Born on this day – William Brinkley:

William Brinkley

Writer

September 10, 1917 - November 22, 1993

When William Brinkley was a reporter for The Washington Post, he wrote the article covering the exorcism of a 14-year-old boy who lived in Mt. Rainier, Washington.

This case later became the inspiration for the novel The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty, published in 1971, and the movie of the same title, directed by William Friedkin and released in 1973.

Article in the Post was dated: Friday, August 20, 1949.

Born on this day – William Friedkin:

William Friedkin

Director

Producer

Writer

August 29, 1935 – August 7, 2023

Credits:

Book:

The Friedkin Connection: A Memoir (2014).

Movies and television:

12 Angry Men (1997); 40 x 15 (2008); A Decade Under the Influence (2003); A Fuller Life / Segment: My Ballsy Yarns (2013); A Little Solitaire (2004); A Missed Connection (2018); ABC World News Tonight with David Muir (2023); Acid Head: The Buzzard Nuts County Slaughter (2011); AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes & Villains (2003); AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes: America's Greatest Quips, Comebacks and Catchphrases (2005); AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies: 10th Anniversary Edition (2007); AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills: America's Most Heart-Pounding Movies (2001); Aida (2015); Algren (2014); Algren (revised) (2021); American Federale (2013); American Masters (1998); Anatomy of a Chase (2009); Arbitrage (2012); Barbra Streisand: Somewhere (1985); Behind the Rules of Engagement (2000); Blue Chips (1994); Bravo Profiles (2000); Bret Easton Ellis Podcast (2022); Bug (2006); C.A.T. Squad (1986); C.A.T. Squad: Python Wolf (1988); Casablanca: An Unlikely Classic (2012); Cinéma par Albert Dupontel (2017); Comme au cinéma (2000); Counterfeit World: Making 'to Live and Die in L.A.' (2003); Cruising (1980); CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2007–2009); Deal of the Century (1983); Ditched (2021); Don't Say No Until I Finish Talking: The Story of Richard D. Zanuck (2013); Durch die Nacht mit... (2010); Exorcising Cruising (2007); Face Time (2002–2003); Fantasy Film Festival (2014); Fasten Your Seatbelt: The Thrilling Art of Alfred Hitchcock (2009); Fear and Love: The Story of the Exorcist (2024); Fear in the Dark (1991); Fellini of the Spirits (2020); Filming 'the Hunted' (2003); Final Cut: The Making and Unmaking of Heaven's Gate (2004); Frankenheimer in Focus (2009); Friedkin and Grosso Remember: The French Connection (2009); Friedkin Uncut (2018); Godard Made in USA (2010); Godfather World (2008); Good Day L.A. (2013); Good Morning America (2023); Good Times (1967); Great Bolshy Yarblockos! Making 'A Clockwork Orange' (2007); Greatest Ever Scary Movies (2006–2007); Hardcore Nitzsche: Jack Nitzsche on Film (2017); Henri Langlois vu par... (2014); Histoires de cinéma (2010); Hollywood Halloween (1997); Hollywood Insider (2021); Hollywood's Best Film Directors (2009); Howard Hawks: American Artist (1997); I Am Alfred Hitchcock (2021); In the Grip of Evil (1997); In the Master's Shadow: Hitchcock's Legacy (2008); Intimate Portrait (2001); Jade (1995); Jay Sebring.... Cutting to the Truth (2020); JoBlo Horror Originals (2020); Johnny Hallyday: Ce que je sais (1998); Just the Facts (2004); Killer Joe (2011); Laura Branigan: Self Control (1984); Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on the Exorcist (2019); M (1931) / Fritz Lang Interviewed by William Friedkin (1975); M3/H301 (2020); Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles (2014); Making the Boys (2011); Making the Connection: Untold Stories of 'the French Connection' (2001); Michael Curtiz: The Greatest Director You Never Heard Of (2012); Miller's Tale (2011); Minty Comedic Arts (2019); Na plovárne (2014); Narc: Shooting Up (2003); Narc: The Friedkin Connection (2003); North by Northwest: One for the Ages (2009); Nosferatu vs. Father Pipecock & Sister Funk (2014); Nouvelle vague vue d'ailleurs (2009); On Tour (2010); Oscars, Actors and The Exorcist (1974); Paper Moon (1973); Pinter's Party as Told by William Friedkin (2017); Post Mortem with Mick Garris (2011); Precinct Hollywood (2005); Pro Football: Mayhem on a Sunday Afternoon (1965); Pure Cinema: Through the Eyes of the Master (2008); Pursuing 'the Hunted' (2003); Putting It Together: The Making of the Broadway Album (1986); Raising Hell: Filming the Exorcist (2010); Rampage (1987); Rebel Highway (1994); Reputations (1999); Richard Fleischer, Storyteller: William Friedkin on 'Violent Saturday' (2013); Rules of Engagement (2000); Scene of the Crime (2009); Shadows in the Dark: The Val Lewton Legacy (2005); Shadows of Suspense (2006); Shock Docs (2020); Sonny and Cher Make a Movie (2018); Sorcerer (1977); Split Screen Personality: William Friedkin on Richard Fleischer's 'The Boston Strangler' (2013); Standing on the Shoulders of Kubrick: The Legacy of 2001 (2007); Stanley Kubrick in Focus (2012); Tales from the Crypt (1992); Tales from the Warner Bros. Lot (2013); Tatort Oper - Wie Filmemacher Oper machen (2007); Tavis Smiley (2013); TCM Guest Programmer (2014); TCM Remembers 2023 (2023); The 100 Greatest Films (2001); The 100 Greatest Scary Moments (2003); The 202 Xtra (2019); The 44th Annual Academy Awards (1972); The 48th Annual Academy Awards (1976); The 49th Annual Academy Awards (1977); The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1965); The Angry Video Game Nerd (2023); The Big Picture (2018); The Birthday Party (1968); The Bold Men (1965); The Boys in the Band (1970); The Brink's Job (1978); The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (2023); The Chili Con Carne Club (1993); The Cleansing Hour (2016); The Culture Show (2012); The Cutting Edge (2003); The David Frost Show (1972); The Day of the Living Dead (2014); The Devil and Father Amorth (2017); The Directors (1997–2008); The Essentials (2017); The Exorcist (1973); The Exorcist Confidential (2020); The Exorcist Locations: Georgetown Then and Now (2010); The Exorcist: Audio Commentary by Director William Friedkin (1998); The Exorcist: The Version You've Never Seen - Audio Commentary by Director William Friedkin (2000); The Fear of God: 25 Years of 'The Exorcist' (1998); The French Connection (1971); The Guardian (1990); The History of Cruising (2007); The Horror Hall of Fame (1990); The Hour (2011); The Hunted (2003); The Irv Kupcinet Show (1980); The Lost Print (2022); The Making of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz (2013); The Man Who Shot Chinatown: The Life and Work of John A. Alonzo (2007); The Masterpiece That Almost Wasn't (2008); The Master's Touch: Hitchcock's Signature Style (2009); The Merv Griffin Show (1974); The Movies That Made Me (2019–2023); The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968); The Painter's Voice (2007); The People vs. Paul Crump (1962); The Pickle Brothers (1967); The Poughkeepsie Shuffle: Tracing 'The French Connection' (2000); The Revenant Kinder Surprise / Egg Cetera (2015); The Secrets of Dick Smith (1991); The Shining (1980) / The Visions of Stanley Kubrick (2007); The Simpsons (2017); The Sound of Hitchcock (2008); The Story of Film: An Odyssey (2011); The Thin Blue Line (1966); The Twilight Zone / Segment: Nightcrawlers, written by Philip DeGuere, based on the short story by Robert R. McCammon. Season 1. Episode 4. Episode originally aired: October 18, 1985; The Uttmost (1998); The World Over Live (2015); This Is Your Life (2002); To Live and Die in L.A. (1985); Victor Fleming: Master Craftsman (2009); View from the Overlook: Crafting 'the Shining' (2007); Vision of a Future Passed: The Prophecy of 2001 (2007); Wang Chung: To Live and Die in L.A. (1985); Welcome to the Basement (2016); Without Limits (1998); WTF with Marc Maron (2016).

