Hollywood lost an iconic filmmaker on August 7, as William Friedkin, the Oscar-winning director behind Best Picture winner The French Connection and other classics, passed away at the age of 87, per multiple reports.
Friedkin was one of the directors that helped define the 1970s era of Hollywood, where directors wielded more influence than almost any other time in the industry. He was joined by the likes of Francis Ford Coppola, Peter Bogdanovich, Hal Ashby and Martin Scorsese. Friedkin's heyday was in that era, but he continued to make movies over the course of his 60-plus-year career, which includes a new 2023 movie, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial.
