Dennis Hopper, Director of Easy Rider
Also Starred in Blue Velvet, Apocalypse Now and Hoosiers
Dec 19, 2008
Born in Dodge City, Kansas, in 1936, Hopper began his film career with Rebel Without a Cause and Giant, two legendary movies starring James Dean.
Although he had but small roles in Rebel and Giant, Hopper had an opportunity to watch Dean work, and the experience inspired the younger actor to work harder on his craft. While his film career was still taking off, Hopper also got work on many TV shows, including Twilight Zone, The Big Valley and The Rifleman.
Hopper had roles in two John Wayne vehicles, The Sons of Katie Elder and True Grit. Soon after the latter was released, Hopper would finish work on Easy Rider, a film that would revolutionize the film business.
Easy Rider and The Last Movie
Co-writing the screenplay with actor Peter Fonda, who also co-starred, and writer Terry Southern, Hopper played an anti-hero in this low-budget film, made for only $400,000. Not merely a critical success, the film raked in $50 million.
The film concerns two drug dealers, played by Hopper and Fonda, who ride motorcycles across the Southwest and through the South on their way to New Orleans. One predominant theme of the movie is small-mindedness and bigotry that the two outsiders face in rural America.
After this unprecedented level of success, Hopper got free reign over his next project from Universal Studios and spent four months filming The Last Movie in Peru. Heavily critical of the movie industry, this film won first prize at the Cannes Film Festival but only ran a very short time in the U.S. and did very poorly.
Hopper himself edited the movie, taking about three times as long in post-production as it took to film. In the film, there are many references to Hopper's mentor and inspiration, James Dean, as a sort of martyr laid low by the film business.
Setback and Comeback
Hopper would not have an opportunity to direct another movie for about a decade after this box-office failure, but continued to get roles in such films as Mad Dog Morgan and Tracks, both in 1976, and 1977's My American Friend, directed by Wim Wenders. He also notably played a drug-addled photographer in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979).
Over the next few years, Hopper went into rehab for drug addiction and continued to work in films. In 1986 he experienced a comeback with his disturbing portrayal of a drug-huffing maniac in David Lynch's Blue Velvet. The same year he received an Academy Award nomination playing the town drunk in "Hoosiers."
Over the next decade, Hopper was cast as the villain in the popular Speed and the ill-received Waterworld. Since then, the actor has been busy with film and TV projects from 24 to Crash.
In addition, Hopper is a well-respected photographer and artist, not to mention a shrewd and successful art collector.
