How did William Friedkin die? Oscar-winning director of 'The French Connection' and ‘The Exorcist' was 87
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: William Friedkin, the visionary director who won an Oscar for 'The French Connection' and scared millions of horror-movie fans with his iconic film 'The Exorcist', died in Los Angeles on Sunday, August 6. He was 87 years old.
His wife, Sherry Lansing, a producer, and former studio chief, confirmed his death to The New York Times. Friedkin was one of the most influential filmmakers of the 1970s, a decade that saw him compete with the likes of Stanley Kubrick, George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg.
How did William Friedkin die?
Friedkin, who won the academy award for best director for 'The French Connection', died due to heart failure and pneumonia. He also received a nomination featuring one of them for 'The Exorcist', a terrifying horror film that became a cultural phenomenon and spawned several sequels and spin-offs. After 'The French Connection' won five Oscars and 'The Exorcist' became an enormous box-office success, Friedkin found himself one of the most sought-after directors in Hollywood as per the publication.
Even being critically acclaimed he once told Los Angeles Times, “I never considered myself the great American anything. Not then and not now. I consider myself just another member of the crew, the highest-paid member of the crew," said Friedkin before adding “Winning the Academy Award [and the Directors’ Guild Award for 1971’s “The French Connection”] was an enormous honor. But I thought I had won it prematurely, that I hadn’t paid enough dues at that point.”
Friedkin's other notable movies are 'The Boys in the Band,' 'Sorcerer (1977), 'Cruising' (1980), 'To Live and Die in L.A.' (1985), 'Rules of Engagement' (2000), 'Bug' (2006), and 'Killer Joe' (2011), among others. He had recently produced a new version of the stage and screen drama 'The Caine Mutiny-Court Martial”' by Herman Wouk, which features Kiefer Sutherland as a star and has been selected for the 2023 Venice Film Festival as per the New York Post. In 2013, Friedkin was awarded a Golden Lion award for lifetime achievement at the Venice Film Festival. That same year, Harper published his book 'The Friedkin Connection: A Memoir.'
'I see myself as a working guy and that’s all, and that is enough'
Friedkin, who was born on August 29, 1935, in Chicago, had no siblings. His mother was a nurse who he considered a “saint” and his father was a frequently jobless man who he said “seemed to have no sense of purpose except day-to-day survival.” Both of them came from Jewish families that had escaped Ukraine in the early 20th century. His wife Sherry Lansing, 79, whom he wed in 1991, and two sons: Jack Friedkin and film editor Cedric Nairn-Smith, survive him. He had three previous marriages to actresses Jeanne Moreau and Lesley-Anne Down and newscaster Kelly Lange. “I don’t see myself as a pioneer,” he told The Independent in 2012. “I see myself as a working guy and that’s all, and that is enough.”