Hurricane Billy
The Stormy Life and Films of William Friedkin
by Nat Segaloff
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Originally published in 1990, Hurricane Billy: The Stormy Life and Films of William Friedkin is at last available again with a new foreword and extensive afterword written in assessment of William Friedkin’s career following his 2023 death. Biographer Nat Segaloff draws upon his fifty-year friendship with the controversial director of The French Connection, The Exorcist, To Live and Die in L.A., Cruising, and his greatest achievement, Sorcerer. This was the first book to offer an intimate portrait. BearManor Media is proud to bring this work back into print.
“Nat Segaloff’s groundbreaking biography is an important contribution to examining Friedkin’s life and work.”
- Daniel M. Kimmel, author of
“The Fourth Network” and “The Dream Team.”
“Now, Segaloff has given his essential text a necessary and illuminating update. Friedkin is one of the most important directors of the New Hollywood, and Segaloff is one of our most important veteran film historians.”
- Daniel Kremer, filmmaker and film historian
“There’s hardly a day on set when I don’t feel the pull of The French Connection, The Exorcist, Sorcerer thatset a bar for authenticity, grit, and pure emotion that’s almost impossible to match. He’s still one of my biggest inspirations. And Nat Segaloff’s book? It’s got that same Friedkin energy—unvarnished, surprising, and wildly entertaining.
- Gary Fleder, director, Kiss the Girls and Runaway Jury
“Hurricane Billy was a key source when I first started writing about William Friedkin’s films, and it has remained one of my favourite movie biogs through all these decades. Nat writes with clarity, insight, wit and (most importantly) passion. He really captures Billy’s brilliantly creative personality.”
- Mark Kermode, critic and broadcaster
“Billy Friedkin was everything they said about him and the complete opposite, When I had the chance to know Friedkin myself years later, I saw just how accurate Segaloff’s portrait was. An essential book for anyone who wants to become familiar with the work of one of the greatest American directors of our time.”
- Laurent Vachaud, critic and screenwriter
See the publisher website: BearManor Media
See the complete filmography of William Friedkin on the website: IMDB ...
> From the same author:
Bogart and Huston (2025)
Their Lives, Their Adventures, and the Classic Movies They Made Together
by Nat Segaloff
Subject: Actor > Humphrey Bogart
The Rambo Report (2025)
Five Films, Three Books, One Legend
by Nat Segaloff
Subject: One Film > First Blood
Breaking the Code (2023)
Otto Preminger Versus Hollywood's Censors
by Nat Segaloff
Subject: Director > Otto Preminger
Guiding Royalty (2018)
My Adventure with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton
by Yoram Ben-Ami and Nat Segaloff
Subject: Actor > Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton
Final Cuts (2013)
The Last Films of 50 Great Directors
by Nat Segaloff
Subject: On Films > Film selections
> On a related topic:
The Lost Decade (2025)
Altman, Coppola, Friedkin and the Hollywood Renaissance Auteur in the 1980s
by Chris Horn
Subject: On Films > Per period
Diabolical Possession and the Case Behind The Exorcist (2018)
An Overview of Scientific Research with Interviews with Witnesses and Experts
Subject: One Film > The Exorcist
The Boys in the Band (2016)
Flashpoints of Cinema, History, and Queer Politics
Dir. Matt Bell
Subject: One Film > The Boys in the Band
Psycho-Sexual (2013)
Male Desire in Hitchcock, De Palma, Scorsese, and Friedkin
by David Greven
Subject: Sociology
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