Dennis Hopper

Dennis Lee Hopper (May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010) was an American actor, filmmaker and photographer. He attended the Actors Studio, made his first television appearance in 1954, and soon after appeared in ''Giant'' (1956). In the next ten years he made a name in television, and by the end of the 1960s had appeared in several films, notably ''Cool Hand Luke'' (1967) and ''Hang 'Em High'' (1968). Hopper also began a prolific and acclaimed photography career in the 1960s.

Hopper made his directorial film debut with ''Easy Rider'' (1969), which he and co-star Peter Fonda wrote with Terry Southern. The film earned Hopper a Cannes Film Festival Award for "Best First Work" and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay (shared with Fonda and Southern). Journalist Ann Hornaday wrote: "With its portrait of counterculture heroes raising their middle fingers to the uptight middle-class hypocrisies, ''Easy Rider'' became the cinematic symbol of the 1960s, a celluloid anthem to freedom, macho bravado and anti-establishment rebellion". Film critic Matthew Hays wrote "no other persona better signifies the lost idealism of the 1960s than that of Dennis Hopper".Unterburger, Amy L. (editor) ''International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers – vol 3 Actors and Actresses'', St. James Press (1997) p. 564

Following the critical and commercial failure of his second film as director, ''The Last Movie'' (1971), he worked on various independent and foreign projects – in which he was frequently typecast as mentally disturbed outsiders in such films as ''Mad Dog Morgan'' (1976) and ''The American Friend'' (1977) – until he found new fame for his role as an American photojournalist in ''Apocalypse Now'' (1979). He went on to helm his third directorial work '' Out of the Blue'' (1980), for which he was again honored at Cannes, and appeared in ''Rumble Fish'', '' The Osterman Weekend'' (both 1983), and ''My Science Project'' (1985). He saw a career resurgence in 1986 when he was widely acclaimed for his performances in '' Blue Velvet'' and '' Hoosiers'', the latter of which saw him nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. His fourth directorial outing came about through ''Colors'' (1988), followed by an Emmy-nominated lead performance in ''Paris Trout'' (1991). In 1990, Dennis Hopper directed ''The Hot Spot,'' which was not a box-office hit. Hopper found greater fame for portraying the villains of the films ''Super Mario Bros.'' (1993), ''Speed'' (1994), and ''Waterworld'' (1995).

Hopper's later work included a leading role in the short-lived television series ''Crash'' (2008–2009), inspired by the film of the same name. He appeared in three films released posthumously: '' Alpha and Omega'' (2010), '' The Last Film Festival'' (2016) and the long-delayed ''The Other Side of the Wind'' (2018), which had been filmed in the early 1970s.

Early life

Hopper was born on May 17, 1936, in Dodge City, Kansas, the son of Marjorie Mae (née Davis; July 12, 1917 – January 12, 2007) and James Millard Hopper (June 23, 1916 – August 7, 1982). He had Scottish ancestors. Hopper had two brothers, Marvin and David.

After World War II, the family moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where the young Hopper attended Saturday art classes at the Kansas City Art Institute. When he was 13, Hopper and his family moved to San Diego, where his mother worked as a lifeguard instructor and his father was a post office manager, having previously served in the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency, in World War II in the China Burma India Theater. Hopper was voted most likely to succeed at Helix High School, where he was active in the drama club, speech and choir. It was there that he developed an interest in acting, studying at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, and the Actors Studio in New York City (he studied with Lee Strasberg for five years). Hopper struck up a friendship with actor Vincent Price, whose passion for art influenced Hopper's interest in art. He was especially fond of the plays of William Shakespeare.

Career

Film

Hopper was reported to have an uncredited role in ''Johnny Guitar'' in 1954, but he has stated that he was not in Hollywood when this film was made.Murray, Noel (December 2, 2008)
Random Roles with Dennis Hopper
. ''The A.V. Club'', Onion Inc. Retrieved 2010-05-29. Hopper made his debut on film in two roles with James Dean (whom he admired immensely) in ''Rebel Without a Cause'' (1955) and ''Giant'' (1956). Dean's death in a car accident in September 1955 affected the young Hopper deeply and it was shortly afterward that he got into a confrontation with veteran director Henry Hathaway on the film ''From Hell to Texas'' (1958). Hopper forced Hathaway to shoot more than 80 takes of a scene over several days before he acquiesced to Hathaway's direction. After filming was finally completed, Hathaway allegedly told Hopper that his career in Hollywood was finished.

In his book ''Last Train to Memphis'', American popular music historian Peter Guralnick says that in 1956, when Elvis Presley was making his first film in Hollywood, Hopper was roommates with fellow actor Nick Adams and the three became friends and socialized together. In 1959 Hopper moved to New York to study Method acting under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio. In 1961, Hopper played his first lead role in ''Night Tide'', an atmospheric supernatural thriller involving a mermaid in an amusement park.

