William Friedkin, the Oscar-winning American director of The French Connection and The Exorcist, has died aged 87.
According to the New York Times, Friedkin’s wife Sherry Lansing, the former head of Paramount Pictures, said the filmmaker died of heart failure and pneumonia at his home in Bel Air.
Born in Chicago in 1935, Friedkin moved to Hollywood in 1965 and began directing television shows, including an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.
His early features included The Night They Raided Minsky’s and The Boys In The Band, but Friedkin shot to the forefront of the New Hollywood movement with The French Connection. The 1971 crime drama earned five Oscars, including the best picture prize and the best director award for Friedkin himself. The film also brought him that year’s Directors Guild of America award and a BAFTA nomination.
Horror classic The Exorcist followed in 1973, bringing Friedkin a nomination for the best director Oscar.
Friedkin’s films through the seventies, eighties and nineties included Sorcerer, Cruising, To Live And Die In LA, Jade and Rules Of Engagement.
In 2006 he won the FIPRESCI prize at Cannes for his Directors’ Fortnight entry Bug and in recent years he received career honours at festivals around the world including Sitges and Karlovy Vary.
Friedkin’s latest film, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, is set to screen out of competition at this month’s Venice festival. The legal drama is an update of Herman Wouk’s fifties novel and play The Caine Mutiny, with Kiefer Sutherland and Jason Clarke. It was made for US premium television brand Showtime and sister company Paramount Global Content Distribution.
In 2011, Friedkin won the Venice festival’s Golden Mouse for his independent crime drama Killer Joe. In 2013, the festival awarded him with a career Golden Lion.
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