By our entertainment editors
Aug 07, 2023 at 7:50 PM Update: 3 hours ago
Director William Friedkin has died at the age of 87. The American filmmaker had great success in the 1970s with films such as The Exorcist in The French Connection.
American journals Variety in The Hollywood Reporter report that Friedkin passed away in Los Angeles on Monday. The news was announced by a friend of Friedkin’s wife Sherry Lansing.
The director is regarded as one of the most authoritative Hollywood filmmakers of the 1970s. Together with Francis Ford Coppola and Peter Bogdanovich, among others, he belongs to a generation that grew from the television world and gave a new, own interpretation to popular genres such as horror and thriller.
The police movie The French Connection, which appeared in 1971, instantly put him on the map in Hollywood. The film won five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. Leading actor Gene Hackman received the award for best actor.
The release of The Exorcist sparked controversy
The horror film was released two years later The Exorcist about a girl who is possessed. This film was awarded two Oscars and went down in history as one of the leading films of the genre. The release of the film was not without controversy at the time. For example, people ran out of the cinema because they found the film too scary and intense.
In 1980, Friedkin released the film Cruising out. Al Pacino stars as a cop who goes undercover when New York’s gay scene is plagued by murders.
Later in the 1980s, the director made video clips for artists such as Barbra Streisand and Laura Brannigan. In recent years, the director became less active, but he never completely stopped making films.
His last movie, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martialwill premiere at the end of August at the Venice Film Festival.
2023-08-07 17:50:37
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