The news was confirmed on Monday (7 August) by Chapman University Dean Stephen Galloway, a friend of Friedkin’s wife Sherry Lansing. He died of heart failure and pneumonia in his Los Angeles home.
Who was William Friedkin?
Friedkin was born in Chicago, Illinois, on 29 August 1935. He began his film career in the Sixties with the comedy musical ”Good Times” (1967), starring Sonny and Cher.
He attended Senn High School, where he struggled academically but worked hard to advance his basketball skills to the professional level. But because he was never taller than six feet, he decided to switch to journalism, as per Variety.
He began his career in the WGN mailroom in Chicago, where he quickly worked his way up to directing television programmes and documentaries.
During those early years, he claimed to have directed about 2,000 TV programmes, including the 1962 documentary ‘The People vs. Paul Crump,’ which followed the release from the death row of a man.
It was during the Seventies that he and fellow filmmakers, including Francis Ford Coppola and Hal Ashby, rose to fame in Hollywood for their risk-taking direction.
The director, who had spent years working in the documentary medium, made numerous appearances in documentaries about films and filmmakers over the years, including ‘A Decade Under the Influence’ and ‘Pure Cinema Through the Eyes of the Master.’
He won a directing Oscar for his 1971 classic, ”The French Connection.”
After ‘The French Connection’ achieved critical acclaim, ‘The Exorcist,’ released in 1973, amassed a staggering £3.9 million at the global box office and, along with ‘The Godfather,’ helped usher in the blockbuster era of cinema.
‘The Exorcist,’ a heavily stylized thriller based on William Peter Blatty’s book about the demonic possession of a young girl, had a similar impact on the horror subgenre as ‘Connection’ had on police thrillers.
In the category of best director, it earned him a second Oscar nomination.
He received a Golden Gate Awardat the San Francisco Film Festival, which helped him land a position overseeing the documentary division at WBKB and later a position helming documentaries for producer David L. Wolper.
He was married to Lesley-Anne Down, Jeanne Moreau, and Kelly Lange, a newsreader. Two sons and his fourth wife Lansing are his only survivors.
He was known to lay down the premise for ‘horror genre’ and for his exceptional directing skills.
The Venice Film Festival will be hosting the world premiere of his last movie, ‘The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial,’ starring Kiefer Sutherland.
Our thoughts go out to his family and loved ones.
