Sam Peckinpah (1925-1984), the iconoclastic director who changed the way we look at Westerns and crime dramas, is celebrated with four of his classics and the TCM premiere of a recent documentary about the filmmaker.

Peckinpah was born in Fresno, CA, and served with the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II before enrolling at Fresno State University, where he graduated with a B.A. in Drama. He later earned his master's degree in drama at the University of Southern California. He began in films as a dialogue coach in the 1950s and, after a prolific career as a scriptwriter for TV shows, directed his first movie in 1961, a Western called The Deadly Companions. His second film, Ride the High Country (1962) starring Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott, was an early indication that he was a master handler of the genre.

By the mid-1960s Peckinpah had earned a reputation as a hard-drinking, difficult taskmaster, and his opportunities as a filmmaker were spotty. However, the spectacular success of the brutal, revisionist Western The Wild Bunch (1969) revived his career. This story of a gang of aging outlaws making a last stand was co-written by Walon Green and Peckinpah, who directs with violent flourishes that were revolutionary in their day. Stars include William Holden, Robert Ryan and Ernest Borgnine.

The Getaway (1972) marked a reunion for Peckinpah and star Steve McQueen, who had played a rodeo rider in the director's Junior Bonner (also 1972). In The Getaway, McQueen stars with Ali MacGraw as a married couple on the lam after robbing a bank. In Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973), Garrett (James Coburn) is hired as a lawman to track down his old buddy Billy (Kris Kristofferson). Peckinpah directs an eclectic cast that includes Bob Dylan, Jason Robards, Barry Sullivan and Chill Wills.

Peckinpah Suite (TCM premiere, 2019), is a TCM Spain original documentary written and directed by Pedro González Bermúdez. It looks at the life and career of the celebrated director from the viewpoint of his daughter, Lupita Peckinpah. Thirty-five years after her father's death, she travels for the first time to his last home in Livingston, Montana, to search for clues about his life and work.