William Friedkin, who achieved cinematic immortality by directing the bleak, gritty 1971 drug-smuggling thriller The French Connection and the terrifying 1973 demon-possession blockbuster The Exorcist, died on Monday at the age of 87, Variety reported.

Variety said he died in Los Angeles, citing a friend of Friedkin’s wife. No further details were immediately available.

Friedkin got his start as a director with the mild 1967 musical comedy Good Times with the pop duo Sonny and Cher, then spent the rest of his career creating some of the most disturbing, violent and controversial images in film history.

The French Connection won five Academy Awards, including best picture, best director for Friedkin and best actor for Gene Hackman, who Friedkin initially did not want in the memorable role of New York narcotics detective Popeye Doyle.

The Exorcist shocked movie goers and offended some people with its unflinching tale of an innocent 12-year-old girl, played by Linda Blair, who undergoes a harrowing Roman Catholic exorcism to free her from possession by a demon.

A cultural phenomenon and one of the highest-grossing movies of all time adjusted for inflation, it was hailed by some as the greatest horror movie ever made.

The Exorcist was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including best picture and best director for Friedkin.

“My films have always been a study of human behaviour at its extremes,” Friedkin told interviewer Tom Huddleston in 2012.

“They’re not aimed at young people, they’re aimed at adults. Is there a line I wouldn’t cross? … I don’t know.”

Friedkin went on to make other movies but none achieved the level of success of his two big triumphs.

Other noteworthy efforts included the 1985 crime thriller To Live and Die in LA starring William Petersen and Willem Dafoe, the 2006 mental disintegration chiller Bug with Ashley Judd, and the twisted 2011 black comedy Killer Joe starring Matthew McConaughey.

Detractors considered him a hot-tempered, arrogant bully and dubbed him Hurricane Billy. Friedkin admitted he had a sense of entitlement and hubris after making two of the defining movies of the 1970s.

William David Friedkin was born on August 29, 1935, and grew up in Chicago, the son of poor Ukrainian immigrants. Unable to afford college, the young film buff worked in the mail room of a Chicago TV station after high school and soon began directing live shows.

He honed his skills making documentaries. One in 1965 helped lead to the commutation of a convicted killer’s death sentence. It also opened the door to Friedkin’s first job in Hollywood.