/guid/9202a8c04000641f8000000000217e57 rename

William Friedkin (born 29 August 1935) is an American film director, producer and screenwriter best...

William Friedkin (born 29 August 1935) is an American film director, producer and screenwriter best known for directing The Exorcist and The French Connection in the early 1970s. His recent film is Bug (2006) for which he won the FIPRESCI. After seeing the movie Citizen Kane as a boy, Friedkin became fascinated with movies and began working for WGN-TV immediately after high school. He eventually started his directorial career doing live television shows and documentaries, including The People vs. Paul Crump which won several awards and contributed to the commutation of Crump's death sentence. As mentioned in Friedkin's voice over commentary on the dvd re-release of Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, Friedkin also directed one of the last episodes of "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour" in 1965, called "Off Season". Hitchcock admonished Friedkin for not wearing a tie while directing. In 1965 Friedkin moved to Hollywood and two years later released his first feature film, Good Times starring Sonny and Cher. Several other "art" films followed (including the gay-themed movie The Boys in the Band), although Friedkin didn't necessarily want to be known as an art house director. In 1971, his The French