American director William Friedkin, best known for the 1970s films “The Exorcist” and “The French Connection,” died in Los Angeles on Monday, Fox News Digital can confirm. He was 87.
Representatives for Friedkin said the acclaimed director died at his home from heart failure and pneumonia.
Chapman University Dean Stephen Galloway, a friend of Friedkin and his wife, Sherry Lansing, first confirmed his death to Variety.
Galloway spoke with Fox News Digital about Friedkin and the legacy he left behind.
“He had an extraordinary life and few people achieved what he achieved. These are films that linger after decades, how many movies do that?” Galloway said. “You look at some of his early work like ‘The Exorcist,’ ‘The French Connection,’ the movie that he loved best, ‘Sorcerer,’ they could be made today.”
American director William Friedkin, best known for the 1970s films “The Exorcist” and “The French Connection,” died in Los Angeles on Monday at age 87. (Rosdiana Ciaravolo/Getty Images)
Born in Chicago in 1935, Friedkin got his start by directing an episode of “The Alfred Hitchcok Hour” in 1965 titled “Off Season.”
His first feature film, 1967’s “Good Times,” starred Cher and Sonny Bono, and he went on to direct films like “The Night They Raided Minsky’s” and “The Boys in the Band” before his making his career-defining films and becoming part of the “New Hollywood” movement of the ’70s alongside directors like Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Martin Scorsese.
“When you look back, those films he made [they] are among the ones that remain the most important films in our culture,” Galloway said of his career.
Specializing in horror and police thrillers, Friedkin rose to acclaim during the “New Hollywood” movement of the ’70s. (Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images for TCM)
What has now become Friedkin’s final movie, “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial,” is scheduled to premiere at the Venice Film Festival this month.
It stars Kiefer Sutherland and follows the story of a naval officer who stands trial for mutiny after taking command from a ship captain he feels is acting in an unstable way, putting in danger both the ship and its crew, according to the production company, Mubi.
Galloway noted that Friedkin had been working until a few weeks ago despite “on and off issues with his heart over many years.”
What has now become Friedkin’s final movie, “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial,” is scheduled to premiere at the Venice Film Festival this month. (Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images for TCM)
One of his two best-known works is 1971’s “The French Connection,” based on Robin Moore’s 1969 book about the seizure of 246 pounds of heroin smuggled via car on a French ocean liner. It won five Oscars, including best director for Friedkin, best actor for star Gene Hackman, and best picture and is considered an all-time classic and a pinnacle of ’70s film.
Director William Friedkin and actor Gene Hackman drink beer on the set of “The French Connection” in 1971. (Stanley Bielecki Movie Collection/Getty Images)
His other major work, “The Exorcist,” which depicts a mother (Ellen Burstyn) imploring two priests to save her daughter (Linda Blair) from possession by an evil entity, earned 10 Oscar nominations, including best director for Friedkin, and won two, for best adapted screenplay and for sound. It also prompted several spinoffs and is still regularly regarded as one of the scariest films ever made.
Linda Blair listens to instructions from director William Friedkin in a scene from the “The Exorcist.” (Warner Brothers/Getty Images)
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Despite the serious subject matter of many of his films, Galloway described Friedkin as “very, very funny, acerbically witty.”
“I remember once talking about doing an interview with him, asking about ‘The Exorcist,’ which he didn’t consider a horror film, and I said, ‘Well, it wasn’t exactly a comedy,’ and he looked at me and just without missing a beat he said, ‘Oh, you finally realized?’” recalled Galloway, a former executive editor at the Hollywood Reporter.
Friedkin’s later career included films like “To Live and Die in L.A.,” “Cruising,” “Rules of Engagement” and a TV remake of the classic play and Sidney Lumet movie “12 Angry Men.”
Additionally, Galloway said the director had also branched out into opera, with an “extraordinary resurrection as a director,” and was also happy to mentor the next generation of filmmakers.
According to friend Stephen Galloway, William Friedkin “was incredibly generous” to up-and-coming directors, offering advice to filmmakers like Damien Chazelle. (Robert Marquardt/Getty Images)
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“He was incredibly generous towards other directors. Young directors would go and pay court to him,” Galloway told Fox News Digital. “Damien Chazelle, after he did, I think it was ‘Whiplash,’ asked to meet with him, took his advice, and he was happy for their success. A lot of older people would be going on about, ‘Ah, the good ole days,’ not him at all.”
Friedkin is survived by his wife, Lansing, who is the former chair and CEO of Paramount and former president of production at 20th Century Fox, and their two sons, Cedric and Jack, one of whom is an editor and the other works in real estate. He had previously been married three times to newscaster Kelly Lange and actors Lesley-Anne Down and Jeanne Moreau.
William Friedkin and Sherry Lansing married in 1991 and share two sons together. (Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
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According to Galloway, who wrote a biography on Lansing and her trailblazing work in entertainment, she and Friedkin were “an extraordinary match.”
“He had been married several times and in his 50s married Sherry Lansing, who was probably … the most powerful woman in the entertainment business for decades. And everyone was probably thinking, ‘They’re getting married? They’re opposites.’ They had the most lovely, happy marriage for almost 30 years,” Galloway said.
