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The Simpsons
1989
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Movies & TV Shows
- The Exorcist1973
- The French Connection1971
- Sorcerer1977
- The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial2023
- Cruising1980
- To Live and Die in L.A.1985
- Killer Joe2012
- Rules of Engagement2000
- Bug2007
The Hunted2003- The Boys in the Band1970
- Jade1995
- Blue Chips1994
- 12 Angry Men1997
- The Devil and Father Amorth2018
- Without Limits1998
- Rampage1992
- “The French Connection” (1971) The making of “The French Connection” has taken on its own mythology, but the story (recounted by Todd McCarthy in his Howard Hawks book) goes that, after making a handful of respectable films, Friedkin asked Howard Hawks what he thought of his films.
- “The Exorcist” (1973) How do you follow up one of the greatest films of all time? By making another stone-cold classic. What’s fascinating isn’t just that Friedkin was able to follow up “The French Connection” with “The Exorcist,” a movie that was just as complicated (if not more complicated) than the previous movie, but that he wasn’t the studio’s first choice for director — supposedly Warner Bros.
- “Sorcerer” (1977) Perhaps Friedkin’s towering achievement as a filmmaker was, unsurprisingly, ignored at the time of its release. An adaptation of George Arnaud’s 1950 novel “Le Salaire de la peur” (previously made as Henri-Georges Clouzot’s “The Wages of Fear,” a movie Friedkin unsuccessfully lobbied to have re-released in America ahead of his version), it follows a bunch of lowlifes (led by his “French Connection” collaborator Roy Scheider) who convene in South America to drive a truck full of nitroglycerin through the treacherous jungle.
- “Cruising” (1980) One of Friedkin’s strangest and most haunting movies, “Cruising” stars Al Pacino as an NYPD cop who goes undercover to try and solve a series of unsolved killings in the city’s gay community.
In 1965, he moved to Hollywood and immediately started directing TV shows, including an episode of the The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962) ; Hitchcock infamously chastised him for not wearing a tie. Born August 29, 1935. Died August 7, 2023 (87) Add to list. Won 1 Oscar. 23 wins & 18 nominations total. Photos 81. Known for. To Live and Die in L.A.
- January 1, 1
- Chicago, Illinois, USA
- January 1, 1
- Bel Air, Los Angeles, California, USA
William David Friedkin (/ ˈ f r iː d k ɪ n /; 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.
William Friedkin's Sorcerer is a painstaking, admirable, but mostly distant and uninvolving suspenser based on the French classic The Wages of Fear.
- Senior Staff Writer
- The Exorcist. One of the best horror movies ever made, The Exorcist was a landmark in the genre’s history. None of The Exorcist’s sequels could recapture the original movie’s intensity and sheer terror-inducing power, but this makes it easy to forget the human drama at the core of the adaptation.
- The French Connection. The French Connection is simultaneously the best chase thriller in cinema history and a dark, morally ambiguous character study of a cop who is arguably even worse than the criminals he pursues.
- The Boys In The Band. While arguably excessively maudlin, Friedkin’s adaptation of the stage play The Boys in the Band was still a revolutionary and deeply poignant exploration of gay life before the sexual revolution.
- To Live And Die In L.A. While The French Connection might be more famous, To Live and Die in L.A. might be the most influential of Friedkin’s movies. While the first third of this neo-noir thriller is tense, the second half of the movie is one long, incredibly ambitious action sequence that pushes the boundaries of what action filmmakers could achieve.
Discover the director's most famous movies, including The Exorcist, The French Connection, and To Live and Die in L.A..
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William Friedkin (August 29, 1935 - August 7, 2023) was an American film director, producer and screenwriter best known for directing "The French Connection" (1971) and "The Exorcist" (1973); for the former, he won the Academy Award for Best Director.
