William Friedkin

Directing · Born 1935-08-29 in Chicago, Illinois, USA

Biography

William David Friedkin (August 29, 1935 – August 7, 2023) was an American film, television and opera director, producer, and screenwriter who was closely identified with the "New Hollywood" movement of the 1970s. Beginning his career in documentaries in the early 1960s, he is best known for his crime thriller film The French Connection (1971), which won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and the horror film The Exorcist (1973), which earned him another Academy Award nomination for Best Director. Friedkin's other films in the 1970s and 1980s include the drama The Boys in the Band (1970), considered a milestone of queer cinema; the originally deprecated, now lauded thriller Sorcerer (1977); the crime comedy drama The Brink's Job (1978); the controversial…

Filmography

• Raising Hell: Filming the Exorcist as Self
• The Masterpiece That Almost Wasn't as Self
• Shadows in the Dark: The Val Lewton Legacy
• The Fear of God: 25 Years of The Exorcist as Self - Director
• Miller's Tale as Self
• Anatomy of a Chase as Self
• Great Bolshy Yarblockos!: Making 'A Clockwork Orange' as Self
• Tales from the Warner Bros. Lot as Self
• Conversation with Fritz Lang as Self
• The Making of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz as Self