Actor-writer-director-artist Dennis Hopper, whose iconic roles ranged from “Rebel Without a Cause” to “Blue Velvet” to the cable series “Crash,” died Saturday of prostate cancer. He was 74.
Hopper appeared in films ranging from teen melodramas to westerns to psychedelia to Oscar-winning dramas, but was probably best known for writing, directing and starring in the iconic “Easy Rider.”
See slideshow: Dennis Hopper, A Life in Pictures.
Born in Dodge City, Kansas, in 1936, Hopper early on expressed an interest in acting. He got his start in television, appearing in numerous shows in the 1950s, including “Medic,” “Cheyenne” and “Sugarfoot.”
He made his film debut in 1954's “Johnny Guitar,” directed by Nicholas Ray.
That was followed by roles in Ray's “Rebel Without a Cause” (1955) and George Stevens' “Giant” (1956), both with James Dean, and “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral” (1957). Hopper became good friends with Dean, who was killed in a car crash in 1955.
In part to break out of his teen roles, Hopper studied at the Actors Studio. However, his improvisational technique and demand for multiple takes while shooting Henry Hathaway's “From Hell to Texas” didn't endear him to the cast and crew, and eventually he found himself unemployable.
He managed to land some undistinguished movie and television roles throughout the 1950s and well into the '60s.
After a noteworthy role in Hathaway's 1965 “The Sons of Katie Elder,” starring John Wayne, Hopper was on the road to a comeback.
He appeared in psychedelic movies “The Trip” (1967) and the Monkees' “Head” (1968) before making a huge mark on the counterculture with 1969's “Easy Rider.”
Hopper wrote the road movie with his co-star Peter Fonda and screenwriter Terry Southern, and he also directed. Made for what they could scrape together – about $400,000 – “Easy Rider” became a huge box office hit and spawned a raft of imitators, low-budget movies about hippies and rebels and the like. It also earned a screenwriting Oscar nomination.
However, Hopper's next directorial effort, 1971's “The Last Movie,” was much less successful, both critically and financially. Hopper has said he was consuming large quantities of mind-altering substances at the time, which affected the quality of his work.
He spent most of the '70s working on European films, returning to the U.S. spotlight in Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 epic “Apocalypse Now,” winning good reviews for his portrayal of a pot-smoking photographer.
In the first half of the 1980s, Hopper found acclaim in a series of supporting roles in films including “Rumble Fish” and “River's Edge.” His most memorable performance of the decade came in David Lynch's “Blue Velvet” (1986), as the foul-mouthed, oxygen-sucking, sinister Frank Booth.
Also in 1986, Hopper earned a supporting actor Oscar nomination for “Hoosiers,” in which he co-starred as the basketball-loving town drunk who helps coach Gene Hackman revive the local high school team's fortunes.
In his later years, Hopper portrayed a wide range of offbeat, often criminal characters in films ranging from “The Last Days of Frankie the Fly” to “Red Rock West” to “True Romance” to “Speed.”
