More than half a century after William Friedkin’s revolutionary action film stunned viewers, Geoffrey Macnab looks at how the rogue cop at its centre manages to be so perversely sympathetic ...

"The French Connection" is based on Robin Moore's 1969 book of the same name. Both films tell the story of NYPD detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle, in pursuit of french heroin smugglers.

He was found dead alongside his wife, Betsy Arakawa, 63, a classical pianist and his second wife, according to the Santa Fe ...

Gene Hackman enjoy a storied, Oscar-winning career as an everyman actor who mined personal pain to give intense, edgy performances.

This is how we encounter Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle (Gene Hackman) in William Friedkin’s The French Connection (1971). He may be ...

Popeye is violent, impulsive ... had been the producer’s first choice as the lead star, but he turned The French Connection down on the grounds it was too close to Peter Yates’ Bullitt ...

This is how we encounter Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle (Gene Hackman) in William Friedkin’s The French Connection (1971). He may be dressed as Father Christmas but he is an undercover cop with a volcanic ...