Officers had their own distinctive Litzen called (old Prussian), or ("lobe-embroidery"). These were the same whether on carmine dress or green service patches; colored were unnecessary. General Staff officers assigned to the supreme headquarters (the , later the OKH and the OKW), the , and military attaches were further distinguished by having their Litzen in gold rather than silver. These were called "", , etc. The special golden Litzen were abolished in November 1942. Only Military attaches kept their Litzen as long as they were in their present position. The Führer wanted a closer union between the front and the OKW and OKH.


text: In addition to their collar patches, General Staff Officers wore trouser-stripes, of the same design as generals' but in carmine rather than scarlet.


text: From 1900 and on Prussian generals had worn ornate collar patches embroidered in a style called , which had first been worn in the 18th century by the ; the and the continued the tradition. These devices, sometimes called (arabesques), were embroidered in gold bullion or golden synthetic on (scarlet) backing.


text: Field Marshals wore the same as generals until April 1941, when they were authorized a longer variant with three rather than two iterations of the repeating pattern, for a total of six "prongs". In some cases GFM did not bother to replace their generals' tabs, or did so only on their dress uniforms.


text: General officers of the Special Troop Service ( – TDS) and of the specialist careers (medical, veterinary, ordnance, and motor park) wore the same insignia until April 1944, when they were ordered to exchange their scarlet for tabs backed in their respective


text: In October 1944, the wear-out period of the scarlet backing color for Generals of the specialist careers was extended for an undetermined period.


text: These arabesque collar patches are still worn today by general officers of the present-day Bundeswehr.


text: In the , upon retirement, certain senior German generals were awarded the honorary post of (Chief) of a regiment, much like the Honorary Colonel in the British Army. It was a German custom dating from the late 18th century. These generals were authorized to wear the tunic and insignia of an officer of the regiment, including ordinary officers' . Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, of the , wore a big 18 on his shoulder boards, and for everyday wear favored the ornamented tunic of an infantry officer with white piping rather than a general's uniform.


text: Hitler appointed first Hans von Seeckt, ancient , to be of the 67th Infantry Regiment on his 70th birthday in April 1936, a few months before he died. Only seven German generals were appointed s: in addition to Seeckt and Rundstedt they were Ritter von Epp ( of the 61st Infantry Regiment in Munich); von Mackensen ( of the 5th Cavalry Regiment in Stolp); von Fritsch ( of the 12th Artillery Regiment in Schwerin); and von Böhm-Ermolli ( of the 28th Infantry Regiment in Troppau). von Blomberg was appointed of the 73rd Infantry Regiment and wore a big 73 superimposed over the crossed batons of his shoulder board, but on 4 February 1938 he was dismissed and his name was deleted from the seniority list.


text: The shoulder-straps to enlisted men () were very similar to those of World War I, made of uniform cloth with pointed or "gable" button ends. In December 1934 the material was changed to grey badge-cloth () and in September 1935 changed again to dark bottle-green (). These "first pattern" shoulder-straps were not edged in piping.


text: In 1938, simultaneous with the removal of from field-uniform collar patches, new shoulder-straps were issued. These "second pattern" straps had round rather than pointed ends, and were edged on three sides with wool (later rayon) piping in . This pattern would be used through the end of the war, although in 1940 manufacture reverted to field-grey uniform cloth, and as usual alternate versions were made to go with the Panzer uniform (black), tropical uniform (olive cotton) and HBT summer uniform (reed-green twill). were not worn with the fatigue uniform, nor with camouflage smocks and parkas which used an alternate system of rank insignia.


text: For junior enlisted men (), rank insignia if any was worn on the left sleeve. However the epaulettes did indicate the wearer's unit (usually regiment or independent battalion) together with his sub-branch if any, machine-embroidered in branch-color. For example, a with rose-pink piping and number "4" would indicate the 4th Panzer Regiment; but if it carried a pink number "4" and letter "A" it would indicate the 4th Armored Reconnaissance () Battalion. The German Army used a very large assortment of Latin initials, Gothic initials, script ciphers, Arabic numerals, Roman numerals and symbols to designate all its various service branches and installations. Before the war, shoulder-buttons were embossed with the number of the wearer's company as well, this practice was discontinued "for the duration."


text: Beginning in January 1940, shoulder-straps with unit insignia were (supposed to be) phased out as a security measure, and removable fabric loops with devices were issued instead. In May 1944 the embroidery was changed from to light gray.


text: Non-commissioned officers () wore their rank insignia on their shoulder-straps, consisting of braid and white-metal rank stars. An epaulette was edged with on three sides and an on all four. Senior NCO's () added one to three stars; in addition, their unit identifiers took the form of white-metal insignia rather than embroidery.


text: Shoulder-straps were made in both a standard width (4.5 cm, 1¾") and a wider one for three-digit unit numbers (5.3 cm, 2"), and in three lengths depending on the size of the man. There was in addition an extra-large size for the overcoat ().


text: Officers' shoulder boards were constructed from "Russia" braid, an aluminum-thread double piping. Company-grade officers ( through ) wore epaulettes constructed by wrapping two side-by-side lengths of braid around the buttonhole and back, giving the appearance of eight parallel cords; the whole was sewn to an underlay () of badge-cloth. Until 1938 the underlay was of the same outer dimensions as the braid, and only visible edge-on; in that year the underlay was made wider, so as to create the impression of edge piping like the enlisted shoulder-strap. Rank was indicated by zero to two gilt-metal rank stars; unit designators were also of gilt metal.


text: Field-grade officer () shoulder boards were made by plaiting together double widths of Russia braid and looping them to form a buttonhole, sewn to a underlay; rank again was displayed by zero to two gilt stars.


text: Generals' shoulder boards were constructed similarly to those of field-grade officers, but comprised a length of silver Russia braid between two braided cords of gold bullion or . Since the resulting combination was wider, generals' boards were plaited in four 'loops' rather than five. Their buttons were gilt, and rank was indicated by zero to three silver rank stars, or crossed batons in the case of field marshals. The underlay was scarlet, except (from 1944) for generals of staff corps, who were instructed to wear instead.


text: By order of Marshal Hindenburg in March 1932, soldiers who retired after 15 years of service received the right to wear the uniform of the unit they left. The shoulder boards and shoulder straps of retired soldiers had a bridle 1.5 cm wide attached under the middle.


text: When wearing uniforms without epaulettes, such as smocks, parkas and mountain windbreakers; generals, officers and NCOs instead wore sleeve rank insignia. These were made up of bars & oak leaves and were introduced by the late summer of 1942. The ranks were used by the army and the Waffen-SS. By 1943, the ranks were also introduced to the and the .


text: First introduced in the Prussian army in 1808, the coloured sidearm tassels were used as a decorative piece of equipment and to differentiate between companies within a regiment. Ranks below were issued either the or depending on their unit. The was used by infantry, artillery, pioneer, signal, anti-tank and supply troops. While the was worn by cavalry and rifle troops. Additionally, some units would wear honorary tassels of Russian red leather, to indicate their relation to the 1st Regiment of (Prussian) Grenadier Guards. would wear tassels independently of their company relations.


text: The insignia for a was a pair of NCO encircling each lower sleeve, nicknamed "piston rings;" he also carried a leather or report-case tucked into his tunic front.


text: In two specialist career paths it was possible to attain rank above : fortifications engineers () and farriers (). They were actual NCOs with command authority, not (uniformed Army civil servants). There was no direct equivalent in the English-speaking world; perhaps the closest examples of the time would be the British Royal Navy's and United States Navy's ranks of Warrant Officer.


text: These men wore shoulder boards braided in a unique pattern, orange-red and silver on black underlay with Gothic "Fp" for fortress engineers, and gold-yellow and silver on carmine with a horseshoe device for farriers.


text: In addition to their collar tabs and braided gold epaulettes, general officers' uniforms were distinguished by gold rather than silver cap badges, cap cords, breast eagles, belt buckles and buttons, a pair of 40mm (scarlet) stripes down the outside of each trouser-leg, overcoat lapels faced in scarlet, and dress uniforms piped in rather than .


text: From May 1944 generals in the various staff corps (medical, legal, TSD etc.) were supposed to replace with the appropriate of their branches of service; in practice this directive was imperfectly heeded and a subsequent order extended the wear-out date for scarlet insignia indefinitely.


