Popeye Doyle, not Popeye the Sailor

Actor Gene Hackman stars as Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in the 1971 thriller The French Connection. The film was directed by William Friedkin. The character was based on a real-life cop named Eddie Egan, whose nickname was "Popeye" in real life.

Popeye the Sailor, the *original* Popeye, was a cartoon character first created in 1929. Admittedly, the two characters really have nothing to do with each other, except for the common name and extreme pugnacity in both cases.

See our biography of Popeye the Sailor