In a December 1994 interview on the '' Charlie Rose Show'', Hopper credited John Wayne with saving his career, as Hopper acknowledged that because of his insolent behavior, he could not find work in Hollywood for seven years. Hopper stated that because he was the son-in-law of actress Margaret Sullavan, a friend of John Wayne, Wayne hired Hopper for a role in ''The Sons of Katie Elder'' (1965), also directed by Hathaway, which enabled Hopper to restart his film career. Hopper acted in another John Wayne film, ''True Grit'' (1969), and during its production, he became well acquainted with Wayne. In both of the films with Wayne, Hopper's character is killed in the presence of Wayne's character, to whom he utters his dying words.

Hopper had a supporting role as the bet-taker, "Babalugats", in ''Cool Hand Luke'' (1967). In 1968, Hopper teamed with Peter Fonda, Terry Southern and Jack Nicholson to make ''Easy Rider'', which premiered in July 1969. With the release of ''True Grit'' a month earlier, Hopper had starring roles in two major box-office films that summer. Hopper won wide acclaim as the director for his improvisational methods and innovative editing for ''Easy Rider''. The production was plagued by creative differences and personal acrimony between Fonda and Hopper, the dissolution of Hopper's marriage to Brooke Hayward, his unwillingness to leave the editor's desk and his accelerating abuse of drugs and alcohol. Hopper said of ''Easy Rider'': "The cocaine problem in the United States is really because of me. There was no cocaine before ''Easy Rider'' on the street. After ''Easy Rider'', it was everywhere".

Besides showing drug use on film, it was one of the first films to portray the hippie lifestyle. Hopper became a stereotype for some male youths who rejected traditional jobs and traditional American culture, partly exemplified by Fonda's long sideburns and Hopper wearing shoulder-length hair and a long mustache. They were denied rooms in motels and proper service in restaurants as a result of their radical looks.Hillman, Betty Luther. ''Dressing for the Culture Wars: Style and the Politics of Self-Presentation in the 1960s and 1970s'', Univ. of Nebraska Press (2015) e-book Their long hair became a point of contention in various scenes during the film.

Hopper was unable to capitalize on his ''Easy Rider'' success for several years. In 1970 he filmed ''The Last Movie'', cowritten by Stewart Stern and photographed by László Kovács in Peru, and completed production in 1971. It won the prestigious CIDALC Award at that year's Venice Film Festival, but Universal Studios leaders expected a blockbuster like ''Easy Rider'', and did not like the film or give it an enthusiastic release, while American film audiences found it confounding – as convoluted as an abstract painting. On viewing the first release print, fresh from the lab, in his screening room at Universal, MCA founder Jules C. Stein rose from his chair and said, "I just don't understand this younger generation." During the tumultuous editing process, Hopper ensconced himself at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House in Taos, New Mexico, which he had purchased in 1970, for almost an entire year. In between contesting Fonda's rights to the majority of the residual profits from ''Easy Rider'', he married singer Michelle Phillips of The Mamas and the Papas on Halloween of 1970. The marriage lasted eight days.

Hopper was able to sustain his lifestyle and a measure of celebrity by acting in numerous low budget and European films throughout the 1970s as the archetypal "tormented maniac", including ''Mad Dog Morgan'' (1976), '' Tracks'' (1976), and ''The American Friend'' (1977). With Francis Ford Coppola's blockbuster ''Apocalypse Now'' (1979), Hopper returned to prominence as a hyper-manic Vietnam-era photojournalist. Stepping in for an overwhelmed director, Hopper won praise in 1980 for his directing and acting in '' Out of the Blue''. Immediately thereafter, Hopper starred as an addled short-order cook "Cracker" in the Neil Young/Dean Stockwell low-budget collaboration ''Human Highway''. Production was reportedly often delayed by his unreliable behavior. Peter Biskind states in the New Hollywood history ''Easy Riders, Raging Bulls'' that Hopper's cocaine intake had reached three grams a day by this time, complemented by 30 beers, and some marijuana and Cuba libres.

After staging a "suicide attempt" (really more of a daredevil act) in a coffin using 17 sticks of dynamite during an "art happening" at the Rice University Media Center (filmed by professor and documentary filmmaker Brian Huberman), and later disappearing into the Mexican desert during a particularly extravagant bender, Hopper entered a drug rehabilitation program in 1983.

Though Hopper gave critically acclaimed performances in Coppola's ''Rumble Fish'' (1983) and Sam Peckinpah's '' The Osterman Weekend'' (1983), it was not until he portrayed the gas-huffing, obscenity-screaming villain Frank Booth in David Lynch's '' Blue Velvet'' (1986) that his career truly revived. On reading the script Hopper said to Lynch: "You have to let me play Frank Booth. Because I am Frank Booth!" He won critical acclaim and several awards for this role, and in the same year received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role as an alcoholic assistant basketball coach in '' Hoosiers''. Also in 1986, Hopper portrayed Lt. Enright in the comedy horror ''The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2''. In 1988, he directed ''Colors'', a critically acclaimed police procedural about gang violence in Los Angeles starring Sean Penn and Robert Duvall.