text: Officials in administrative, legal, and technical service positions were usually placed in a category unique to the "Wehrmacht". They consist of civil service personnel performing functions within the Armed Forces and are recruited, in part, from former professional non-commissioned officers who became military candidates for civil service () at the end of their 12-year contractual period of active military service.


text: Up to 1944, none of these officials were classified as soldiers; in that year certain groups were converted into officers in the Special Troop Service ( or TSD). These were the higher administrative officers () in ranks from captain to lieutenant general; the lower administrative officers () in the ranks of first and second lieutenant, and the judge advocates () in ranks from captain to lieutenant general. At this time all personnel of the Field Post Office were made soldiers as well, but formed a corps of their own rather than belonging to the TSD. It was also made possible for qualified reserve technical service officials to become reserve officers of the motor maintenance troops.


text: With certain exceptions, military officials () wore shoulder boards similar to those of soldiers of equivalent rank, but distinguished by the addition of dark green elements: those equivalent to generals had a central cord in their braided shoulder boards which incorporated green chevrons, and those equivalent to officers wore a narrow green stripe between the rows of braid. WO-equivalent "officials" wore a complex braided shoulderboard made of green, black and silver cords. In nearly all cases the shoulderboard underlay was a double layer of dark green under , and metal pins with the HV (German abbreviation of , "Army Administration") cipher were worn.


text: Certain services had insignia of their own: for example the ("Field Post Office") wore shoulder boards with gold rather than green elements and the initials FP; and musical officials wore silver-and-red shoulder boards with a lyre insignia. in the employ of a military administration authority in the occupied territories wore MV (German abbreviation of , "Military Administration") pins rather than HV ciphers.


text: wore distinctive collar patches; these tabs indicated not the official's rank or title, but rather the "grade" of the service in which the official was employed. These were classified by the minimum educational requirement, and ranged from (Basic Services), for which a grade-school education was sufficient, through (Middle) and (Elevated) , to (Higher Services) which required a university degree.


text: Officials in the Basic Services wore collar patches similar to (but larger than) enlisted soldiers', grey on dark green , but the patch was piped on three sides in ; similarly officials in the Middle and Elevated services wore officer-pattern , again with -piped patches. Officials of the Higher Services wore unique with in gold like , but on dark green with, again, piping. General officer-equivalents wore green patches with generals' arabesques, similarly bordered.


text: In addition to the career , wartime needs led to the creation of "Officials for the duration of the war," or . These men had needed skills but either did not possess all the qualifications to become full-fledged , or were effectively drafted from civilian jobs. The matter was further confused by the fact that did the same jobs and held the same titles as career officials.


text: Nonetheless, wore entirely distinct collar patches. The backing patch was large and piped on three sides like that worn by career , but was light grey edged in green. The device was a rectangle pointed at the upper end with braid down the center, much like a British general's gorget patch, the colors indicating the degree of the service: grey with green braid for basic services, silver with green braid for middle and elevated services, and gold on gold for higher services.


text: Officials of the Wehrmacht who worked in Military Supreme Courts wore shoulder straps without the "HV" and had the secondary colour of Bordeaux red (').


title: Elijah Wood filmography

text: He made his film debut with a minor part in "Back to the Future Part II" (1989), then landed a succession of larger roles that made him a critically acclaimed child actor by age 9, being nominated for several Young Artist Awards. As a child actor he starred in the films "Radio Flyer" (1992), "The Good Son" (1993), "North" (1994) and "Flipper" (1996), and began to transfer to teenage roles in the films "The Ice Storm" (1997), "Deep Impact" and "The Faculty" (both 1998). He is best known for his high-profile leading role as Frodo Baggins in Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy (2001–2003) and its prequel "" (2012). Since then, he has resisted typecasting by choosing varied roles in critically acclaimed films such as "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" (2004), "Sin City", "Everything Is Illuminated" (2005) and "Bobby" (2006).


title: Elijah Wood filmography

text: Wood also voiced Mumble in the "Happy Feet" film series (2006-2011), and the titular protagonist in the Tim Burton-produced action/science fiction film "9" (2009). In 2005, he started his own record label, Simian Records. He did the voice acting for Spyro in the "Legend of Spyro" trilogy. In 2012, he began voicing Beck in the animated series "", and Sigma in the of the Rooster Teeth series "Red vs. Blue". From 2011 to 2014, Wood played the role of Ryan Newman in FX's dark comedy "Wilfred".


title: Dustin Lance Black

text: Dustin Lance Black (born June 10, 1974) is an American screenwriter, director, producer, and LGBT rights activist. He is known for writing the film "Milk", for which he won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 2009. He has also subsequently written the screenplays for the film "J. Edgar" and the 2022 crime miniseries "Under the Banner of Heaven".


title: Dustin Lance Black

text: Black is a founding board member of the American Foundation for Equal Rights and writer of "8", a staged reenactment of the federal trial that led to a federal court's overturn of California's Proposition 8.


title: Dustin Lance Black

text: Black's father Raul Garrison walked out on his polio-stricken mother, Roseanna, and his two brothers, Marcus Raul and Todd Bryant, when he was young. They grew up in a Mormon household, first in San Antonio, Texas, before moving to Salinas, California.


title: Dustin Lance Black

text: Growing up surrounded by Mormon culture and military bases, Black worried about his sexuality. When he found himself attracted to a boy in his neighborhood at the age of six or seven, he told himself "I'm going to hell. And if I ever admit it, I'll be hurt, and I'll be brought down". He says that his "acute awareness" of his sexuality made him dark, shy, and at times suicidal. He came out in his senior year of college.


title: Dustin Lance Black

text: While attending North Salinas High School, Black began to work in theater at The Western Stage in Salinas and later worked on productions including "" at Hollywood's Hudson Main Stage Theater. Black attended the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Theater, Film, and Television (UCLA) while apprenticing with stage directors, taking acting jobs, and working on theater lighting crews. He graduated with honors in 1996.


title: Dustin Lance Black

text: In 2000, Black wrote and directed "The Journey of Jared Price", a gay romance film, and "Something Close to Heaven", a gay coming-of-age short film. In 2001, he directed and was a subject in the documentary "On the Bus" about a Nevada road trip and adventure at Burning Man taken by six gay men. Raised as Mormon, he was hired as the only such writer on the HBO drama series "Big Love" about a polygamous family. He served on season one as a staff writer, executive story editor in season two, and was promoted again, to co-producer, for season three.


title: Dustin Lance Black

text: Black first visited San Francisco in the early 1990s, while AIDS was devastating the city's gay community. Black said that, "Hearing about Harvey was about the only hopeful story there was at the time." He had first viewed Rob Epstein's documentary "The Times of Harvey Milk" when he was in college, and thought, "I just want to do something with this, why hasn't someone done something with this?" Researching Milk's life for three years, Black met with Milk's former aides Cleve Jones and Anne Kronenberg, as well as former San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos, and began to write a feature film screenplay encompassing the events of Milk's life. The screenplay was written on spec, but Black showed the script to Jones, who passed it on to his friend Gus Van Sant, who signed on to direct the feature. Black is an old friend of "Milk" producer Dan Jinks, who signed on to the biopic after he called Black to congratulate him and discovered that the project did not have a confirmed producer.


title: Dustin Lance Black

text: Black's film "Pedro", profiling the life of AIDS activist and reality television personality Pedro Zamora, premiered at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival.


title: Dustin Lance Black

text: On February 22, 2009, Black won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for "Milk" at the 81st Academy Awards. He wore a White Knot to the ceremony as a symbol of solidarity with the marriage equality movement.


title: Dustin Lance Black

text: On October 11, 2009, Black marched in the National Equality March and delivered a speech in front of the United States Capitol to an estimated crowd of 200,000 LGBT rights activists.


title: Dustin Lance Black

text: Also in 2010, Black narrated "", a documentary about the involvement of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) in California's Proposition 8. Black accepted the award for best documentary for "8: The Mormon Proposition" at the GLAAD Media awards in San Francisco and spoke out on discrimination in the LDS Church and meeting with the church to make it more LGBT-inclusive.


