William Friedkin is an American film director who is best known for “The French Connection” (1971) and “The Exorcist” (1973).
While a teenager, Friedkin began working in Chicago television, and he later directed several nationally broadcast documentaries. In 1967 he moved into film directing with the Sonny-and-Cher musical “Good Times,” then took on the more-elevated “The Birthday Party” (1968), a respectable if static adaptation of Harold Pinter’s enigmatic play. Equally ambitious was “The Night They Raided Minsky’s” (1968), a lively comedy about an innocent Amish girl who becomes a burlesque dancer in 1920s New York City. Friedkin earned generally positive reviews for The “Boys in the Band” (1970), a controversial drama that presented a frank look at homosexuality.
“The French Connection” (1971) provided Friedkin with his first big-budget property. Based on Robin Moore’s best seller about two real-life narcotics cops on the trail of international heroin dealers, the film was a critical and commercial success. Then, for his next project, Friedkin chose another best seller, William Peter Blatty’s “The Exorcist.” The frightening tale of the supernatural focuses on a young girl (played by Linda Blair) who is believed to be possessed by the Devil. Although the centre of much controversy when released in 1973, it became one of the highest-grossing films of all time and earned 10 Academy Award nominations, including one for best director.
After the incredible success of “The French Connection” and “The Exorcist,” Friedkin continued to direct films throughout the 70s and 80s, but faced a few critical and commercial failures. Friedkin’s later films included “Rules of Engagement” (2000), a military thriller with a cast headlined by Samuel L. Jackson, Tommy Lee Jones, Guy Pearce and Ben Kingsley; “The Hunted” (2003), an effective crime drama with Jones playing a police detective on the trail of a serial killer (Benicio Del Toro); and “Bug” (2006), an adaptation of Tracy Letts’s play about the mental breakdown of a military veteran (Michael Shannon) and of his girlfriend (Ashley Judd). In 2011 Friedkin adapted another Letts play, “Killer Joe,” which centred on a drug dealer who hires a contract killer (Matthew McConaughey) to dispose of his mother for a life insurance payout. He later returned to the subject of exorcism with the documentary “The Devil and Father Amorth” (2017), about the chief exorcist in Rome and one of his last cases.
In 2013 Friedkin published the memoir “The Friedkin Connection.” He is also the subject of “Friedkin Uncut,” a 2018 Italian documentary film written and directed by Francesco Zippel.
