Shit.

Watch this in his honor. He was so great to listen to.

Dammit.. the guy was legendary.
RIP.

I feel lucky having had a chance to talk to him and listen to his stories about TLaDiLA and Sorcerer at various screenings over the years. Billy. You did it your way. Makes the poster he signed for me that much more special.

Hopefully his last words were "Fuck it, put the 9 seconds back".

I was gonna ask if that means they’ll undo that French Connection edit, or keep it cut out since that’s “what he would have wanted.”

Reminder that there's still exactly zero proof that he ever called for it to be cut in the first place. Just Jeff Wells claiming that an anonymous contact of his suggested that Friedkin may have asked for it, but never actually confirmed it in any way whatsoever.

But sure, keep rolling with that.

Damn. This sucks. RIP.

That sucks! I didn’t realize he was 87. I would have guessed he was still in his 70s.

I didn’t love all his movies but even if I didn’t care for them there was no denying they were masterfully directed. Of the ones I’ve seen, they “felt” like important films.

So many classics on his resume.

He was also really fun to listen to when he talked movies.

I just re-watched my Blu-Ray of The Exorcist a few weeks ago to refresh my memory heading into the new movie. It still holds up very well today. Friedkin was probably in his late 70s when the interviews on the BD were filmed, but he was still very sharp talking about the movie.

It's interesting that a lot of the cast and behind the scenes people have passed away now, but Friedkin was only 37 when it was made. I feel like his name has been part of Hollywood for so many years. I also didn't like everything he made, but he was definitely a passionate filmmaker. And one of the last of his generation.

I was never a big fan of Sorcerer although many claim it's his best movie, but The French Connection and The Exorcist are masterpieces. I liked some of his other movies, but he also directed a lot of mediocre movies and some bad ones, but even those had something special. He was an artist and that shows in his body of work, although not every work of art is a masterpiece. In that regard he resembles Coppola.

I would have liked a resurgence of Friedkin and I hope The Caine Mutiny is a good send off at least.

Love this trivia on IMDB:

According to writer/director Larry Cohen, composer Bernard Herrmann was approached by Friedkin to score The Exorcist (1973). After screening the movie to Herrmann, Friedkin said, "I want you to write me a better score than you wrote for Citizen Kane (1941)", to which Herrmann replied, "Then why don't you make a better movie than 'Citizen Kane'?".

RIP to a great director

And I didn't realize until I read the story that he was married to Sherry Lansing, the movie producer and former head of Paramount Pictures.

And prior to Lansing he was married to Kelly Lange, anchorwoman for NBC Channel 4 news here in L.A.

How many of his movies have commentary tracks?

I only own To Live and Die in LA, The Exorcist and The French Connection. He recorded commentary tracks on all of them and 2 on The Exorcist (theatrical and uncut). He does tend to ramble and describe exactly what you see on the screen.

and not 100% sure, but I believe he also recorded commentaries on the 2 episodes of CSI that he directed on the respective season sets.

Twitter

Darn it. This news really sucks.

This makes me really sad. I know he was up there in age obviously.
One of my favorite directors and curmudgeons.

That’s awesome. And to be honest, I think Friedkin DID make a better movie than Citizen Kane.

Sadness. Some of the best movies, right up till the end. Loved his work.

Per TMZ:

One of the all-time great directors. If he had never done anything else after The Exorcist, he'd still be a legendary director. Probably in my top ten of Hollywood directors. An iconoclast who did things his way and was still making excellent films as recently as Bug.

^ I thought Killer Joe was fantastic.

RIP

I watched a doc last year Friedkin Uncut with him and never thought he would die a year later.

Bob Costas interviewed him on Later with Bob Costas in the early 90's.

A one of a kind talent and he will be missed.

I got To Live and Die in LA, Cruising, and Excorcist in my collection.

I also have Blue Chips with Shaq and forget he was the director.

It looks like the Caine Mutiny Court-Martial with Kiefer Sutherland is probably his last film.

Sucks since I thought maybe we would have more Friedkin movies coming in the future since it did not look like he was going to retire