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.
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Known For
Peter Lorre : Derrière le masque du maudit
Self (archive footage)
2024
Fear and Love: The Story of The Exorcist
Self
2024
The Exorcist Untold
Self (archive footage)
2023
Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist
Self
2023
100 Years of Warner Bros.
Self · (1 episode)
2023
The Lost Print: The Making of Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons
Self
2022
Algren
Self
2021
I Am Alfred Hitchcock
Self
2021
Fellini of the Spirits
Self
2020
Friedkin Uncut
Self
2018
The Devil and Father Amorth
Self
2018
Return to the Genre
2016
Sorcerers: A Conversation with William Friedkin and Nicolas Winding Refn
2015
Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles
Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)
2014
Henri Langlois vu par...
Self
2014
The Making of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Self
2013
A Fuller Life
Self - Reader (segment "My Ballsy Yarns")
2013
Don't Say No Until I Finish Talking: The Story of Richard D. Zanuck
Self
2013
Tales from the Warner Bros. Lot
Self
2013
Stanley Kubrick in Focus
Self
2012
Casablanca: An Unlikely Classic
Self
2012
Michael Curtiz: The Greatest Director You Never Heard Of
Self
2012
Making the Boys
Self
2011
Miller's Tale
Self
2011
Godard Made in USA
Self
2010
The Exorcist Locations: Georgetown Then and Now
Self
2010
Raising Hell: Filming the Exorcist
Self
2010
Fasten Your Seatbelt: The Thrilling Art of Alfred Hitchcock
Self
2009
The Master's Touch: Hitchcock's Signature Style
Self
2009
North by Northwest: One for the Ages
Self
2009
Victor Fleming: Master Craftsman
Self
2009
Anatomy of a Chase
Self
2009
Breaking Barriers: The Sound of Hitchcock
Self
2008
Pure Cinema: Through the Eyes of Hitchcock
Self
2008
In the Master's Shadow: Hitchcock's Legacy
Self
2008
The Masterpiece That Almost Wasn't
Self
2008
Great Bolshy Yarblockos!: Making 'A Clockwork Orange'
Self
2007
View from the Overlook: Crafting 'The Shining'
Self
2007
The Visions of Stanley Kubrick
Self
2007
Vision of a Future Passed: The Prophecy of 2001
Self
2007
The History of 'Cruising'
Self
2007
Exorcising 'Cruising'
Self
2007
The History of 'Cruising'
Self
2007
Tatort Oper - Wie Filmemacher Oper machen
Self
2007
The Man Who Shot Chinatown: The Life and Work of John A. Alonzo
Self
2007
Shadows of Suspense
Self
2006
Shadows in the Dark: The Val Lewton Legacy
2005
A Little Solitaire
Self
2004
Leçon de Cinéma
Self · (1 episode)
2004
Counterfeit World: Making 'To Live and Die in L.A.'
Self
2003
Filming “The Hunted”
Self
2003
Pursuing “The Hunted”
Self
2003
The Cutting Edge
Self
2003
Narc: The Friedkin Connection
Self
2003
A Decade Under the Influence
Self
2003
Through the Night with...
Self · (1 episode)
2002
Making the Connection: Untold Stories of The French Connection
Self
2001
The Poughkeepsie Shuffle: Tracing 'The French Connection'
Self
2000
Without Limits
TV Director
1998
The Fear of God: 25 Years of The Exorcist
Self - Director
1998
Billy Wilder: The Human Comedy
Self
1998
Howard Hawks: American Artist
Self
1997
Hollywood Halloween
Self
1997
Fear in the Dark
Self
1991
The Simpsons
Dr. Kenneth Humphries (voice) · (1 episode)
1989
Putting It Together: The Making of the Broadway Album
1986
Conversation with Fritz Lang
Self
1975