French Connection Director William Friedkin RIP; How Jimmy Breslin Was Almost Popeye Doyle

William Friedkin died today. Plenty of people will write of his stellar directing career. Instead, I’m going to write about Jimmy Breslin.

It was 1970 and Friedkin was adapting “The French Connection,”Robin Moore’s book about two New York police detectives who made what was then the largest heroin bust in United States history. The studio didn’t give Friedkin a lot of money for the film – about $2 million, which even in 1970, was not a lot for a Hollywood film.

The film was going to be shot on the streets of New York City and Friedkin wanted a cast that reflected that.

He’d already decided Roy Scheider would play one of the detectives. The question was, who would play the other.

Lots of people wanted Paul Newman but his salary would have left Friedkin little money to make the movie. Friedkin wanted Jackie Gleason, once one of the biggest stars out there, The studio couldn’t have hated the idea more.

Yeah, he’d been in The Hustler but that was a decade before. The studio saw Gleason’s last few movies as bombs, his box office success was a thing of the past,

Peter Boyle was the next choice. He said no, He’d just had a huge star turn in Joe but he didn't want to do another movie with violence. He wanted to focus on romantic comedies..

Producer Richard Zanuck told Friedkin that whoever played Popeye Doyle, the other detective, didn’t have to be a star, didn’t have to be a big name.  That gave Friedkin an idea. Jimmy Breslin, arguably one of the most famous reporters in the country.

Breslin had been a columnist for the New York Herald Tribune where he wrote two columns related to the assassination of President Kennedy that are still taught in journalism classes today. He wrote a book about the first season of The New York Mets that is still considered one of the best books about sports ever written. He wrote a novel that satirized the mob that ranks up there with the best satiric novels. And, to top it off, he was fresh off a campaign for City Council President on a ticket headed by Norman Mailer who was running for Mayor.

Both lost. Breslin got more votes than Mailer.

Friedkin had been friends with Breslin for almost a decade and was fairly sure he couldn’t get more New York. Topping it off, Breslin had already been helping get the movie made. He introduced Friedkin to his friend Thomas Rand, a 425-pound bartender in the East Village who was also a bookmaker.

He also appeared frequently in Breslin’s column under the nom de gambling, Fat Thomas. Breslin told Friedkin that Thomas knew the city as well as anyone, particularly the more colorful sides that Friedkin needed for the movie.

“He knew New York like the back of his hand,” Friedkin would later say. “He took me around and showed me around the area that I got permission to film the chase (the high-speed chase that is the highlight of the movie).”

For his work, Rand is credited as a “location consultant” in the movie.

Despite Rand’s involvement and his friendship with Friedkin, Breslin was pretty sure that this was not something he wanted to do and made that clear to Friedkin.

“I never acted,” Breslin told him. “I’m a reporter. I ain’t going to be able to do my job if I’m making a movie with you.”

“You’ll be able to write on set,” Friedkin said. “Write a column, a book. You can do it between takes.”

Breslin felt that as much as he liked the director, he was pretty sure that his friend didn’t have a full understanding of how he worked.

Friedkin wasn’t giving up.

“He had the look that I wanted: a heavyset Irish guy, what they call a black Irishman,” Friedkin remembered. “He had the look. But he didn’t have the acting skills. He didn’t want to be cast in it, but I said, “Jimmy, you’re this guy. Let’s just try it.”

And for a couple of weeks that fall – filming was scheduled to begin at the end of November, they gave it a go, having Breslin rehearse with Scheider.  It started well.

“The first say he was great,” Friedkin said. It went downhill from there. “On the second day, he showed up drunk. On the third day, he showed up drunk because he had been drunk. On the fourth day, he showed up late.”

On the fifth day, Breslin arrived on time but went up to his friend and said he didn’t think it was going to work out. “I’ve got to be behind the wheel in this movie,” he said, referring to what is now one of the most famous chase scenes in film.”

Friedkin told him yes, of course.

“Here’s the thing,” Breslin told him. “I promised my mother on my deathbed that I’d never drive. “I don’t have a license.”

The two agreed that it was time to part ways.

What Friedkin wouldn’t know until much later was that after the first day of filming, Breslin had gone to a dinner thrown by producer Irwin Winkler and his wife.

There, Breslin ran into agent Sue Mengers who had been pushing her client, Gene Hackman, for the role of Popeye Doyle. Breslin didn’t know about Hackman and asked Mengers what she thought of him acting. “You can’t make this movie!” she told him. “Are you crazy? You’re taking work from a real actor and you’re going to fail.”

The encounter left Breslin uncharacteristically unnerved, prompting his conversation with Friedkin.

“If it wasn’t for the driving thing, I would’ve won an Oscar,” Breslin remembered years later. “It wasn’t meant to be.”