In The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), which actor plays the title character?

Robert Mitchum plays the title character in The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), a crime film directed by Peter Yates.

Eddie Coyle is an aging Boston gunrunner facing a prison sentence after a truck hijacking. To avoid a long term, he gives information to Treasury agent Dave Foley, played by Richard Jordan. Eddie’s contacts include bank robbers who need weapons, while his cooperation places him in danger from the criminal network he has served.

The film was adapted from George V. Higgins’s 1970 novel. Higgins had worked as a prosecutor in Massachusetts, and his experience shaped the story’s realistic dialogue, criminal procedures, and morally compromised characters. Rather than presenting a glamorous master plan, the film follows small-time criminals whose choices are constrained by debt, fear, and betrayal.

Mitchum’s restrained performance is central to the film’s reputation. The title does not refer to a formal gang called the “Friends of Eddie Coyle”; it describes the shifting circle of criminals and officials around him.