William David Friedkin (1935-2023) was an influential American film, television, and opera director, producer, and screenwriter closely associated with the New Hollywood movement. He began his career in documentaries in the early 1960s. Friedkin is best known for directing the crime thriller The French Connection (1971), which garnered him an Academy Award for Best Director, and the horror film The Exorcist (1973), which earned him another nomination for the same award.
Friedkin's work experienced a commercial and critical decline in the late 1980s, but he continued to direct films and operas. His later films, including Bug (2006), Killer Joe (2011), and The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (2023), were positively received by critics. He also directed episodes for television. Friedkin died on August 7, 2023, at the age of 87. The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial was released two months after his death.
