William Friedkin
Birthday: August 29, 1935
Birth Place: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Height: 0' 0"

Below is a complete filmography (list of movies he's appeared in) for William Friedkin. If you have any corrections or additions, please email us at corrections@actorsofhollywood.com. We'd also be interested in any trivia or other information you have.

Biography

Movie Credits

Book of Skulls	(2006)
Bug	(2006)
[ Harry Connick Jr. ]
The Hunted	(2003)
[ Benicio Del Toro ][ Tommy Lee Jones ][ Tommy Lee ][ Johnny Cash ][ Eddie Velez ]
Rules of Engagement	(2000)
[ Samuel L. Jackson ][ Tommy Lee Jones ][ Tommy Lee ][ Guy Pearce ][ Ben Kingsley ]
12 Angry Men	(1997)
[ William L. Petersen ][ James Gandolfini ][ Jack Lemmon ][ Edward James Olmos ][ Tony Danza ]
Jade	(1995)
[ Michael Biehn ][ David Caruso ][ Chazz Palminteri ][ Richard Crenna ]
Jailbreakers	(1994)
[ Antonio Sabato Jr. ][ Sean Whalen ][ Vince Edwards ]
Blue Chips	(1994)
[ Nick Nolte ][ Ed O'Neill ][ J.T. Walsh ][ Louis Gossett Jr. ][ Shaquille O'Neal ]
The Guardian	(1990)
[ Miguel Ferrer ][ Xander Berkeley ]
Rampage	(1988)
[ Michael Biehn ]
C.A.T. Squad: Python Wolf	(1988)
[ Miguel Ferrer ][ Russell Wong ]
C.A.T. Squad	(1986)
[ Bradley Whitford ][ Barry Corbin ][ Eddie Velez ]
To Live and Die in L.A.	(1985)
[ Willem Dafoe ][ William L. Petersen ][ John Turturro ][ Gary Cole ][ Dean Stockwell ]
Deal of the Century	(1983)
[ Chevy Chase ][ Wallace Shawn ][ Gregory Hines ][ Vince Edwards ][ Robert David Hall ]
Cruising	(1980)
[ Al Pacino ][ James Remar ][ Ed O'Neill ][ Powers Boothe ][ Paul Sorvino ]
The Brink's Job	(1978)
[ Peter Boyle ][ Paul Sorvino ][ Warren Oates ]
Sorcerer	(1977)
[ Roy Scheider ]
Fritz Lang Interviewed by William Friedkin	(1974)
The Exorcist	(1973)
[ Max von Sydow ][ Lee J. Cobb ][ Ed Quinn ]
The French Connection	(1971)
[ Gene Hackman ][ Roy Scheider ]
The Boys in the Band	(1970)
[ Cliff Gorman ]
The Night They Raided Minsky's	(1968)
[ Elliott Gould ][ Jason Robards ][ Denholm Elliott ]
The Birthday Party	(1968)
[ Robert Shaw ]
Good Times	(1967)
[ George Sanders ]
The McGregor Affair	(1964)
The People vs. Paul Crump	(1962)

Trivia

• Shares a birthday with directors Joel Schumacher and Lord Richard Attenborough.
• The night he won his Academy Award for directing The French Connection (1971), he was riding with his manager when their Rolls-Royce broke down several miles from the ceremony. They had to hitch a ride from a driver at a gas station in order to arrive in time.
• His video for Laura Branigan's song "self control" has never been shown in its entirety on MTV. Friedkin's uncut version features a brief shot of a female breast.
• Was going to work with Peter Gabriel on a film project. But Gabriel was caught up with work with his former band Genesis on the album "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway". The project was called off.
• He was believed to be the youngest person to win the Best Director Oscar, at age 32. Later, he was discovered to have actually been born in 1935, and was 36 at the time. The record returned to Norman Taurog.
• Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945-1985". Pages 372-375. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988.
• After The Exorcist he was planning on making a film about Aliens and Atlantis. But after Close Encounters of The Third Kind went into production he abandoned the film and made Sorcerer instead.
• While on his first directing assignment for "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", was reprimanded by Hitchcock for not wearing a tie.
• In "Hollywood Animal: A Memoir," Joe Eszterhas claims that William Friedkin's wife Sherry Lansing, the boss of Paramount Pictures' Motion Picture Group, made him issue a statement that he supported Paramount's hiring of Friedkin as director for his "Jade" (1995) script. In truth, Eszterhas did not want the former Oscar-winner, whom he considered a washed-up has-been, to direct the picture, but deferred to Lansing's wishes.
• Began his career in the mail-room of WGN-TV in Chicago. Within two years, he was directing live television.
• In 1985, was sued for plagiarism by Michael Mann, who claimed that To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) stole the entire concept of Mann's TV series "Miami Vice" (1984). Mann lost the lawsuit.
• He directed 5 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, Jason Miller, Ellen Burstyn and Linda Blair. Hackman won an Oscar for The French Connection (1971).
• Does not like to work with storyboards.
• Was offered the chance to direct The Exorcist (1973) by producer William Peter Blatty after Blatty screened The French Connection (1971). His studio, Warner Bros., had been pressuring him to use another director but after seeing the policier, Blatty decided he wanted the film of his novel to be infused with as much energy as Friedkin had brought to "The French Connection."

Naked Photos of William Friedkin are available at MaleStars.com. They currently feature over 65,000 Nude Pics, Biographies, Video Clips, Articles, and Movie Reviews of famous stars.