William David Friedkin (August 29, 1935 – August 7, 2023) was an American film director, producer, and screenwriter closely associated with the New Hollywood movement, best known for his various thriller films.
Friedkin was hailed as an up-and-coming cinema talent in the early 1970s, thanks to the critical and commercial success of The French Connection (which earned him the Academy Award for Best Director) and The Exorcist, but his ambitious film Sorcerer, doomed by its ill-timed release opposite Star Wars, essentially ruined his career and sent him into obscurity (though it has since been re-evaluated as a masterpiece by many critics). Friedkin continued making films, some hugely beloved and others hated, and while his last three films, Bug, Killer Joe, and The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, were seen as a return to form, he never regained his former fame or stature.
Friedkin was married four times and had two children. He died of pneumonia-related heart failure in 2023, less than a month before his 88th birthday.
Films by Friedkin with pages on the wiki:
- The Birthday Party (1968)
- The Boys in the Band (1970)
- The French Connection (1971)
- The Exorcist (1973)
- Sorcerer (1977)
- Cruising (1980)
- Deal of the Century (1983)
- To Live and Die in L.A. (1985)
- Rampage (1987)
- The Guardian (1990)
- Jade (1995)
- 12 Angry Men (1997)
- Rules of Engagement (2000)
- The Hunted (2003)
- Bug (2006)
- Killer Joe (2011)
- The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (2023)
Tropes common to Friedkin's works include:
- Bittersweet Ending: In his more optimistic films such as The Exorcist.
- Black-and-Gray Morality
- Crapsack World: Usually, especially in Sorcerer and To Live and Die in L.A..
- Downer Ending: Almost always. The only other option is a Bittersweet Ending.
- Grey-and-Gray Morality
- Karma Houdini: A few, most famously in The French Connection.
- What Could Have Been: To the point there's a whole section
on The Other Wiki.- Enjoying the success of The Exorcist in 1973, and inspired by the fantasy story printed on the back cover of Genesis Live, Friedkin asked the band's then-frontman, Peter Gabriel, among other figures outside of the film industry, to come up with ideas the director could use to create new movies. Gabriel, seeing this as a golden opportunity and a chance to branch out from his Genesis duties, took a trip to see Friedkin and brainstorm. Members of the band, which was in the middle of writing and recording The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway at the time, felt uncomfortable and resentful with the idea, disliked that Gabriel wasn't fully giving his attention or commitment to the band and the album, and saw it as a threat that their frontman might leave at any time. This attitude within the band, which later they would regret, was part of the impetus for Gabriel leaving the band (Friedkin had as well felt guilty, as he only wanted ideas and did not want the band to break up due to him).
