William Friedkin, director of The French Connections and The Exorcist, has died at the age of 87.

William Friedkin with his Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Award at the 70th Venice Film Festival in 2013. Photo: Andrew Medicini/AP

William Friedkin, who achieved cinematic immortality with the 1971 drug-smuggling thriller The French Connections and the 1973 terrifying demon-possession The Exorcist, died Monday at the age of 87. Friedkin's wife. No further details were forthcoming.

Friedkin began his career with the 1967 soft musical comedy Good Times with pop duo Sonny and Cher, and then spent the rest of his career creating some of the most disturbing, violent and controversial images in film history.

French Connection won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for Friedkin, and Best Actor for Gene Hackman, whom Friedkin was originally reluctant to play in the memorable role of Popeye Doyle, a New York drug detective.

The Exorcist shocked moviegoers and offended some people with its unwavering tale of an innocent 12-year-old girl, played by Linda Blair, who undergoes a torturous Roman Catholic exorcism to free her from her demonic possession. A cultural phenomenon and one of the highest grossing films of all time, some have called it the greatest horror film ever made.

Friedkin with Linda Blair in 2003. Photo: L Cohen/Wireimage

The Exorcist was nominated for 10 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director for Friedkin.

«My films have always been a study of human behavior in its extremes,” Friedkin told interviewer Tom Huddleston in 2012. “They are not aimed at young people, but at adults. Is there a line I wouldn't cross? I don't know.

Friedkin went on to make other films, but none reached the same level of success.

Other credits include the 1985 crime thriller To Live and Die in L.A. starring William Petersen and Willem Dafoe. cast, the 2006 psychological disintegration film Bug with Ashley Judd, and the twisted 2011 black comedy Killer Joe starring Matthew McConaughey. Friedkin admitted that he developed a sense of dignity and pride after starring in two defining films of the 1970s.

In the track «French Connections», the policemen, played by Hackman and Roy Scheider, in in the crumbling New York City of the early 1970s, a French heroin smuggler. Shot in an almost documentary style, the film was raw, brutal and cynical, with brutal cops barely distinguishable from the bad guys.

It also had one of the greatest movie chase scenes featuring Hackman's character. and elevated railway line.