William S. Bowdern (February 13, 1897 – April 25, 1983) was a Catholic priest[1] of the Society of Jesus in St. Louis, Missouri.
He was the author of The Problems of Courtship and Marriage printed by Our Sunday Visitor in 1939.
In 1949, Bowdern was assisted in the exorcism of an anonymously named boy by fellow Jesuit priest Walter Halloran.
Author William Peter Blatty contacted Bowdern as part of his research for his novel The Exorcist.
In a 2000 TV movie titled Possessed, Bowdern was played by Timothy Dalton.