title: Dustin Lance Black

text: Black wrote the screenplay for "J. Edgar", a biographical drama released November 11, 2011, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Leonardo DiCaprio.


title: Dustin Lance Black

text: In 2011, Black wrote the play "8", which portrays the actual events in the "Hollingsworth v. Perry" trial and the testimony which led to the overturn of California's Proposition 8. He created the play in response to the federal court's refusal to allow release of video recordings from the trial and to give the public a true account of what transpired in the courtroom. It is written and performed using original transcripts from the trial and journalist records, along with first-hand interviews of the people involved. "8" first opened at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in New York City on September 19, 2011, and later broadcast to a worldwide audience on YouTube from the Ebell of Los Angeles Theatre on March 3, 2012.


title: Dustin Lance Black

text: The American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER) and Broadway Impact, sponsors of "8", have released and licensed the play for readings nationwide on college campuses and in community theaters free of charge.


title: Dustin Lance Black

text: Black appears as himself in the documentary film "Hollywood to Dollywood" (originally released in 2011).


title: Dustin Lance Black

text: From 2007 to 2011, Gus Van Sant was set to direct a film adaptation of Tom Wolfe's book "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test", for a time working with Black.


title: Dustin Lance Black

text: Black was the top entry on a list of openly gay influential people in "The Advocate"s "Forty under 40" issue of June/July 2009. He was featured on the cover of the magazine. He was one of the Official Grand Marshals in the 2009 NYC LGBT Pride March, produced by Heritage of Pride joining Anne Kronenberg and Cleve Jones.


title: Dustin Lance Black

text: Black started a relationship with British Olympic champion Tom Daley, in spring 2013; they live in Southwark, London. In October 2015 it was announced that they had become engaged, and in May 2017 they married at Bovey Castle in Devon.


title: Dustin Lance Black

text: On February 14, 2018, Black and Daley announced they were expecting their first child; in June, they announced the birth of a son (by surrogacy). Facing criticism for their choice of surrogacy, Black and Daley started a podcast in which they discussed the ethical issues surrounding surrogacy and the experience as a whole. Black and Daley do not share pictures of their son's face online or on social media accounts due to privacy concerns. Daley said, "That might change in the future, but for right now, we wanted to enjoy the first year with him."


title: Dustin Lance Black

text: In 2014, Black was one of eight potential commencement speakers invited by Pasadena City College, and he accepted. After school officials learned nude pictures of Black were leaked online five years prior, the college announced Black had not been officially invited and the unofficial invitation was "an honest error". After talks between Black's and PCC's attorneys, the college board of trustees apologized and formally invited him.


title: Hugo Award

text: The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier award in science fiction. The award is administered by the World Science Fiction Society. It is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine "Amazing Stories". Hugos were first given in 1953, at the 11th World Science Fiction Convention, and have been awarded every year since 1955.


title: Hugo Award

text: The awards were originally given in seven categories. These categories have changed over the years, and the award is currently conferred in seventeen categories of written and dramatic works. The winners receive a trophy consisting of a stylized rocket ship on a base; the design of the trophy changes each year, though the rocket itself has been standardized since 1984. The Hugo Awards are considered "the premier award in the science fiction genre", and winners are often noted on book covers.


title: Hugo Award

text: The 2022 awards were presented at the 80th Worldcon, "Chicon 8", in Chicago on September 4, 2022. The 2023 awards will be presented at the 81st Worldcon, "Chengdu Worldcon", in Chengdu, China on August 19, 2023.


title: Hugo Award

text: The World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) gives out the Hugo Awards each year for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The Hugos are widely considered the premier award in science fiction. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, who founded the pioneering science fiction magazine "Amazing Stories" and who is considered one of the "fathers" of the science fiction genre. Works are eligible for an award if they were published in the prior calendar year, or translated into English in the prior calendar year. There are no written rules as to which works qualify as science fiction or fantasy, and the decision of eligibility in that regard is left up to the voters, rather than to the organizing committee. Hugo Award nominees and winners are chosen by supporting or attending members of the annual World Science Fiction Convention, or Worldcon, and the presentation evening constitutes its central event. The selection process is defined in the WSFS constitution as instant-runoff voting with six nominees per category, except in the case of a tie. The awards are split over more than a dozen categories, and include both written and dramatic works.


title: Hugo Award

text: For each category of Hugo, the voter may rank "No Award" as one of their choices. Voters are instructed that they should do so if they feel that none of the nominees are worthy of the award, or if they feel the category should be abolished entirely. A vote for "No Award" other than as one's first choice signifies that the voter believes the nominees ranked higher than "No Award" are worthy of a Hugo in that category, while those ranked lower are not.


title: Hugo Award

text: The six works on the ballot for each category are the most-nominated by members that year, with no limit on the number of stories that can be nominated. With the exception of 1956, the first years of the awards did not include any recognition of runner-up novels, but since 1959 all of the candidates have been recorded. Initial nominations are made by members in January through March, while voting on the ballot of six nominations is performed roughly in April through July, subject to change depending on when that year's Worldcon is held. Prior to 2017, the final ballot was five works in each category. Worldcons are generally held near the start of September, and take place in a different city around the world each year.


title: Hugo Award

text: The idea of giving out awards at Worldcons was proposed by Harold Lynch for the 1953 convention. The idea was based on the Academy Awards, with the name "Hugo" being given by Robert A. Madle. The award trophy was created by Jack McKnight and Ben Jason in 1953, based on the design of hood ornaments of 1950s cars. It consisted of a finned rocket ship on a wooden base. Each subsequent trophy, with the exception of the 1958 trophy (a plaque), has been similar to the original design. The rocket trophy was formally redesigned in 1984, and since then only the base of the trophy has changed each year. There is no monetary or other remuneration associated with the Hugo, other than the trophy.


title: Hugo Award

text: Retrospective Hugo Awards, or Retro-Hugos, were added as a concept to the Hugo Awards in 1996. They are awards given for years in which no Hugos were originally awarded. Prior to 2017, they could be awarded for works in a year 50, 75, or 100 years prior, after 1939, where there was a Worldcon but where no Hugos were awarded. Retro-Hugos are given by a Worldcon in the categories that are currently in use, and are optional; some Worldcons have chosen not to award them despite a year being eligible. Even for years in which Retro-Hugos are given, not all categories receive enough nominations to receive a ballot. In 2017, the eligible years were specified to be 1939–1952 and 1954, which expanded the possible years to include those post-1939 in which no Worldcon was held at all. Of the fifteen years eligible, awards have been given for eight.


title: Hugo Award

text: The first Hugo Awards were presented at the 11th Worldcon in Philadelphia in 1953, which awarded Hugos in seven categories. The awards presented that year were initially conceived as a one-off event, though the organizers hoped that subsequent conventions would also present them. At the time, Worldcons were completely run by their respective committees as independent events and had no oversight between years. Thus there was no mandate for any future conventions to repeat the awards, and no set rules for how to do so.


title: Hugo Award

text: The 1954 Worldcon chose not to, but the awards were reinstated at the 1955 Worldcon, and thereafter became traditional. The award was called the Annual Science Fiction Achievement Award, with "Hugo Award" being an unofficial, but better known name. The nickname was accepted as an official alternative name in 1958, and since the 1992 awards the nickname has been adopted as the official name of the award.


title: Hugo Award

text: For the first few years, Hugo Awards had no published rules, and were given for works published in the "preceding year" leading up to the convention, which was not defined but generally covered the period between conventions rather than calendar years. In 1959, though there were still no formal guidelines governing the awards, several rules were instated which thereafter became traditional. These included having a ballot for nominating works earlier in the year and separate from the voting ballot; defining eligibility to include works published in the previous calendar year, rather than the ambiguous "preceding year"; and allowing voters to select "No Award" as an option if no nominated works were felt to be deserving of the award. "No Award" won that year in two categories: Dramatic Presentation and Best New Author. The eligibility change additionally sparked a separate rule, prohibiting the nomination of works which had been nominated for the 1958 awards, as the two time periods overlapped.