Hopper plays an aging hippie prankster in the 1990 comedy '' Flashback'', fleeing in a '' Furthur''-like old bus to the tune of Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild". He was nominated for an Emmy Award for the 1991 HBO film ''Paris Trout''. Shortly thereafter, he played drug smuggler and DEA informant Barry Seal in the HBO film ''Doublecrossed''. He starred as King Koopa in ''Super Mario Bros.'', a 1993 critical and commercial failure loosely based on the video game of the same name. In 1993, he played Clifford Worley in ''True Romance''. He co-starred in the 1994 blockbuster ''Speed'' with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, and as magic-phobic H.P. Lovecraft in the TV movie ''Witch Hunt''.

In 1995, Hopper played a greedy TV self-help guru, Dr. Luther Waxling in ''Search and Destroy''. The same year, he starred as Deacon, the one-eyed nemesis of Kevin Costner in ''Waterworld''. And in 1996 he starred in the science fiction comedy ''Space Truckers'' directed by Stuart Gordon. In 1999, he starred in ''The Prophet's Game'' (a dark thriller), directed by David Worth and also starring Stephanie Zimbalist, Robert Yocum, Sandra Locke, Joe Penny and Tracey Birdsall. In 2003, Hopper was in the running for the dual lead in the indie horror drama ''Firecracker'', but was ousted at the last minute in favor of Mike Patton. In 2005, Hopper played Paul Kaufman in George A. Romero's ''Land of the Dead''. In 2008, Hopper starred in ''An American Carol''. In 2008 he also played The Death in Wim Wenders' ''Palermo Shooting''. His last major feature film appearance was in the 2008 film ''Elegy'' with Ben Kingsley, Penélope Cruz and Debbie Harry. For his last performance, he was the voice of Tony, the alpha-male of the Eastern wolf pack inside the 2010 3D computer animated film '' Alpha and Omega''. He died before the movie was released. This brought the directors to dedicate the film to his memory at the beginning of the movie credits.

Hopper filmed scenes for ''The Other Side of the Wind'' in 1971, appearing as himself; after decades of legal, financial and technical delays, the film was finally released on Netflix in 2018.

Television

Hopper debuted in an episode of the Richard Boone television series ''Medic'' in 1955, portraying a young epileptic.

He appeared as an arrogant young gunfighter, the Utah Kid, in the 1956 episode "Quicksand" of the first hour-long western television series ''Cheyenne'', starring Clint Walker. In the storyline, the Kid gave Cheyenne Bodie no choice but to kill him in a gunfight. In 1957 Hopper played thief Abe Larson in another ''Cheyenne'' episode titled "The Iron Trail." In 1957, he played Billy the Kid on the episode "Brannigan's Boots" of ''Sugarfoot'' with Will Hutchins.

He appeared in the first episode of the popular TV series, "The Rifleman" (1958–1963) as protagonist Vernon Tippet. The series starred Chuck Connors and the premiere episode "The Sharpshooter" was written by Sam Peckinpah.

He subsequently appeared in over 140 episodes of television shows such as ''Gunsmoke'', ''Bonanza'', ''Petticoat Junction'', ''The Twilight Zone'', ''The Barbara Stanwyck Show'', '' The Defenders'', '' The Investigators'', ''The Legend of Jesse James'', ''Entourage'', ''The Big Valley'', ''The Time Tunnel'', and ''Combat!''.

On 30 September 1970, Hopper appeared on the second episode of season 2 of "The Johnny Cash Show" where he sang a duet with Cash entitled "Goin' Up Goin' Down". Cash said the song was written by Kris Kristofferson about Hopper. Hopper added that Kristofferson had written some songs for his Peruvian-shot movie "The Last Movie", in which Kristofferson appeared in his debut role with Julie Adams. Hopper also recited Rudyard Kipling's famous poem If— during his appearance.

Hopper teamed with Nike in the early 1990s to make a series of television commercials. He appeared as a "crazed referee" in those ads. He portrayed villain Victor Drazen in the first season of the popular action drama '' 24''.

Hopper appeared on the final two episodes of the cult 1991 television show '' Fishing with John'' with host ''John Lurie''.

Hopper starred as a U.S. Army colonel in the 2005 television series ''E-Ring'', a drama set at The Pentagon, but the series was canceled after 14 episodes aired. Hopper appeared in all 22 episodes that were filmed. He also played the part of record producer Ben Cendars in the Starz television series ''Crash'', which lasted two seasons (26 episodes).

Photography and art

Hopper had several artistic pursuits beyond film. He was a prolific photographer, painter, and sculptor.
Hopper art show opens
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