William Friedkin
☼ Born on 29 December 1935, in Chicago, Illinois, USA
† Died on 7 December 2023, in Bel Air, Los Angeles, California, USA, cause heart failure and pneumonia
BiographyFriedkin's mother was an operating room nurse. His father was a merchant seaman, semi-pro softball player and ultimately sold clothes in a men's discount chain. Ultimately, his father never earned more than $50/week in his whole life and died indigent. Eventually young Will became infatuated with Orson Welles after seeing Citizen Kane (1941). He went to work for WGN TV immediately after graduating from high school where he started making documentaries, one of which won the Golden Gate Award at the 1962 San Francisco film festival. In 1965, he moved to Hollywood and immediately started directing TV shows, including an episode of the The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962); Hitchcock infamously chastised him for not wearing a tie.


In the role of actor

Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist (27/05/2020)

Filmmaker William Friedkin talks in-depth about the making of his most well-known film in Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist. According to William Friedkin, everything has to do with the mystery of fate or faith. Friedkin tackled the latter for his 1973 adaptation of the novel by William Peter Blatty, which the filmmaker tried […]

In the role of director

Hunted (22/08/2020)

A woman runs from a predatory man in the woods in Hunted. Eve (Lucie Debay) is a French actress who meets a seemingly charming Man (Arieh Worthalter) in a bar, who helps her to fend off a guy trying to pick her up. However, it soon turn out that this stranger is a sexual predator, […]

nirvanna the band the show (11/09/2016)

Viceland presents the television series nirvanna the band the show, based on the original webseries of the same name by Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol. Matt and Jay are two members of a band, whose ultimate goal is to get a gig at the Rivoli club in Toronto. The two come up with a number of elaborate […]

Killer Joe (17/08/2012)

After the whole projector breakdown fiasco on Tuesday, I returned today to see Killer Joe in its entirety and I am glad that I did.  I was correct in my estimation that there was only half an hour left to the film when the incident occurred. However, I have to say that I am glad that […]