title: Hugo Award

text: In 1961, after the formation of the WSFS to oversee each Worldcon committee, formal rules were set down in the WSFS constitution mandating the presenting of the awards as one of the responsibilities of each Worldcon organizing committee. The rules restricted voting to members of the convention at which the awards would be given, while still allowing anyone to nominate works; nominations were restricted to members of the convention or the previous year's convention in 1963. The guidelines also specified the categories that would be awarded, which could only be changed by the World Science Fiction Society board. These categories were for Best Novel, Short Fiction (short stories, broadly defined), Dramatic Presentation, Professional Magazine, Professional Artist, and Best Fanzine. 1963 was also the second year in which "No Award" won a category, again for Dramatic Presentation.


title: Hugo Award

text: In 1964 the guidelines were changed to allow individual conventions to create additional categories, which was codified as up to two categories for that year. These additional awards were officially designated as Hugo Awards, but were not required to be repeated by future conventions. This was later adjusted to only allow one additional category; while these special Hugo Awards have been given out in several categories, only a few were ever awarded for more than one year.


title: Hugo Award

text: In 1967 categories for Novelette, Fan Writer, and Fan Artist were added, and a category for Best Novella was added the following year; these new categories had the effect of providing a definition for what word count qualified a work for what category, which was previously left up to voters. Novelettes had also been awarded prior to the codification of the rules. The fan awards were initially conceived as separate from the Hugo Awards, with the award for Best Fanzine losing its status, but were instead absorbed into the regular Hugo Awards by the convention committee.


title: Hugo Award

text: While traditionally five works had been selected for nomination in each category out of the proposed nominees, in 1971 this was set down as a formal rule, barring ties. In 1973, the WSFS removed the category for Best Professional Magazine, and a Best Professional Editor award was instated as its replacement, in order to recognize "the increasing importance of original anthologies".


title: Hugo Award

text: After that year the guidelines were changed again to remove the mandated awards and instead allow up to ten categories which would be chosen by each convention, though they were expected to be similar to those presented in the year before. Despite this change no new awards were added or previous awards removed before the guidelines were changed back to listing specific categories in 1977. 1971 and 1977 both saw "No Award" win the Dramatic Presentation category for the third and fourth time; "No Award" did not win any categories afterwards until 2015.


title: Hugo Award

text: In 1980 the category for Best Non-Fiction Book (later renamed Best Related Work) was added, followed by a category for Best Semiprozine (semi-professional magazine) in 1984. In 1983, members of the Church of Scientology were encouraged by people such as Charles Platt to nominate as a bloc "Battlefield Earth", written by the organization's founder L. Ron Hubbard, for the Best Novel award; it did not make the final ballot. Another campaign followed in 1987 to nominate Hubbard's "Black Genesis"; it made the final ballot but finished behind "No Award". 1989 saw a work—"The Guardsman" by Todd Hamilton and P. J. Beese—withdrawn by its authors from the final ballot after a fan bought numerous memberships under false names, all sent in on the same day, in order to get the work onto the ballot.


title: Hugo Award

text: In 1990 the Best Original Art Work award was given as a special Hugo Award, and was listed again in 1991, though not actually awarded, and established afterward as an official Hugo Award. It was then removed from this status in 1996, and has not been awarded since. The Retro Hugos were created in the mid-1990s, and were first awarded in 1996.


title: Hugo Award

text: Another special Hugo Award, for Best Web Site, was given twice in 2002 and 2005, but never instated as a permanent category. In 2003, the Dramatic Presentation award was split into two categories, Long Form and Short Form. This was repeated with the Best Professional Editor category in 2007. 2009 saw the addition of the Best Graphic Story category, and in 2012 an award for Best Fancast was added.


title: Hugo Award

text: In 2015, two groups of science fiction writers, the "Sad Puppies" led by Brad R. Torgersen and Larry Correia, and the "Rabid Puppies" led by Vox Day, each put forward a similar slate of suggested nominations which came to dominate the ballot. The Sad Puppies campaign had run for two years prior on a smaller scale, with limited success. The leaders of the campaigns characterized them as a reaction to "niche, academic, overtly [leftist]" nominees and the Hugo becoming "an affirmative action award" that preferred female and non-white authors and characters. In response, five nominees declined their nomination before and, for the first time, two after the ballot was published. Multiple-Hugo-winner Connie Willis declined to present the awards. The slates were characterized by "The Guardian" as a "right wing", "orchestrated backlash" and by "The A.V. Club" as a "group of white guys", and were linked with the Gamergate controversy. Multiple Hugo winner Samuel R. Delany characterized the campaigns as a response to "socio-economic" changes such as minority authors gaining prominence and thus "economic heft". In all but the Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form category, "No Award" placed above all nominees that were on either slate, and it won all five categories that only contained slate nominees. The two campaigns were repeated in 2016 with some changes, and the "Rabid Puppy" slate again dominated the ballot in several categories, with all five nominees in Best Related Work, Best Graphic Story, Best Professional Artist, and Best Fancast.


title: Hugo Award

text: In response to the campaigns, a set of new rules, called "E Pluribus Hugo", were passed in 2015 and ratified in 2016 to modify the nominations process. Intended to ensure that organized minority groups cannot dominate every finalist position in a category, the new rules define a voting system in which nominees are eliminated one by one, with each vote for an eliminated work then spread out over the uneliminated works they nominated, until only the final shortlist remains. These rules were ratified in 2016 to be used for the first time in 2017. A rule mandating that the final nominees must appear on at least five percent of ballots was also eliminated, to ensure that all categories could reach a full set of nominees even when the initial pool of works was very large. Each nominator is limited to five works in each category, but the final ballot was changed to six in each; additionally, no more than two works by a given author or group, or in the same dramatic series, can be in one category on the final ballot.


title: Hugo Award

text: In 2018 the newest permanent category, Best Series, was begun; it was run the year prior as a special Hugo Award prior to being ratified at the business meeting. Another special Hugo Award, for Best Art Book, was run in 2019 but not repeated or made a permanent category. The 2021 Hugo Awards featured a special Hugo award for video games. The Hugo Study Committee is evaluating a proposal for a "Best Game or Interactive Experience" category, which they or others may propose to the 2022 convention.


title: Hugo Award

text: Worldcon committees may also give out special awards during the Hugo ceremony, which are not voted on. Unlike the additional Hugo categories which Worldcons may present, these awards are not officially Hugo Awards and do not use the same trophy, though they once did. Two additional awards, the Astounding Award for Best New Writer and the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book, are presented at the Hugo Award ceremony and voted on by the same process, but are not formally Hugo Awards.


title: Hugo Award

text: The Hugo Award is highly regarded by observers. The "Los Angeles Times" has termed it "among the highest honors bestowed in science fiction and fantasy writing", a claim echoed by "Wired", who said that it was "the premier award in the science fiction genre". Justine Larbalestier, in "The Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction" (2002), referred to the awards as "the best known and most prestigious of the science fiction awards", and Jo Walton, writing in "An Informal History of the Hugos", said it was "undoubtedly science fiction's premier award". "The Guardian" similarly acknowledged it as "a fine showcase for speculative fiction" as well as "one of the most venerable, democratic and international" science fiction awards "in existence". James Gunn, in "The New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction" (1988), echoed "The Guardian"s statement of the award's democratic nature, saying that "because of its broad electorate" the Hugos were the awards most representative of "reader popularity". Camille Bacon-Smith, in "Science Fiction Culture" (2000), said that at the time fewer than 1000 people voted on the final ballot; she held, however, that this is a representative sample of the readership at large, given the number of winning novels that remain in print for decades or become notable outside of the science fiction genre, such as "The Demolished Man" or "The Left Hand of Darkness". The 2014 awards saw over 1900 nomination submissions and over 3500 voters on the final ballot, while the 1964 awards received 274 votes. The 2019 awards saw 1800 nominating ballots and 3097 votes, which was described as less than in 2014–2017 but more than any year before then.


title: Hugo Award

text: Brian Aldiss, in his book "", claimed that the Hugo Award was a barometer of reader popularity, rather than artistic merit; he contrasted it with the panel-selected Nebula Award, which provided "more literary judgment", though he did note that the winners of the two awards often overlapped. Along with the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award is also considered one of the premier awards in science fiction, with Laura Miller of Salon.com terming it "science fiction's most prestigious award".


