William Friedkin, ‘The Exorcist’ Director, Dies at 87

A post shared by Zachary Pym Williams (@zakpym)The "Mork & Mindy" and "Good Will Hunting" actor was found dead in his California home on Aug. 11, 2014.

“The Exorcist Legacy: 50 Years of Fear” (Citadel), it could have called for its own exorcism. The same kind of crazed scenes were happening nationwide at almost two dozen theaters where thousands would turn out for the premiere of what was being billed as one of the most frightening horror movies ever made — and accurately so.As Segaloff puts it, when the film opened, “the bedlam began.”At the Savoy Theater in Boston, “People were running up the aisles and into the lobby, some of them making it out to the street before vomiting, while others did it en route.”“I couldn’t imagine people being affected like that.

Film director William Friedkin, who died Monday at age 87, was best known for “The French Connection” and “The Exorcist,” but he also directed two high-profile and controversial gay-themed movies — “The Boys in the Band” and “Cruising.”

Brent Lang Executive Editor William Petersen was a theater actor from Chicago when William Friedkin changed the course of his life. In 1984, the Oscar-winning director tapped the then-unknown performer to play Richard Chance, a Secret Service agent willing to bend rules and break laws in order to capture a shadowy counterfeiter (Willem Dafoe) in “To Live and Die in L.A.” The crime thriller was a return to form for Friedkin, who had summited the heights of the movie business with “The French Connection” and “The Exorcist,” only to suffer a string of disappointments. Petersen and Friedkin would later collaborate on a Showtime remake of “12 Angry Men” and two episodes of “CSI.” Friedkin died on Aug.

“The Exorcist” stars Ellen Burstyn and Linda Blair are remembering just how much of a powerful force of talent the late director William Friedkin was.

Linda Blair, whose performance as the demonically possessed Regan MacNeil in William Friedkin’s iconic 1973 horror film The Exorcist, is remembering the late director as a genius, a maverick, a game changer and the man who “changed my life forever.”

Francis Ford Coppola and William Friedkin went back more than half a century, including their days in the Directors Company, the short-lived production entity they and Peter Bogdanovich launched in the early 1970s.

EDITOR’S NOTE: William Friedkin’s passing is a gutting experience for anyone lucky enough to have sat as he reminisced over his classic movies, with measures of regret for the recklessness, humor, and keen observations of why Hollywood’s Auteur Era gave way to the global blockbuster, and whatever it is we have today as two guilds strike seeking transparency, and residuals for writers and actors. This interview was originally published August 6, 2015 under the title ’70s Maverick Revisits A Golden Era With Tales Of Glory And Reckless Abandon. I am feeling a bit gutted by Friedkin’s passing. I looked forward to a long interview with him for his Venice-bound Showtime remake of The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. After spending time with Billy and his elegant wife Sherry Lansing at Peter Bart’s 90th birthday where the back and forth between them proved the highlight of the evening, I wanted them to write a column for Deadline. On anything. None of that can happen now, and Deadline can only offer condolences to Sherry. And to Deadline readers who are Friedkin fans, a replay of this bracingly honest look at his career, done as he got a reissue of Sorcerer, the adaptation of the Georges Arnaud novel that first was filmed as 1953’s The Wages of Fear. The whole interview is presented as originally published nearly a decade ago. 

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic The saga of American movies in the 1970s is now a mythology. In the first half of the decade, the movies that emerged from the New Hollywood were unprecedented in their realism, their immersion in the gritty side pockets of everyday life, their perception of the darkness hidden in the American Dream. Then, of course, came Lucas and Spielberg, who kicked off the blockbuster revolution — the transformation of movies from reality into fantasy.

The French Connection and The Exorcist has died at the age of 87.Friedkin passed away today (August 7) at home in Los Angeles. His death was confirmed by Chapman University dean Stephen Galloway, who is a friend of Friedkin’s wife Sherry Lansing.The filmmaker rose to fame in the ’70s along with Peter Bogdanovich, Francis Ford Coppola and Hal Ashby, who were seen as a new generation of envelope-pushing directors.

Billy Friedkin remains a uniquely unforgettable figure to his friends and colleagues — an eternal contradiction, both cantankerous yet kindly, argumentative yet thoughtful. He was a brilliant creator of popular entertainment but, to his close friends, also was brooding and cerebral.

Oscar-winning film director William Friedkin has died aged 87 his family have announced. Mr Friedkin, whose work includes the classic horror film The Exorcist and crime thriller The French Connection - died in Los Angeles today (Monday). No cause of death has yet been confirmed.

Ellen Burstyn has paid her respects to William Friedkin, the filmmaker who guided her to a second Oscar nomination with his classic 1973 horror The Exorcist.

and, has died. He was 87.

Powerhouse horror producer Jason Blum has addressed the passing of William Friedkin, the iconic filmmaker whose 1973 classic The Exorcist is the basis for a forthcoming trilogy his company Blumhouse is producing for Universal.

Refresh for updates… Horror film director Eli Roth (Hostel, Cabin Fever) is among the colleagues, friends and fans paying tribute to the late William Friedkin, the great director of The Exorcist and The French Connection who died today.

The iconic filmmaker, William Friedkin, has passed away at the age of 87. One of the famous directors to spawn from the “New Hollywood” era of film is probably best known for his work on the legendary horror film, “The Exorcist.” That film was nominated for 10 Oscars after its release, including Best Director.

told the Los Angeles Times. “Winning the Academy Award [and the Directors Guild Award for 1971’s ‘The French Connection’] was an enormous honor.

William Friedkin, who won as Oscar for directing The French Connection, scored a nomination for The Exorcist and also helmed The Boys in the Band, To Live and Die in L.A., Rules of Engagement and others, died today in Los Angeles. He way 87.

Naman Ramachandran Carl Davis, the composer known for his BAFTA-winning score for “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” (1981), died of a brain hemorrhage on Thursday. He was 86.