David E. Peckinpah, 54; Nephew of Director Had Own Film, TV Career

Producer-writer-director David E. Peckinpah, 54, nephew of the late director Sam Peckinpah, died of heart failure Sunday in Vancouver, Canada, where he lived with his family, publicist Warren Cowan said.

Peckinpah was executive producer of the TV series “Sliders” from 1996 to 1999, “Turks” in 1999 and “Silk Stalkings” in 1991.

He was screenwriter on the 1994 film “The Paperboy.”

A native of Fresno, Peckinpah decided early on a Hollywood career despite the misgivings of his father, Denver Peckinpah, who was a Superior Court judge in Fresno County.

Peckinpah was still in his 20s when he moved to Los Angeles and began writing for film and television, and he moved quickly into producing and eventually directing.

At the time of his death, he was preparing to direct a movie he had adapted from the Max Evans novel “My Pardner.”

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Rosalie Yerkes Figge, an iris expert whose name is synonymous with a deep-violet variation of the flower, died of congestive heart failure April 10 in Timonium, Md. She was 96.