That same decade, he was back at the Academy Awards – competing for best actor this time, with the role that would define him – Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle, a brutal police detective whose car chase scene in 1971’s The French Connection would inspire many other movies.
Hackman would quickly follow this up with another Academy Award nod for 1970 drama I Never Sang For My Father, where he played middle-aged college professor opposite US actor Melvyn Douglas.
Hollywood star Gene Hackman, known for The French Connection, Mississippi Burning and The Poseidon Adventure, was a character actor who often played tough guys before finding his comedic stride in films like The Royal Tenenbaums and Superman.
Hackman would have small early roles in Lilith opposite Warren Beatty, and period drama Hawaii with Irish actor Richard Harris.
Hackman would follow the movie up with the 1975 sequel French Connection II, which saw the character Doyle travel to France to track down a drug dealer.
