William Friedkin, master director behind The Exorcist & The French Connection, dies at 87

According to the latest reports, William Friedkin died in his Los Angeles home due to heart failure and pneumonia, as revealed by his wife and former Paramount Pictures head, Sherry Lansing.

William Friedkin

Legendary filmmaker William Friedkin, known for making some of the most pathbreaking films of the new wave of American cinema, passed away on Monday, August 7. Friedkin will be forever remembered for directing The French Connection and The Exorcist, both regarded as seminal films that redefined and reshaped Hollywood sensibilities for decades to come.

According to the latest reports, William Friedkin died in his Los Angeles home due to heart failure and pneumonia, as revealed by his wife and former Paramount Pictures head, Sherry Lansing. He was 87.

Friedkin was particularly known and revered in the world of cinema for his penchant to explore characters that lived on the edge. His 1971 film The French Connection is a great testament to this ethos and the worldview he possessed, wherein he traversed the underbelly of New York's crime world through the eyes of the worn-out, nihilistic police officer. The role of that cop would be played and immortalized by Gene Hackman, who won the Oscar for Best Actor with William Friedkin adjudged Best Director that year and The French Connection, Best Picture.

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The visceral and equally tantalizing car chase sequence in The French Connection is held as the gold standard by filmmakers across the world, especially for the way it was shot with minimal paraphernalia or safety measures.

William Friedkin was also known to be picky with his projects and has directed only 19 films in a career that spans nearly six decades. He never shied away from being provocative either and films like The Exorcist, Cruising and even the more Killer Joe reveal just how much he revelled in a sense of disobedience that one rarely gets to see anymore. The Exorcist would be the first horror film to be nominated in the Best Picture category at the Oscars.

His final film as a director will be The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, a legal drama starring Kiefer Sutherland, Jason Clarke, Jake Lacy and others. The film will premiere at the 80th Venice International Film Festival in September 2023.

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