Yeah thats Bill Hickman, who was the driver of James Dean's trailer following Dean that fateful day in 1955. One of the guys in this forum knew him, I think Singpilot was his neighbor or something... Hickman was a legendary Hollywood stunt driver who often doubled in small parts as an actor, usually playing a "heavy". I dont know if he was in the French Connection, but it wouldnt be surprising if he was.
(Sonic leaves to do a Yahoo seach on FC and comes back)...
Yeah! Hickman was in FC too. Check this link
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0067116/
Anyway, I thought the car chase in FC was pretty cool...that 70s Oldsmobile wobbling back in forth on those narrow roads trying to chase that train... pretty realistic.
There was something on A&E channel once, where the directors of FC were talking about the car chase and comparing it to the one in Bullet. I think it was a show on great car chases of all time in the movies.
Just about anything that Gene Hackman did in the 70s was great.
I particularly like "The Conversation" with Hackman as an intelligence device salesperson who accidentally taped a conversation that he wasnt supposed to hear. The movie featured a young pre-Shirley Feeny, Cindy Williams as the female lead.
Very underrated gritty 70s movie...as is "3 Days of the Condor" which is a must see as well.
BTW...I think Brad Pitt would be an excellent choice for the new Bullet. He could pull it off, the guy is as versitile of an actor as there is right now...
but...no one could possibly recapture the silent understatement that Steve McQueen pulled off on the screen. Very few actors could carry an entire seen with just his eyes, except McQueen and also Harrison Ford.