title: Hugo Award

text: The official logo of the Hugo Awards is often placed on the winning books' cover as a promotional tool. Gahan Wilson, in "First World Fantasy Awards" (1977), claimed that noting that a book had won the Hugo Award on the cover "demonstrably" increased sales for that novel, though Orson Scott Card said in his 1990 book "How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy" that the award had a larger effect on foreign sales than in the United States. Spider Robinson, in 1992, claimed that publishers were very interested in authors that won a Hugo Award, more so than for other awards such as the Nebula Award. Literary agent Richard Curtis said in his 1996 "Mastering the Business of Writing" that having the term Hugo Award on the cover, even as a nominee, was a "powerful inducement" to science fiction fans to buy a novel, while Jo Walton claimed in 2011 that the Hugo is the only science fiction award "that actually affects sales of a book".


title: Hugo Award

text: There have been several anthologies of Hugo-winning short fiction. The series "The Hugo Winners", edited by Isaac Asimov, was started in 1962 as a collection of short story winners up to the previous year, and concluded with the 1982 Hugos in Volume 5. "The New Hugo Winners", edited originally by Asimov, later by Connie Willis and finally by Gregory Benford, has four volumes collecting stories from the 1983 to the 1994 Hugos. The most recent anthology is "The Hugo Award Showcase" (2010), edited by Mary Robinette Kowal. It contains most of the short stories, novelettes, and novellas that were nominated for the 2009 award.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: David Samuel Peckinpah (; February 21, 1925 – December 28, 1984) was an American film director and screenwriter. His 1969 Western epic "The Wild Bunch" received an Academy Award nomination and was ranked No. 80 on the American Film Institute's top 100 list. His films employed a visually innovative and explicit depiction of action and violence as well as a revisionist approach to the Western genre.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: Peckinpah's films deal with the conflict between values and ideals, as well as the corruption and violence in human society. His characters are often loners or losers who desire to be honorable but are forced to compromise in order to survive in a world of nihilism and brutality. He was given the nickname "Bloody Sam" owing to the violence in his films.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: Peckinpah's combative personality, marked by years of alcohol and drug abuse, affected his professional legacy. The production of many of his films included battles with producers and crew members, damaging his reputation and career during his lifetime. Peckinpah's other films include "Major Dundee" (1965), "The Ballad of Cable Hogue" (1970), "Straw Dogs" (1971), "The Getaway" (1972), "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" (1973), "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" (1974), "Cross of Iron" (1977), and "Convoy" (1978), the most commercially successful film of his career.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: The Peckinpahs originated from the Frisian Islands in the northwest of Europe. Both sides of Peckinpah's family migrated to the American West by covered wagon in the mid-19th century. Peckinpah and several relatives often claimed Native American ancestry, but this has been denied by surviving family members. Peckinpah's great-grandfather, Rice Peckinpaugh, a merchant and farmer in Indiana, moved to Humboldt County, California, in the 1850s, working in the logging business, and changed the spelling of the family name to "Peckinpah".


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: Peckinpah Meadow and Peckinpah Creek, where the family ran a lumber mill on a mountain in the High Sierra east of North Fork, California, have been officially named on U.S. geographical maps. Peckinpah's maternal grandfather was Denver S. Church, a cattle rancher, Superior Court judge and United States Congressman of a California district including Fresno County.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: Sam Peckinpah's nephew is David Peckinpah, who was a television producer and director, as well as a screenwriter. He was a cousin of former New York Yankees shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: David Samuel Peckinpah was born February 21, 1925, to David Edward and Fern Louise ("née" Church) Peckinpah in Fresno, California, where he attended both grammar school and high school. He had an elder brother, Denver Charles (1916-1996). He spent much time skipping classes with his brother to engage in cowboy activities on their grandfather Denver Church's ranch, including trapping, branding, and shooting. During the 1930s and 1940s, Coarsegold and Bass Lake were still populated with descendants of the miners and ranchers of the 19th century. Many of these descendants worked on Church's ranch. At that time, it was a rural area undergoing extreme change, and this exposure is believed to have affected Peckinpah's Western films later in life.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: He played on the junior varsity football team while at Fresno High School, but frequent fighting and discipline problems caused his parents to enroll him in the San Rafael Military Academy for his senior year.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: In 1943, he joined the United States Marine Corps. Within two years, his battalion was sent to China with the task of disarming Japanese soldiers and repatriating them following World War II. While his duty did not include combat, he claimed to have witnessed acts of war between Chinese and Japanese soldiers. According to friends, these included several acts of torture and the murder of a laborer by sniper fire. The American Marines were not permitted to intervene. Peckinpah also claimed he was shot during an attack by Communist forces. Also during his final weeks as a Marine, he applied for discharge in Peking, so he could marry a local woman, but was refused. His experiences in China reportedly deeply affected Peckinpah, and may have influenced his depictions of violence in his films.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: After being discharged in Los Angeles, he attended California State University, Fresno, where he studied history. While a student, he met and married his first wife, Marie Selland, in 1947. A drama major, Selland introduced Peckinpah to the theater department and he became interested in directing for the first time. During his senior year, he adapted and directed a one-hour version of Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie".


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: After graduation in 1948, Peckinpah enrolled in graduate studies in drama at University of Southern California. He spent two seasons as the director in residence at Huntington Park Civic Theatre near Los Angeles before obtaining his master's degree. He was asked to stay 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. Reportedly, he was kicked off the set of "The Liberace Show" for not wearing a tie, and he refused to cue a car salesman during a live feed because of his attitude towards stagehands.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: In 1954, Peckinpah was hired as a dialogue coach for the film "Riot in Cell Block 11". His job entailed acting as an assistant for the movie's director, Don Siegel. The film was shot on location at Folsom Prison. Reportedly, the warden was reluctant to allow the filmmakers to work at the prison until he was introduced to Peckinpah. The warden knew of his influential family from Fresno and was immediately cooperative. Siegel's location work and his use of actual prisoners as extras in the film made a lasting impression on Peckinpah. He worked as a dialogue coach on four additional Siegel films: "Private Hell 36" (1954), "An Annapolis Story" (1955, and co-starring L. Q. Jones), "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1956) and "Crime in the Streets" (1956).


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", in which Peckinpah appeared as Charlie the meter reader, 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.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: Throughout much of his adult life, Peckinpah was affected by alcoholism, and, later, other forms of drug addiction. According to some accounts, he also suffered from mental illness, possibly manic depression or paranoia. It is believed his drinking problems began during his service in the military while stationed in China, when he frequented the saloons of Tianjin and Beijing. After divorcing Selland, the mother of his first four children, in 1960, he married Mexican actress Begoña Palacios in 1964. A stormy relationship developed, and over the years they married on three separate occasions. They had one daughter together. His personality reportedly often swung between a sweet, softly-spoken, artistic disposition, and bouts of rage and violence, during which he verbally and physically abused himself and others. 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.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: Peckinpah's reputation as a hard-living brute with a taste for violence, inspired by the content in his most popular films and in many ways perpetuated by himself, affected his artistic legacy. His friends and family have claimed this does a disservice to a man who was actually more complex than generally credited. He used such actors as Warren Oates, L. Q. Jones, R. G. Armstrong, James Coburn, Ben Johnson, and Kris Kristofferson, and collaborators (Jerry Fielding, Lucien Ballard, Gordon Dawson, and Martin Baum) in many of his films, and several of his friends and assistants stuck by him to the end of his life.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: Peckinpah spent a great deal of his life in Mexico after his marriage to Palacios, eventually buying property in the country. He was fascinated by the Mexican lifestyle and Mexican culture, and he often portrayed it with an unusual sentimentality and romanticism in his films. Four of his films, "Major Dundee" (1965), "The Wild Bunch" (1969), "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" (1973) and "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" (1974), were filmed entirely on location within Mexico, while "The Getaway" (1972) concludes with a couple escaping to freedom there.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: From 1979 until his death, Peckinpah lived at the Murray Hotel in Livingston, Montana. Peckinpah was seriously ill during his final years, as a lifetime of hard living caught up with him. Regardless, he continued to work until his last months. 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.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: On the recommendation of Don Siegel, Peckinpah established himself during the late 1950s as a scriptwriter of western series of the era, selling scripts to "Gunsmoke", "Have Gun – Will Travel", "Broken Arrow", "Klondike", "The Rifleman", and "Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre", the latter Four Star Television productions. He wrote one episode "The Town" (December 13, 1957) for the CBS series, "Trackdown".


