NEWS JUNKIE POST
May 29, 2010 at 12:40 pmDennis Hopper, Counter-Culture Icon Dead At 74
Hollywood rebel and counter-culture film icon Dennis Hopper died Saturday at 74. The volatile, versatile and surprisingly prolific actor had been battling prostate cancer.
“Everything I’ve ever learned, I learned from Hollywood, ” he said in an interview shortly before his death. “This has been my home and my schooling.”
Hopper’s career, something of a start-and-stop sputter featured early promise in “Rebel Without A Cause,” the improbable smash “Easy Rider, ” for which he earned an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay, and riveting character turns in David Lynch’s cult classic “Blue Velvet, ” as well as “Apocalypse Now” and “Hoosiers,” for which he received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination in 1987. Most recently Hopper had a re-curring role on the cable drama “Crash,” based on the Oscar winning film.
After his early success on “Rebel” and “Giant” Hopper’s career languished as he garnered a reputation as a Hollywood bad boy given to on-the-set tantrums, fueled by a potent cocktail of irreverent anger, alcohol and drugs. On the set of “True Grit,” Hopper so famously incited John Wayne’s ire, the star reportedly chased Hopper around with a loaded gun.
“Much of Hollywood found Hopper to be a pain in the neck,” said historian-critic David Thomson.
But the astonishing success of the counter-culture classic “Easy Rider,” a low-budget movie about two pot-smoking, drug dealing hippies on a road trip to Mardi Gras that no studio wanted to make, couldn’t be denied. Hopper, who directed the film with a budget of $380,000 co-wrote and co-starred with Peter Fonda, who produced it. The film also also featured Jack Nicholson in his breakout role as a drunken young lawyer the pair befriend. It’s interesting to note, that Hopper resisted casting Nicholson, but acquiesced to Fonda’s suggestion after a dispute with his original choice Rip Torn.
“Easy Rider was never a motorcycle movie to me, ” Hopper said in 2009. “A lot of it was about politically what was going on in the country.”
This tribute, underscored by ELO’s breezy “Mr. Blue Sky” captures Hopper’s essence and some of his memorable performances.
Hopper’s personal life was as loud and colorful as his screen persona. His five marriages included a brief union with former Mamas & Papas singer Michelle Phillips that lasted eight days and an eight year marriage to Brooke Hayward, daughter of famed Hollywood agent Leland Hayward and the author of “Haywire.” At the time of his death he was divorcing his fifth wife, Victoria Duffy, with whom he walked down the aisle in 1996.
Despite all the personal and professional tumult, Hopper was known for his charm and irreverent wit. He was also a noted artist and art collector. For fans, he will always be remembered as a counter-culture rebel. With class and a cause.
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Great eulogy, Amy Beth. When I saw “Easy Rider” as a teenager in France I was instantly fascinated by the unique take of the movie on America’s culture wars of the late 60′s.
I want to add to your great list of his principal films one directed by Wim Wenders: “The American Friend”. In the 1977 film, Dennis Hopper plays Tom Ripley a shady character commuting from New-York to Germany and selling forged paintings.
I may not have agreed with many of Hoppers political beliefs, but the man certainly had a talent for his craft.