Eddie Egan

Eddie Egan
Egan (right) with Mike Connors in the Mannix episode "The Open Web", 1972
Born	Edward R. Egan (1930-01-03)January 3, 1930 New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	November 4, 1995(1995-11-04) (aged 65) Miami, Florida, U.S.
Cause of death	Colon cancer
Occupation	Police detective, actor

Edward "Eddie" Egan (January 3, 1930 – November 4, 1995) was a NYPD detective and film and television actor.

Egan's exploits were the subject of a book and movie, both titled The French Connection. Egan, his partner Sonny Grosso, and other New York City Police Department detectives broke up an organized crime ring in 1961 seizing 112 pounds of heroin, a record amount at the time. The investigation was the subject of a book by Robin Moore and the subsequent motion picture released in 1971.

The movie was highly fictionalized and very successful. The character based on Egan, Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle, was played by Gene Hackman who won an Academy Award for his performance (the film also won Oscars for Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, and Editing). The character was called "Popeye" because that was Egan's nickname in real life. Egan played a role in the movie as Hackman's supervisor, Simonson. Egan and Grosso were also technical advisors. Hackman reprised this role in the sequel film French Connection II in 1975, which depicts a fictionalized story.

Egan's seizure is mentioned as a throwaway line in the 2007 feature American Gangster, but is portrayed as the very drugs taken out of the Evidence Room by corrupt police officers, cut and resold to the mobsters from whom it was seized.

In 1986, a network television series Popeye Doyle was planned based on the fictionalized character from the two films with Ed O'Neill playing the title character. While the series was never produced, the pilot was broadcast as an NBC-TV Movie, and has been shown in syndication. In 1973 another film, called Badge 373, with Robert Duvall playing the role of Egan, was released detailing Egan's career.