Recommended reading - The Exorcist (1971) and Legion (1983) by William Peter Blatty

The Exorcist: A Novel (1971).

by William Peter Blatty.
 
Published by Harper Paperbacks
Paperback.
 
ISBN-10: 006209436X
ISBN-13: 978-0062094360
 
Description:
 

Four decades after it first shook the nation, then the world, William Peter Blatty’s thrilling masterwork of faith and demonic possession returns in an even more powerful form. Raw and profane, shocking and blood-chilling, it remains a modern parable of good and evil and perhaps the most terrifying novel ever written.

 

----------
 

Legion (1983).

by William Peter Blatty.
 
Published by Tor Books.
Paperback.
 
ISBN-10: 0765327139
ISBN-13: 978-0765327130
 
Description:
 
“Jesus asked the man his name, and he answered, ‘Legion, for we are many.’” – Mark 5:9.
 

A young boy is found horribly murdered in a mock crucifixion. Is the murderer the elderly woman who witnessed the crime? A neurologist who can no longer bear the pain life inflicts on its victims? A psychiatrist with a macabre sense of humor and a guilty secret? A mysterious mental patient,in silent isolation?

 

Lieutenant Kinderman follows a bewildering trail that links all these people, confronting new enigmas at every turn, even as more murders occur. Why does each victim suffer the same dreadful mutilations? Why are two priests among the dead? Is there a connection between these crimes and another series of murders that took place twelve years ago – one that supposedly ended with the death of the killer?

 

Legion is a novel of breathtaking energy and suspense. But more than this, it is an extraordinary journey into the uncharted depths of the human mind and the most agonizing questions of the human condition.

 

The answers are revealed in a climax so stunning that it could only have been written by the author of The Exorcist – William Peter Blatty.

On this day in movie history - The Exorcist (1973)

The Exorcist

directed by William Friedkin,

written by and based on the novel by William Peter Blatty,

was released in the United States on December 26, 1973.

Music by Jack Nitzsche.

Excerpt from Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield.

Cast:

Ellen Burstyn, Jason Miller, Linda Blair, Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, Kitty Winn, Jack MacGowran, Father William O'Malley, Father Thomas Bermingham, Peter Masterson, Robert Symonds, Barton Heyman, Rudolf Schündler, Arthur Storch, Vasiliki Maliaros, Titos Vandis, Dick Callinan, William Peter Blatty, Mercedes McCambridge, Eileen Dietz.