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: 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". His writing led to directing, and he directed a 1958 episode of "Broken Arrow" (generally credited as his first official directing job) and several 1960 episodes of "Klondike", (co-starring James Coburn, L. Q. Jones, Ralph Taeger, Joi Lansing, and Mari Blanchard). He also directed the CBS sitcom "Mr. Adams and Eve", starring Howard Duff and Ida Lupino.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: 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.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: During this time, he also created the television series "The Westerner" for Four Star Television, starring Brian Keith and in three episodes also featuring John Dehner. 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. Peckinpah acted as producer of the series, having a hand in the writing of each episode and directing five of them. Critically praised, the show ran for only 13 episodes before cancellation mainly due to its gritty content detailing the drifting, laconic cowboy Dave Blassingame (Brian Keith). Especially noteworthy are the episodes "Jeff" and "Hand on the Gun", extraordinary in their depiction of violence and their imaginative directing, forerunners of his later feature films. Despite its short run, "The Westerner" and Peckinpah were nominated by the Producers Guild of America for Best Filmed Series. An episode of the series eventually served as the basis for Tom Gries' 1968 film "Will Penny" starring Charlton Heston. "The Westerner", which has since achieved cult status, further established Peckinpah as a talent to be reckoned with.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: In 1962, Peckinpah directed two hour-long episodes for "The Dick Powell Theater". In the second of these, "The Losers", an updated remake of "The Westerner" set in the present day with Lee Marvin as Dave Blassingame and Keenan Wynn as Dehner's character Bergundy Smith, he mixed slow motion, fast motion and stills together to capture violence, a technique famously put to more sophisticated use in 1969s "The Wild Bunch".


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: After cancellation of "The Westerner", Brian Keith was cast as the male lead in the 1961 Western film "The Deadly Companions". He suggested Peckinpah as director and the project's producer Charles B. Fitzsimons accepted the idea. 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. Reportedly, Fitzsimons refused to allow Peckinpah to give direction to O'Hara. Unable to rewrite the screenplay or edit the picture, Peckinpah vowed to never again direct a film unless he had script control. "The Deadly Companions" passed largely without notice and is the least known of Peckinpah's films.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: His second film, "Ride the High Country" (1962), was based on the screenplay "Guns in the Afternoon" written by N.B. Stone, Jr. Producer Richard Lyons admired Peckinpah's work on "The Westerner" and offered him the directing job. Peckinpah did an extensive rewrite of the screenplay, including personal references from his own childhood growing up on Denver Church's ranch, and even naming one of the mining towns "Coarsegold." He based the character of Steve Judd, a once-famous lawman fallen on hard times, on his own father David Peckinpah. In the screenplay, Judd and old friend Gil Westrum are hired to transport gold from a mining community through dangerous territory. Westrum hopes to talk Judd into taking the gold for themselves. Along the way, following Judd's example, Westrum slowly realizes his own self-respect is far more important than profit. During the final shootout, when Judd and Westrum stand up to a trio of men, Judd is fatally wounded but his death serves as Westrum's salvation, a Catholic tragedy woven from the cloth of the Western genre. This sort of salvation became a major theme in many Peckinpah's later films. Starring aging Western stars Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott in their final major screen roles, the film initially went unnoticed in the United States but was an enormous success in Europe. Beating Federico Fellini's "8½" for first prize at the Belgium Film Festival, the film was hailed by foreign critics as a brilliant reworking of the Western genre. New York critics also discovered Peckinpah's unusual Western, with "Newsweek" naming "Ride the High Country" the best film of the year and "Time" placing it on its ten-best list. By some critics, the film is admired as one of Peckinpah's greatest works.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: Peckinpah's next film, "Major Dundee" (1965), was the first of Peckinpah's many unfortunate experiences with the major studios that financed his productions. Based on a screenplay by Harry Julian Fink, the film was to star Charlton Heston. Peckinpah was hired as director after Heston viewed producer Jerry Bresler's private screening of "Ride the High Country". Heston liked the film and called Peckinpah, saying, "I'd like to work with you." The sprawling screenplay told the story of Union cavalry officer Major Dundee who commands a New Mexico outpost of Confederate prisoners. When an Apache war chief wipes out a company and kidnaps several children, Dundee throws together a makeshift army, including unwilling Confederate veterans, black Federal soldiers, and traditional Western types, and takes off after the Indians. Dundee becomes obsessed with his quest and heads deep into the wilderness of Mexico with his exhausted men in tow.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: Filming began without a completed screenplay, and Peckinpah chose several remote locations in Mexico, causing the film to go heavily overbudget. Intimidated by the size and scope of the project, Peckinpah reportedly drank heavily each night after shooting. He also fired at least 15 crew members. At one point, Peckinpah's mean streak and abusiveness towards the actors so enraged Heston that the normally even-tempered star threatened to run the director through with his cavalry saber if he did not show more courtesy to the cast. Shooting ended 15 days over schedule and $1.5 million more than budgeted with Peckinpah and producer Bresler no longer on speaking terms. The movie, detailing themes and sequences Peckinpah mastered later in his career, was taken away from him and substantially reedited. An incomplete mess which today exists in a variety of versions, "Major Dundee" performed poorly at the box office and was trashed by critics (though its standing has improved over the years). Peckinpah maintained, nonetheless, throughout his life that his original version of "Major Dundee" was among his best films, but his reputation was severely damaged.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: 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. Before filming started, producer Martin Ransohoff began to receive phone calls about the "Major Dundee" ordeal and was told Peckinpah was impossible to work with. Peckinpah decided to shoot in black and white and was hoping to transform the screenplay into a social realist saga about a kid surviving the tough streets of the Great Depression. After four days of filming, which reportedly included some nude scenes, Ransohoff disliked the rushes and immediately fired him. Eventually directed by Norman Jewison and starring Steve McQueen, the film went on to become a 1965 hit.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: Peckinpah caught a lucky break in 1966 when producer Daniel Melnick needed a writer and director to adapt Katherine Anne Porter's short novel "Noon Wine" for television. Melnick was a big fan of "The Westerner" and "Ride the High Country", and had heard Peckinpah had been unfairly fired from "The Cincinnati Kid". Against the objections of many within the industry, Melnick hired Peckinpah and gave him free rein. Peckinpah completed the script, which Porter enthusiastically endorsed, and the project became an hour-long presentation for "ABC Stage 67".


