Dennis Hopper: 1936 - 2010

The legendary Dennis Hopper has passed away from complications of prostate cancer. He was 74. Hopper's death was not unexpected, since he had been dealing with the cancer for some time, and he was surrounded by friends and family at his home in California. His hand and forehead bandaged, a frail Hopper made his last public appearance in March of this year, accepting his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His battle against what had been called a terminal form of cancer coincided with an ugly divorce from his wife of 14 years. Hopper will forever be known as one of Hollywood's ultimate hellraisers. His career started in the immediate shadow of James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause and Giant, and worked steadily from the mid-1950s until the early 1970s, appearing primarily on television until he directed, co-wrote, and co-starred in the counterculture classic Easy Rider in 1969. Success was tougher to find after that, and by the time he appeared in Apocalypse Now a decade later, Hopper had gone off the deep end with drug and alcohol addiction, finally checking into rehab in the early 1980s. Though he never really stopped working during this period, Hopper's "comeback" was a pair of major films from 1986, David Lynch's Blue Velvet and his Best Supporting Actor-nominated turn in Hoosiers, among the best sports movies ever made. Outside of his work as an actor, writer, and director, Dennis Hopper earned a reputation as a photographer, sculptor, artist, and art collector. An exhibition of his work, curated by fellow artist and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly director Julian Schnabel, will open at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art on July 11th. In April, museum director Jeffrey Dietch said, "We're rushing this exhibition because Dennis is ailing. and I wanted him to be able to participate in the selection of works. He saw the space with us last week."

Comments

[FishFish]

Another legend leaves us..RIP Dennis, may your films live forever.

[SEAN]

RIP Dennis Hopper...

One of the few actors around that can truly act & wasnt like the shit ton of actors produced nowadays.

He seemed to put everything into his craft

May your legacy live on

[D]

Alot of people credit Easy Rider with kickstarting the American independent film industry/movement. I'm not sure how true that is, but there's no question about the impact Easy Rider had on American culture. Hopper had his ups and downs in his career but was still one of the better actors of his generation. RIP.