FrameThrower · Actors · William Finley
William Finley
2 films · 118 frames · top-billed in 1 · 1973–1974
Born 20 September 1942 · Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA · died 14 April 2012
William Finley was an American actor who has appeared in the films Simon, Silent Rage, Phantom of the Paradise, Sisters, and The Wedding Party. He had a long-running friendship and collaboration with director Brian De Palma, beginning with the student films Woton's Wake (1962) and Murder à la Mod (1968). Most recently, he contributed a small but effective cameo in De Palma's 2006 release The Black Dahlia. Under the name W. Franklin Finley, he wrote the screenplay for the 1983 film The First Time. He was also the co-author of the 1985 book Racewalking.
Finley graduated from Columbia University in 1963. He resided in New York City with his wife and son.
How their films are shot
Measured across 118 frames from the 2 films we hold. This is the look of the work William takes, not a claim about any single frame — we index the cast of a film, never the people in a shot.
Across the 2 films we hold, 63% of their frames are night, 47% low key — the look of the work William takes.
Time of day
Lighting
Shot size
Camera angle
Mood
Films in the library
Every poster opens that film — stills, cinematography notes and colour palette.
A reference database for filmmakers
FrameThrower is a fully machine-searchable film database and visual reference library — all 118 frames from William Finley's 2 films, and 5,000+ films besides, indexed frame by frame and readable by AI. Search it in plain language, from a reference image, or by colour; call it from an API, an MCP server or an SDK. It's the reference layer for making the next movie.