In the film The French Connection, what is the name of Gene Hackman’s detective character?

In The French Connection, Gene Hackman plays New York detective Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle. The 1971 crime film, directed by William Friedkin, follows Doyle and his partner as they investigate a large heroin-smuggling operation.

Doyle is loosely based on Eddie Egan, a real New York Police Department detective who served as a technical adviser on the production and appears in the film as Doyle’s supervisor, Walt Simonson. The film also draws on Egan’s partner Sonny Grosso, whose fictional counterpart is Buddy Russo, played by Roy Scheider.

The story centers on an international drug shipment connected to French criminal Alain Charnier, played by Fernando Rey. Its tense pursuit sequences, documentary-style realism, and morally abrasive protagonist helped define the gritty American crime film of the early 1970s.

The French Connection won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Hackman, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Film Editing. Doyle is therefore a fictionalized character, not the real detective’s exact name.