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: Taking place in turn of the century West Texas, "Noon Wine" was a dark tragedy about a farmer's act of futile murder which leads to suicide. Starring Jason Robards and Olivia de Havilland, the film was a critical hit, with Peckinpah nominated by the Writers Guild for Best Television Adaptation and the Directors Guild of America for Best Television Direction. Robards kept a personal copy of the film in his private collection for years as he considered the project to be one of his most satisfying professional experiences. A rare film which had no home video release until 2014, "Noon Wine" is today considered one of Peckinpah's most intimate works, revealing his dramatic potential and artistic depth.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: The surprising success of "Noon Wine" laid the groundwork for one of the most explosive comebacks in film history. 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". An alternative screenplay written by Roy Sickner and Walon Green was the western "The Wild Bunch". At the time, William Goldman's screenplay "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" had recently been purchased by 20th Century Fox.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: It was quickly decided that "The Wild Bunch", which had several similarities to Goldman's work, would be produced in order to beat "Butch Cassidy" to the theaters. By the fall of 1967, Peckinpah was rewriting the screenplay into what became "The Wild Bunch". Filmed on location in Mexico, Peckinpah's epic work was inspired by a number of forces—his hunger to return to films, the violence seen in Arthur Penn's "Bonnie and Clyde", America's growing frustration with the Vietnam War, and what he perceived to be the utter lack of reality seen in Westerns up to that time. He set out to make a film which portrayed not only the vicious violence of the period, but the crude men attempting to survive the era. During this period, Peckinpah said that his life was changed by seeing Carlos Saura's "La Caza" (1966), which profoundly influenced his subsequent oeuvre.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: The film detailed a gang of veteran outlaws on the Texas/Mexico border in 1913 trying to survive within a rapidly approaching modern world. "The Wild Bunch" is framed by two ferocious and infamous gunfights, beginning with a failed robbery of the railway company office and concluding with the outlaws battling the Mexican army in suicidal vengeance prompted by the brutal torture and murder of one of their members.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: Irreverent and unprecedented in its explicit detail, the 1969 film was an instant success. Multiple scenes attempted in "Major Dundee", including slow motion action sequences, characters leaving a village as if in a funeral procession and the use of inexperienced locals as extras, were perfected in "The Wild Bunch". Many critics denounced its violence as sadistic and exploitative. Other critics and filmmakers hailed the originality of its unique rapid editing style, created for the first time in this film and ultimately becoming a Peckinpah trademark, and praised the reworking of traditional Western themes. It was the beginning of Peckinpah's international fame, and he and his work remained controversial for the rest of his life. The film was ranked No. 80 on the American Film Institute's top 100 list of the greatest American films ever made and No. 69 as the most thrilling, but the controversy has not diminished.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: "The Wild Bunch" was re-released for its 25th anniversary, and received an NC-17 rating from the MPAA. Peckinpah received his only Academy Award nomination (for Best Original Screenplay) for this film.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: Defying audience expectations, as he often did, Peckinpah immediately followed "The Wild Bunch" with the elegiac, funny and mostly non-violent 1970 Western "The Ballad of Cable Hogue". Using many of the same cast (L. Q. Jones, Strother Martin) and crew members of "The Wild Bunch", the film covered three years in the life of small-time entrepreneur Cable Hogue (Jason Robards) who decides to make his living by remaining in the desert after having miraculously discovered water when he had been abandoned there to die. He opens his business along a stagecoach line, only to see his dreams end with the appearance of the first automobile on the horizon.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: Shot on location in the Valley of Fire in Nevada, the film was plagued by poor weather, Peckinpah's renewed drinking and his brusque firing of 36 crew members. The chaotic filming wrapped 19 days over schedule and $3 million over budget, effectively terminating his tenure with Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. 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.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: Largely ignored upon its initial release, "The Ballad of Cable Hogue" has been rediscovered in recent years and is often held up by critics as exemplary of the breadth of Peckinpah's talents. They claim that the film proves Peckinpah's ability to make unconventional and original work without resorting to explicit violence. Over the years, Peckinpah cited the film as one of his favorites.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: His alienation from Warner Brothers once again left him with a limited number of directing jobs. Peckinpah traveled to England to direct "Straw Dogs" (1971), one of his darkest and most psychologically disturbing films. Produced by Daniel Melnick, who had previously worked with Peckinpah on "Noon Wine", the film's screenplay was based on the novel "The Siege of Trencher's Farm" by Gordon Williams.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: It starred Dustin Hoffman as David Sumner, a timid American mathematician who leaves the chaos of college anti-war protests to live with his young wife Amy (Susan George) in her native village in Cornwall, England. Resentment of David's presence by the locals slowly builds to a shocking climax when the mild-mannered academic is forced to violently defend his home. Peckinpah rewrote the existing screenplay, inspired by the books "African Genesis" and "The Territorial Imperative" by Robert Ardrey, which argued that man was essentially a carnivore who instinctively battled over control of territory.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: The character of David Sumner, taunted and humiliated by the violent town locals, is eventually cornered within his home where he loses control and kills several of the men during the violent conclusion. "Straw Dogs" deeply divided critics, some of whom praised its artistry and its confrontation of human savagery, while others attacked it as a misogynistic and fascistic celebration of violence.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: Much of the criticism centered on Amy's complicated and lengthy rape scene, which Peckinpah reportedly attempted to base on his own personal fears rooted in past failed marriages. To this day, the scene is attacked by some critics as an ugly male-chauvinist fantasy. The film was for many years banned on video in the UK.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: Despite his growing alcoholism and controversial reputation, Peckinpah was prolific during this period of his life. In May 1971, weeks after completing "Straw Dogs", he returned to the United States to begin work on "Junior Bonner". The lyrical screenplay by Jeb Rosenbrook, depicting the changing times of society and binding family ties, appealed to Peckinpah's tastes. He accepted the project, at the time concerned with being typed as a director of violent action. The film was his final attempt to make a low-key, dramatic work in the vein of "Noon Wine" and "The Ballad of Cable Hogue".


