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.
63 movies · 4 shows
Mineshaft: The Cruising Murders
2026·0.0
Fear and Love: The Story of The Exorcist
2024·0.0
The Lost Print: The Making of Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons
2022·0.0
Algren
2021·6.0
I Am Alfred Hitchcock
2021·7.3
Fellini of the Spirits
2020·6.6
Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist
2019·7.4
Friedkin Uncut
2018·7.1
The Devil and Father Amorth
2018·5.1
Return to the Genre
2016·0.0
Sorcerers: A Conversation with William Friedkin and Nicolas Winding Refn
2015·4.5
Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles
2014·6.5
Henri Langlois vu par...
2014·4.0
The Making of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz
2013·10.0
A Fuller Life
2013·6.6
Don't Say No Until I Finish Talking: The Story of Richard D. Zanuck
2013·6.3
Tales from the Warner Bros. Lot
2013·6.8
Stanley Kubrick in Focus
2012·6.0
Casablanca: An Unlikely Classic
2012·6.5
Michael Curtiz: The Greatest Director You Never Heard Of
2012·6.7
Making the Boys
2011·4.7
Miller's Tale
2011·7.1
Godard Made in USA
2010·0.0
The Exorcist Locations: Georgetown Then and Now
2010·0.0
Raising Hell: Filming the Exorcist
2010·6.0
Fasten Your Seatbelt: The Thrilling Art of Alfred Hitchcock
2009·0.0
The Master's Touch: Hitchcock's Signature Style
2009·6.8
North by Northwest: One for the Ages
2009·6.8
Victor Fleming: Master Craftsman
2009·7.5
Anatomy of a Chase
2009·4.0
Pure Cinema: Through the Eyes of Hitchcock
2008·0.0
Breaking Barriers: The Sound of Hitchcock
2008·0.0
In the Master's Shadow: Hitchcock's Legacy
2008·6.8
The Masterpiece That Almost Wasn't
2008·7.2
Great Bolshy Yarblockos!: Making 'A Clockwork Orange'
2007·6.1
View from the Overlook: Crafting 'The Shining'
2007·7.4
The Visions of Stanley Kubrick
2007·6.9
Vision of a Future Passed: The Prophecy of 2001
2007·6.0
Standing on the Shoulders of Kubrick: The Legacy of 2001
2007·6.2
The History of 'Cruising'
2007·7.7
Exorcising 'Cruising'
2007·6.5
Tatort Oper - Wie Filmemacher Oper machen
2007·0.0
The Man Who Shot Chinatown: The Life and Work of John A. Alonzo
2007·6.0
Shadows of Suspense
2006·0.0
Shadows in the Dark: The Val Lewton Legacy
2005·9.4
A Little Solitaire
2004·0.0
Counterfeit World: Making 'To Live and Die in L.A.'
2003·7.7
Pursuing “The Hunted”
2003·0.0
The Cutting Edge
2003·0.0
Filming “The Hunted”
2003·0.0
Narc: The Friedkin Connection
2003·9.0
A Decade Under the Influence
2003·7.9
Making the Connection: Untold Stories of The French Connection
2001·7.0
The Poughkeepsie Shuffle: Tracing 'The French Connection'
2000·8.1
Without Limits
1998·6.6
The Fear of God: 25 Years of The Exorcist
1998·7.4
Billy Wilder: The Human Comedy
1998·6.0
Howard Hawks: American Artist
1997·6.2
Hollywood Halloween
1997·8.0
Fear in the Dark
1991·9.0
Putting It Together: The Making of the Broadway Album
1986·9.0
Conversation with Fritz Lang
1975·7.1
Oscars, Actors and The Exorcist
1974·0.0