Directing
William Friedkin
1935-08-29 · Chicago, Illinois, USA
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 thriller Cruising (1980); and the neo-noir thriller To Live and Die in L.A. (1985). Although Friedkin's works suffered an overall commercial and critical decline in the late 1980s, his last three feature films, all based on plays, were positively received by critics: the psychological horror film Bug (2006), the crime film Killer Joe (2011), and the legal drama film The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (2023), released two months after his death. He also worked extensively as an opera director from 1998 until his death, and directed various television films and series episodes for television. Description above from the Wikipedia article William Friedkin, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known for
The Simpsons
The Exorcist
The French Connection
Killer Joe
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Tales from the Crypt
The Hunted
To Live and Die in L.A.
Rules of Engagement
Sorcerer
Cruising
Bug
12 Angry Men
Jade
The Twilight Zone
The Guardian
Movie credits · 96
Mineshaft: The Cruising Murders
Fear and Love: The Story of The Exorcist
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial
The Lost Print: The Making of Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons
Algren
I Am Alfred Hitchcock
Fellini of the Spirits
Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist
Friedkin Uncut
Stringman: The Jack Nitzsche Story
The Devil and Father Amorth
Return to the Genre
Sorcerers: A Conversation with William Friedkin and Nicolas Winding Refn
Verdi Aida
Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles
Henri Langlois vu par...
The Making of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz
A Fuller Life
Don't Say No Until I Finish Talking: The Story of Richard D. Zanuck
Tales from the Warner Bros. Lot
Stanley Kubrick in Focus
Killer Joe
Casablanca: An Unlikely Classic
Michael Curtiz: The Greatest Director You Never Heard Of
Making the Boys
Miller's Tale
Godard Made in USA
The Exorcist Locations: Georgetown Then and Now
Raising Hell: Filming the Exorcist
Fasten Your Seatbelt: The Thrilling Art of Alfred Hitchcock
The Master's Touch: Hitchcock's Signature Style
North by Northwest: One for the Ages
Victor Fleming: Master Craftsman
Anatomy of a Chase
Pure Cinema: Through the Eyes of Hitchcock
Breaking Barriers: The Sound of Hitchcock
In the Master's Shadow: Hitchcock's Legacy
The Masterpiece That Almost Wasn't
Great Bolshy Yarblockos!: Making 'A Clockwork Orange'
View from the Overlook: Crafting 'The Shining'
TV credits · 9
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