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: Filmed on location in Prescott, Arizona, the story covered a week in the life of aging rodeo rider Junior "JR" Bonner (Steve McQueen) who returns to his hometown to compete in an annual rodeo competition. Promoted as a Steve McQueen action vehicle, the film's reviews were mixed and the film performed poorly at the box office. Peckinpah remarked, "I made a film where nobody got shot and nobody went to see it." The film's reputation has grown over the years as many critics consider "Junior Bonner" to be one of Peckinpah's most sympathetic works, while also noting McQueen's earnest performance.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: Eager to work with Peckinpah again, Steve McQueen presented him Walter Hill's screenplay to "The Getaway". Based on the Jim Thompson novel, the gritty crime thriller detailed lovers on the run following a dangerous robbery. Both Peckinpah and McQueen needed a hit, and they immediately began working on the film in February 1972. Peckinpah had no pretensions about making "The Getaway", as his only goal was to create a highly polished thriller to boost his market value. McQueen played Doc McCoy, a convicted robber who colludes with corrupt businessman Jack Beynon (Ben Johnson) to be released from prison and later masterminds a bank heist organized by Beynon.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: A series of double-crosses ensues and Doc and his wife Carol (MacGraw) attempt to flee from their pursuers to Mexico. Replete with explosions, car chases and intense shootouts, the film became Peckinpah's biggest financial success to date earning more than $25 million at the box office. Though strictly a commercial product, Peckinpah's creative touches abound throughout, most notably during the intricately edited opening sequence when McQueen's character is suffering from the pressures of prison life. The film remains popular and was remade in 1994, starring Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: The year 1973 marked the beginning of the most difficult period of Peckinpah's life and career. While still filming "The Getaway" in El Paso, Texas, Peckinpah sneaked across the border into Juarez in April 1972 and married Joie Gould. He had met Gould in England while filming "Straw Dogs", and she had since been his companion and a part-time crew member. Peckinpah's intake of alcohol had increased dramatically while making "The Getaway", and he became fond of saying, "I can't direct when I'm sober." He began to have violent mood swings and explosions of rage, at one point assaulting Gould. After four months, she returned to England and filed for divorce. Devastated by the breakup, Peckinpah fell into a self-destructive pattern of almost continuous alcohol consumption, and his health was unstable for the remainder of his life.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: It was in this state of mind that Peckinpah agreed to make "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" (1973) for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Based on the screenplay by Rudolph Wurlitzer, who had previously penned "Two-Lane Blacktop", a film admired by Peckinpah, the director was convinced that he was about to make his definitive statement on the Western genre. 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. Peckinpah rewrote the screenplay, establishing Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid 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, with a huge supporting cast including Bob Dylan, who composed the film's music, Jason Robards, R. G. Armstrong, Richard Jaeckel, Jack Elam, Chill Wills, Katy Jurado, Matt Clark, L. Q. Jones, Rutanya Alda, Slim Pickens, and Harry Dean Stanton. From the beginning, Peckinpah began to have clashes with MGM and its president James Aubrey, known for his stifling of creative interests and eventual dismantling of the historic movie company. Numerous production difficulties, including an outbreak of influenza and malfunctioning cameras, combined with Peckinpah's alcoholism, resulted in one of the most troubled productions of his career. Principal photography finished 21 days behind schedule and $1.6 million over budget. Enraged, Aubrey severely cut Peckinpah's film from 124 to 106 minutes, resulting in "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" being released in a truncated version largely disowned by cast and crew members. Critics complained that the film was incoherent, and the experience soured Peckinpah forever on Hollywood. In 1988, however, Peckinpah's director's cut was released on video and led to a reevaluation, with many critics hailing it as a mistreated classic and one of the era's best films. Filmmakers, including Martin Scorsese, have praised the film as one of the greatest modern Westerns.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: 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. A project in development for many years and based on an idea by Frank Kowalski, Peckinpah wrote the screenplay with the assistance of Kowalski, Walter Kelley and Gordon Dawson. An alcohol-soaked fever dream involving revenge, greed and murder in the Mexican countryside, the film featured Bennie (Warren Oates) as a thinly disguised self-portrait of Peckinpah, and co-starred a burlap bag containing the severed head of a gigolo being sought by a Mexican patrone for having impregnated his young granddaughter. Bennie is offered a reward of ten thousand dollars for Alfredo's death or proof thereof and Alfredo's head is demanded as proof that the contract has been fulfilled. The macabre drama was part black comedy, action film and tragedy, with a warped edge rarely seen in Peckinpah's works. Most critics were repulsed, and it was listed in the book "The 50 Worst Films of All Time" by Harry Medved and Randy Dreyfuss. One of the few critics to praise the film was Roger Ebert, and in fact, the film's reputation has grown in recent years, with many noting its uncompromising vision as well as its anticipation of the violent black comedy which became famous in the works of such directors as David Lynch and Quentin Tarantino. While a failure at the box office, the film today has a cult following. In 1991, UCLA's film school organized a festival of great but forgotten American films, and included "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" in the program. It is reportedly Takeshi Kitano's favorite film.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: His career now suffering from consecutive box office failures, Peckinpah once again was in need of a hit on the level of "The Getaway". For his next film, he chose "The Killer Elite" (1975), an action-filled espionage thriller starring James Caan and Robert Duvall as rival American agents. Filmed 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. Producers also refused to allow Peckinpah to rewrite the screenplay for the first time since his debut film "The Deadly Companions". Frustrated, the director spent large amounts of time in his on-location trailer, allowing assistants to direct many scenes. At one point he overdosed on cocaine, landing himself in a hospital and receiving a second pacemaker. The film was completed and was reasonably successful at the box office, although critics panned it. Today, the film is considered one of Peckinpah's weakest films, and an example of his decline as a major director.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: Still renowned 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). The screenplay was based on a novel about a platoon of German soldiers in 1943 on the verge of utter collapse on the Taman Peninsula on the Eastern Front. The German production was filmed in Yugoslavia. Working with James Hamilton and Walter Kelley, Peckinpah rewrote the screenplay and screened numerous Nazi documentaries in preparation. Almost immediately, Peckinpah realized he was working on a low-budget production, as he had to spend $90,000 of his own money to hire experienced crew members. While not suffering from the cocaine abuse which marked "The Killer Elite", Peckinpah continued to drink heavily, causing his direction to become confused and erratic. The production abruptly ran out of funds, and Peckinpah was forced to completely improvise the concluding sequence, filming the scene in one day. Co-starring James Mason, Maximilian Schell, David Warner and Senta Berger, "Cross of Iron" was noted for its opening montage utilizing documentary footage as well as the visceral impact of the unusually intense battle sequences. The film was a huge box office success in Europe, inspiring the sequel "Breakthrough" starring Richard Burton. "Cross of Iron" was reportedly a favorite of Orson Welles, who said that after "All Quiet on the Western Front" it was the finest anti-war film he had ever seen. The film performed poorly in the U.S., ultimately eclipsed by "Star Wars", though today it is highly regarded and considered the last instance of Peckinpah's once-great talent.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: Hoping to create a blockbuster, Peckinpah decided to take on "Convoy" (1978). His associates were perplexed, as they felt his choice to direct such substandard material was a result of his renewed cocaine use and continued alcoholism. Based on the hit song by C. W. McCall, the film was an attempt to capitalize on the huge success of "Smokey and the Bandit" (1977). In spite of his addictions, Peckinpah felt compelled to turn the genre exercise into something more significant. Unhappy with the screenplay written by B.W.L. Norton, Peckinpah tried to encourage the actors to re-write, improvise and ad-lib their dialogue. In another departure from the script, Peckinpah attempted to add a new dimension by casting a pair of black actors as members of the convoy, Madge Sinclair as Widow Woman and Franklyn Ajaye as Spider Mike. 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. Friend and actor James Coburn was brought in to serve as second unit director, and he filmed many of the scenes while Peckinpah remained in his on-location trailer. The film wrapped in September 1977, 11 days behind schedule and $5 million over budget. Surprisingly, "Convoy" was the highest-grossing picture of Peckinpah's career, notching $46.5 million at the box office, but was panned by many critics, leaving his reputation seriously damaged. For the first time in almost a decade, Peckinpah finished a picture and found himself unemployed.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: For the next three years, Peckinpah remained a professional outcast. But during the summer of 1981, his original mentor Don Siegel gave him a chance to return to filmmaking. While shooting "Jinxed!", a comedy drama starring Bette Midler and Rip Torn, Siegel asked Peckinpah if he would be interested in directing 12 days of second unit work. Peckinpah immediately accepted, and his earnest collaboration, while uncredited, was noted within the industry. For the final time, Peckinpah found himself back in the directing business.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: By 1982, Peckinpah's health was poor. Producers Peter S. Davis and William N. Panzer were undaunted, as they felt that having Peckinpah's name attached to "The Osterman Weekend" (1983) would lend the suspense thriller an air of respectability. Peckinpah accepted the job but reportedly hated the convoluted screenplay based upon Robert Ludlum's novel, which he also disliked. Multiple actors in Hollywood auditioned for the film, intrigued by the opportunity. Many of those who signed on, including John Hurt, Burt Lancaster and Dennis Hopper, did so for less than their usual salaries for a chance to work with the legendary director. By the time shooting wrapped in January 1983 in Los Angeles, Peckinpah and the producers were hardly speaking. Nevertheless, Peckinpah brought the film in on time and on budget, delivering his director's cut to the producers. Davis and Panzer were unhappy with Peckinpah's version, which included an opening sequence of two characters making love. The producers changed the opening and also deleted other scenes they deemed unnecessary. Peckinpah's final film was critically panned. It grossed $6.5 million in the United States (nearly recouping its budget) and did well in Europe and on the new home-video market.


title: Sam Peckinpah

text: 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.


title: Ricky Schroder

text: Richard Bartlett Schroder (born April 13, 1970) is an American actor and filmmaker. As a child actor billed as Ricky Schroder he debuted in the film "The Champ" (1979), for which he became the youngest Golden Globe award recipient, and went on to become a child star on the sitcom "Silver Spoons". He has continued acting as an adult, usually billed as Rick Schroder, notably as "Newt" on the Western miniseries "Lonesome Dove" (1989) and in the crime-drama series "NYPD Blue". He made his directorial debut with the film "Black Cloud" (2004) and has produced several films and television series including the anthology film "Locker 13" and the war documentary "The Fighting Season."


title: Ricky Schroder

text: Schroder was born in Brooklyn, New York City and raised on Staten Island, the son of Diane Katherine Bartlett and Richard John Schroder, both former employees of AT&T. His paternal grandparents were German immigrants. Schroder's mother quit her job to raise him and his sister Dawn. As a child, Schroder appeared in many catalogs, and by age six, he had appeared in 60 advertisements.


title: Ricky Schroder

text: Schroder made his film debut as the son of Jon Voight's character in "The Champ", a 1979 remake of the 1931 film of the same title. He was nominated for, and subsequently won, a Golden Globe award in 1980 for Best New Male Star of the Year in a Motion Picture, becoming at age 9 the youngest Golden Globe winner in history. Following his role in "The Champ", Schroder was removed from school by his parents in the third grade to focus on his career. He moved to Los Angeles with his mother, but his father remained in New York City and kept his job with AT&T. The following year, Schroder appeared in the Disney feature film "The Last Flight of Noah's Ark" with Elliott Gould. He also starred as the title character in "Little Lord Fauntleroy", alongside Alec Guinness.


title: Ricky Schroder

text: Schroder then became well known as the star of the television series "Silver Spoons". He played a starring role as Ricky Stratton, the son of a wealthy and eccentric millionaire, Edward Stratton. His performance earned him two Young Artist Awards. He struggled with his identity as an actor when "Silver Spoons" ended. Prospective roles were rare, and he was mainly designated to play boyish-looking teenagers or blond-haired heartthrobs. Schroder avoided the vices of other child actors and attempted to establish himself as a more mature actor, dropping the "y" from his first name. His mother enrolled him in Calabasas High School, but Schroder had trouble adjusting to the new environment.