sentences:  The character is based on a real-life New York City police detective, Eddie Egan, who also appeared in the film as Walt Simonson, Doyle's supervisor.Doyle, as played by Hackman in "The French Connection", is ranked number 44 as a hero on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains list.In the 1971 movie "The French Connection", Popeye is a rough police detective who routinely breaks the rules in an effort to catch criminals, in this case a group of French drug smugglers.