NEW YORK _ Sonny Grosso, the larger-than-life NYPD detective whose fast-and-furious crime-busting with partner Eddie Egan became the basis of the 1971 hit "The French Connection," died Wednesday, a family member confirmed. He was 89.
Grosso, who turned Hollywood producer after the spectacular screen retelling of the takedown of a heroin trafficking ring starring Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider, died at his Manhattan home, his friends told the New York Daily News.
"He was some narcotics detective. He made that case. He made the French Connection case," said retired Detective Randy Jurgensen, who also worked on the French Connection case and on the award-winning movie as the NYPD adviser.
"Sonny Grosso figured out how they were doing it. It was Sonny Grosso.
"There were a lot of busts that were coming out of narcotics and I'm telling you, SG was at the front, the bottom, whatever it was, with all those cases," Jurgensen added.
The film, directed by William Friedkin, tells the story of detectives Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle, played by Hackman, and Buddy "Cloudy" Russo, played by Scheider. Their real-life counterparts were Egan and Grosso. The movie world loved them, and the film picked up a slew of Oscars in 1972, including best picture, director and actor.
In the real world, Grosso was loved no less.
"He was the most unpretentious celebrity you could ever imagine," retired NYPD Capt. Ernie Naspretto told The News. "He was so well known in the showbiz world ... and yet he would talk to anybody at any time and had a great sense of humor."
When "The French Connection" won the Oscar, Grosso stayed home, Naspretto recalled.
"He didn't go. He didn't feel it was his place to be there. He watched it on TV like everybody else."
But he was anything but, becoming a television and movie producer, Naspretto said, including TV gigs for "Baretta," "Kojak" and "Top Cops."
