Acclaimed Jewish-American director William Friedkin passed away Monday evening at the age of 87.
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He is considered a foundational figure in the gritty and groundbreaking American cinema of the 1970s that propelled Hollywood into the modern era.
He is especially remembered for two classics that forever changed their respective genres: the gritty Oscar-winning crime film The French Connection, starring Gene Hackman, and the horror film The Exorcist.
Born in Chicago to Jewish parents who fled antisemitic riots in Ukraine, Friedkin was part of the younger generation that took over Hollywood in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
In 1971, at just 36 years old, his film The French Connection, which followed a detective investigating a drug cartel in New York, stunned Hollywood with its groundbreaking car chases and gritty tone. Unprecedentedly, it won the award for Best Picture, and Friedkin himself received the award for Best Director.
The 1973 film The Exorcist, which delved into the possession of a young girl by a demonic spirit, became an even bigger box office hit and remains a classic of the genre to this day. With these two films, Friedkin breathed fresh life into a new era of American cinema that wasn't afraid to address darker themes, akin to the works of his contemporaries like Coppola (The Godfather) and Scorsese (Taxi Driver).
Friedkin continued a diverse career with notable films such as Sorcerer, Cruising, Rules of Engagement with Samuel L. Jackson and Tommy Lee Jones, and Bug. A supporter of Israel, Friedkin even directed the opera Samson and Delilah here in 2005.