The Exorcist Director William Friedkin Dead at 87

William Friedkin, who revolutionized the horror film with The Exorcist, has died. He was 87 years old. The filmmaker, whose best-known film is getting a legacy sequel this year to celebrate 50 years since its release, had continued to work in Hollywood until the end of his life, with his final film, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, set to debut at the Venice Film Festival later this year. His death was confirmed by Chapman University dean Stephen Galloway, a friend of Friedkin’s wife Sherry Lansing, according to Variety, who first reported the news.

When The Exorcist, based on the best-selling book by William Peter Blatty, was released, it became a cultural phenomenon, changing horror forever, breaking box office records, and scooping up a shocking 10 Academy Award nominations, becoming the first horror film ever nominated for Best Picture. 

Friedkin didn’t just redefine horror, though; in 1973, the filmmaker made The French Connection, which remains one of the most acclaimed crime films ever made, and is still discussed for its iconic car chases. Over the years, he would make a wide variety of films, from mainstream popcorn fare to TV to arthouse movies, and later in life lamented the way that the superhero takeover of the box office had limited the types of movies that were able to get theatrical distribution.

In the 1970s, he also made the acclaimed thriller To Live and Die in L.A., and while he didn’t direct as regularly for about a decade after that, his name is now associated with everything from Blue Chips and Killer Joe to TV shows like Tales From the Crypt and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. 

Early in his career, before becoming a household name for cinemaphiles, Friedkin actually did a good deal of TV, himself estimating he made hundreds or even thousands of hours of content for the small screen. His documentary The People vs. Paul Crump helped elevate the profile of a famous murder case. Crump was convicted for killing a security guard during the armed robbery of a Chicago meatpacking plant in 1953, but later converted to Christianity in prison and became a model prisoner. He wrote a fictionalized version of his life as the novel Burn, Killer, Burn, after which his cause was taken up by anti-death penalty activists in the 1960s. They argued that if the real intent of incarceration was to reform, rather than punish, Crump had proven himself reformed. Ironically, the Friedkin documentary was never aired, although a few years later, there would be another — The Chair — that was part of the process that eventually got Crump a commutation of his death sentence.

Friedkin is survived by his children, Jackson and Cedric Friedkin, as well as his wife, film executive Sherry Lansing. Our condolences go out to his family, friends, collaborators, and fans.