William Friedkin — director (exorcist) with roots in the Russian Empire
William David Friedkin was born in Chicago on 29 August 1935, the son of Louis Friedkin and Rachael, known as Rae, née Green. Both his parents were Jewish emigrants from Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire. According to Wikipedia, his parents, grandparents and other relatives left during a wave of particularly violent anti-Jewish pogroms in 1903; published sources do not name their town.
His mother was an operating-room nurse, whom Friedkin called a saint. His father had been a semi-professional softball player, a merchant seaman and a men's clothing salesman, and was not much interested in making money; the family was lower middle class. The film historian Peter Biskind wrote that Friedkin regarded his father with mixed affection and contempt for not making more of himself, but in his memoir Friedkin wrote of him with great affection. The family was Jewish, and Friedkin was raised in the faith, though he later described himself as an agnostic.
He went to public schools in Chicago, including Senn High School, graduated at sixteen, and after seeing Citizen Kane as a teenager became fascinated by film. He started in the mailroom of the Chicago television station WGN and rose to direct live television and documentaries. One of them, The People vs. Paul Crump (1962), about a man on death row, contributed to the commutation of Crump's death sentence.
He moved to Hollywood in 1965. His first feature was Good Times, with Sonny and Cher, dated 1965 or 1967 by different sources, followed by The Boys in the Band (1970). The French Connection (1971), shot in a documentary style in New York, won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. The Exorcist (1973), adapted from William Peter Blatty's novel, was nominated for ten Academy Awards, including Best Director, and became one of the most commercially successful films of its time. His later films include Sorcerer (1977), The Brink's Job (1978), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Bug (2006) and Killer Joe (2011). His memoir, The Friedkin Connection, appeared in 2013, and his collection of moving images is held at the Academy Film Archive.
He died at his home in Los Angeles on 7 August 2023, three weeks before his eighty-eighth birthday.
"His parents, grandparents and other relatives left Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire, during the pogroms of 1903 and settled in Chicago."
Migration storyTracing the roots — Ukraine, then in the Russian Empire (town not documented)
Born in Chicago in 1935 to Louis and Rachael Friedkin, Jewish emigrants from Ukraine, then in the Russian Empire. According to Wikipedia, his parents, grandparents and other relatives left during a wave of anti-Jewish pogroms in 1903; the town is not recorded.
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Ukraine, then in the Russian Empire (town not documented). At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.