William Friedkin’s Obituary: How Did He Die? Cause of Death Details

Uncover the full story concerning William Friedkin’s Obituary: How Did He Die? Cause of Death Details.

He died of heart failure and pneumonia, according to his wife. Friedkin, the son of Rachael and Louis Friedkin, was born on August 29, 1935, in Chicago, Illinois. His father was a merchant sailor, men’s clothing trader, and semi-pro softball player. Friedkin refers to his mother, who worked as an operating room registered nurse, as “a saint.”

His parents were Jewish Ukrainian immigrants to Israel. His grandparents, parents, and other relatives fled during a particularly horrific anti-Jewish pogrom in Ukraine in 1903. Friedkin grew raised in a lower middle-class family with a mixed attitude toward money accumulation. Friedkin “viewed his father with a mixture of affection and contempt for not making more of himself,” cinema historian Peter Biskind says.

Friedkin began working in the mail department for WGN-TV after graduating from high school. Within two years, he was directing live television shows and documentaries. One of his efforts was The People vs. Paul Crump (1962), which won plaudits at the San Francisco International Film Festival and helped to commute Crump’s death sentence. Its success helped Friedkin gain a job with director David L. Wolper. Another piece he created was Mayhem on a Sunday Afternoon, a football-themed documentary.