I graduated from Senn High School in 1980. Located on Chicago’s North Side, Senn is a fairly typical inner-city public high school, except for the fact that a lot of famous and semi-famous people graduated from there. Today we salute one that will really make your head spin: William Friedkin, Class of ’53.

Billy played basketball for Senn and briefly considered trying to go pro. He graduated at the age of 16 (he said this was due to “social promotions” and not good grades, but I don’t know what that means). After getting a job in the mail room of local TV station WGN, Billy quickly moved up and was directing programs for the station at the age of 18.

Moving on to Hollywood, Billy hit the big time when he directed the Sonny and Cher vehicle Good Times in 1967. Not content with that, he went on to direct several other films, including The French Connection and the Exorcist.

Sadly, Billy passed away earlier this year at the age of 87.