Famed movie director/producer/screenwriter William Friedkin has died at age 87.

According to IMDb, Friedkin's career was extremely varied, as he directed everything from the classic horror film The Exorcist to the influential 1969 gay film The Boys in the Band and the 1980 gay cult film Cruising to … two episodes of the TV show CSI and a Wang Chung video.

He was also behind movies such as The French Connection and To Live and Die in L.A., and had one upcoming film yet to be released: The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, starring Kiefer Sutherland.

Friedkin—who grew up in Chicago and attended Senn High School—talked with Windy City Times film journalist Richard Knight Jr. in 2013. Regarding The Boys in the Band, Friedkin said, among other things, "First and foremost, what stays with me is what a great script it was. I try not to think about it as a social document—although a lot of people perceived it that way."

As for Cruising—which some people still consider controversial because they feel it demonizes gay people—Friedkin said the movie "was clearly not the best foot forward for the gay-rights movement in a time when it was making massive strides and, yes, the implication—which I was not conscious of—was that yeah, the gay [life] leads to murder. What was a conscious thought was that there were all these murders in those clubs and mysterious deaths."

Friedkin is survived by his wife, Universal Music Group chair and former Paramount Pictures CEO/Chair Sherry Lansing.

The interview is at Website Link Here .

—Andrew Davis