William Friedkin

:

Overview

William Friedkin
Avg.User Rating: 
6 Ratings
Rate this person:
Director, Screenwriter
Born:
August 29, 1935 in Chicago, IL
Biography:One of New Hollywood's most successful wunderkinder in the early '70s, "William Friedkin" suffered a precipitous fall from the box-office firmament in the late '70s, punctuated by the controversial cop film "Cruising" (1980). Nevertheless, Friedkin managed to keep his career alive, while the lasting impact of seminal horror film "The Exorcist" (1973) was confirmed by its enormously successful reissue in 2000.

Raised in a Chicago slum, the young Friedkin fell in with a bad crowd, but his mother set him straight and Friedkin finished high school. Unable to afford college, Friedkin got a job in the mailroom at Chicago's WGN TV station. A budding cinephile who especially loved "Henri-Georges Clouzot"'s "The Wages of Fear" (1952), Friedkin's ambition to become a director was stoked by his first viewing of "Citizen Kane" (1941) while working at WGN. By his early twenties, Friedkin was directing live... Full Biography

Photos
"CSI" (Thursday, April 2 at 9 p.m. on CBS) Happy 200th episode to "CSI," who celebrates by an...
William Friedkin at the The Manchurian Candidate premiere in Beverly Hills on July 22, 2004
William Friedkin at the The Manchurian Candidate premiere in Beverly Hills on July 22, 2004
William Friedkin at the The Manchurian Candidate premiere in Beverly Hills on July 22, 2004
William Friedkin
Sherry Lansing and William Friedkin
Sherry Lansing and William Friedkin
advertisement