Person
William Friedkin
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…
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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.
Filmography
Movies and shows, newest first
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2026
Mineshaft: The Cruising Murders
Movie Self (archive footage)
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2024
Fear and Love: The Story of The Exorcist
Movie Self
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2023
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial
Movie Teleplay
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2023
100 Years of Warner Bros.
TV show Self
- 2022
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2021
Algren
Movie Self
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2021
I Am Alfred Hitchcock
Movie Self (archive footage)
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2020
Fellini of the Spirits
Movie Self
- 2019
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2018
Friedkin Uncut
Movie Self
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2018
Stringman: The Jack Nitzsche Story
Movie Self
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2018
The Devil and Father Amorth
Movie Self
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2016
Return to the Genre
Movie
- 2015
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2015
Verdi Aida
Movie Stage Director
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2014
Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles
Movie Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)
More credits
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2014
Henri Langlois vu par...
Movie Self
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2013
The Making of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Movie Self
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2013
A Fuller Life
Movie Self - Reader (segment "My Ballsy Yarns")
- 2013
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2013
Tales from the Warner Bros. Lot
Movie Self
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2012
Stanley Kubrick in Focus
Movie Self
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2012
Killer Joe
Movie Director
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2012
Casablanca: An Unlikely Classic
Movie Self
- 2012
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2011
Making the Boys
Movie Self
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2011
Miller's Tale
Movie Self
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2010
Godard Made in USA
Movie Self
- 2010
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2010
Raising Hell: Filming the Exorcist
Movie Self
- 2009
- 2009
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2009
North by Northwest: One for the Ages
Movie Self
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2009
Victor Fleming: Master Craftsman
Movie Self
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2009
Anatomy of a Chase
Movie Self
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2008
Pure Cinema: Through the Eyes of Hitchcock
Movie Self
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2008
In the Master's Shadow: Hitchcock's Legacy
Movie Self
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2008
Breaking Barriers: The Sound of Hitchcock
Movie Self
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2008
The Masterpiece That Almost Wasn't
Movie Self
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2007
The Visions of Stanley Kubrick
Movie Self
