Former NYPD Detective Randy Jurgensen walked a beat in Harlem all the way into Hollywood’s greatest crime dramas of all time.

He is known as the cop who killed Sonny Corleone in The Godfather.

Gene Hackman pats down NYPD Detective Randy Jurgensen to learn proper police procedures to use in the filming of The French Connection

His walk of fame started when William Friedkin, the director of The French Connection, asked Jurgensen to demonstrate how to put a suspect against a wall for the “pat down.”

Friedkin hired Jurgensen as the film’s technical consultant to advise him on how to realistically show the gritty side of heroin trafficking in the 1960s.

NYPD Detective Randy Jurgensen playing a police sergeant in The French Connection

It became Jurgensen's job to turn actors Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider into narcotics detectives. 

Jurgensen turned out to be a natural on camera and was given the role of an NYPD Sergeant in the film.

3rd Person Left -- NYPD Detective Randy Jurgensen Plays a police sergeant in The French Connection

He appears on the poster for The French Connection, flanking Gene Hackman. 

Jurgensen had been on the periphery of an undercover narcotics investigation that netted a legendary seizure of heroin. 

Robin Moore, the author of The Green Berets, wrote a book about the case titled The French Connection. 

In those days, heroin flowed into New York City from Marseille, and the book was made into a movie.

A long list of credits includes Jurgensen’s work as a technical advisor on Die Hard with a Vengeance, a cop in the first Superman movie with Christopher Reeve, and a role in Frank Sinatra's first made-for-TV movie, Contract On Cherry Street .

A few days after celebrating The French Connection’s Oscars, Jurgensen became embroiled in the most notorious case in the history of NYPD.  

Jurgensen’s book titled Circle of Six details his determined effort to bring to justice the murderer of Police Officer Philip Cardillo, who was killed in a Harlem Mosque in 1972. 

Fasten your seatbelts! 

Link to the one-man-show parody of The Godfather mentioned in the podcast: The Godfadda Workout

FOLLOW the True Crime Reporter® Podcast 

SIGN UP FOR my True Crime Newsletter

THANK YOU FOR THE FIVE-STAR REVIEWS ON APPLE Please leave one – it really helps.

TELL ME about a STORY OR SUBJECT  that you want to hear more about