WITH THE recent passing of Gene Hackman, cinema has lost one of its last great character actors and tough guys.
He is perhaps best remembered for his leading role in The French Connection, as renegade NYPD vice detective Jimmy ‘Popeye’ Doyle; a man for whom heavy drinking, womanising and carousing go hand in hand with the cynicism required to carry out good police work.
Adapted from Robin Moore’s 1969 nonfiction book of the same name, ‘The French Connection’ portrays Hackman’s character in a dangerous game of cat and mouse with French roustabout and heroin smuggler Alain Charnier (played by Fernando Rey).
What most people don’t know is that ‘Popeye’ Doyle was based heavily on real-life Irish American vice detective Eddie Egan. Like Hackman, Egan was born in 1930, and like Hackman he enlisted in the US Marine Corps as a teenager.
He saw active service during the Korean War in 1950 before being discharged in 1955 to join the NYPD. Among his various plaudits, Egan and his partner Sonny Grosso reputedly broke up an organised-crime ring in 1961, seizing a record 112 pounds of heroin, and providing the basis for William Friedkin’s film.
His nickname in real-life was also ‘Popeye’ and he served as technical advisor, along with Grosso, to ensure that the movie captured the realistic grittiness of New York police work for which it became famous.
According to Hackman, his onset relationship with Egan was often fraught. Hackman was perturbed by what he perceived as Egan’s casual racism and nihilistic attitude towards life and there were sometimes moments of great tension between the two over how best to approach his character.
Nevertheless, this tension between the men led to one of cinema’s all-time great depictions of an antihero. Egan passed away in 1995 at the age of 65.
Hackman, along with his wife Betsy Arakawa and their dog, were found dead by Santa Fe police at their home in New Mexico on February 26 2025. He was 95 years old.
See More: Gene Hackman, NYPD, Popeye Doyle, The French Connection
