Dennis Lee Hopper (May 17, 1936 May 29, 2010) was an American actor, filmmaker and photographer. Torn won a defamation suit against Hopper when a judge ruled Hopper lied. After filming was finally completed, Hathaway allegedly told Hopper that his career in Hollywood was finished.[15]. His role as a wild druggie in "Blue Velvet," also in 1986, won him more acclaim, and years later the character wound up No. Actor known for his dramatic performances in films such as Easy Rider, Blue Velvet, and Speed. With the release of True Grit a month earlier, Hopper had starring roles in two major box-office films that summer. Dennis Hopper Episode aired Apr 18, 2021 IMDb RATING 8.0 /10 9 YOUR RATING Rate Documentary Biography Dr. Michael Hunter is investigating the cause of death of actor Dennis Hopper. [65] A very ill Hopper did not appear in court though his estranged wife did. Anyone can read what you share. He said:. At the same time, his drug and alcohol use was increasing to the point where he was said to be consuming as much as a gallon of rum a day. He was 74. Hopper had several artistic pursuits beyond film. Hopper also once owned Warhol's Mao, which he shot one evening in a fit of paranoia, the two bullet holes possibly adding to the print's value. [54], According to Newsmeat, Hopper donated US$2,000 to the Republican National Committee in 2004 and an equal amount in 2005. The cancer spread to his bones and he died on May 29, 2010. He co-starred in the 1994 blockbuster Speed with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, and as magic-phobic H.P. [16] In 1961, Hopper played his first lead role in Night Tide, an atmospheric supernatural thriller involving a mermaid in an amusement park. Hopper had a supporting role as the bet-taker, "Babalugats", in Cool Hand Luke (1967). Dennis died of prostate cancer on May 29, 2010, less than two weeks after his 74th birthday. UPDATE: Here's the Associated Press obituary. More details soon. Hopper did not attend the hearing. Larry Hagman's Daughter Fled Her Parents' House at 15 after Encounter with Dennis Hopper. His fourth directorial outing came about through Colors (1988), followed by an Emmy-nominated lead performance in Paris Trout (1991). In Taos, I met many people who loathed Hopper, and many who remembered him as their hero and champion and friend. In a 1993 interview with the British newspaper The Guardian, Mr. Hopper credited Marlon Brando, a star of the film, with the idea of having him portray a freewheeling photojournalist, rather than the smaller role of a C.I.A. Check the lint trap?. After a promising start that included roles in two James Dean films, Hopper's acting career had languished as he developed a reputation for throwing tantrums and abusing alcohol and drugs. What went down behind those corrugated steel walls of Dennis Hopper's Venice fortress as he lay dying at age 74? Awards for Dennis Hopper (see list above). 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. Hes smart about these things. When I pressed, he explained: Theres a chance, if I play things right, Ill finally direct a studio picture. [14] In 1993, he played Clifford Worley in True Romance. 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. Murdoch has survived scandal after scandal. Immediately thereafter, Hopper starred as an addled short-order cook "Cracker" in the Neil Young/Dean Stockwell low-budget collaboration Human Highway. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. He was a prolific photographer, painter, and sculptor. Mr. Hopper also shared an Oscar nomination for writing the film, while a nomination for best supporting actor went to a little-known Jack Nicholson. According to The New York Times, Dennis Hopper died on May 29, 2010, in his California home. Hopper died at his home in the coastal Venice district of Los Angeles, just 12 days after his 74th birthday on the morning of May 29, 2010. Easy Rider introduced much of its audience, if not Mr. Hopper, to cocaine, and the films success accelerated a period of intense drug and alcohol use that Mr. Hopper later said nearly killed him and turned him into a professional pariah. Hopper also tried his hand at a number of artistic pursuits including photography, sculpting and painting. When Hopper was a teenager, his family settled in San Diego, California, where he began performing at the Old . Hopper sought career counseling from Warren Beatty, who advised him not to write a tell-all book. [47], On the Gorillaz album Demon Days, Hopper narrates the song "Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head". [39] Dennis Hopper: Photographs 19611967 was published in February 2011, by Taschen. Dennis Hopper (May 17, 1936 - May 29, 2010) was an American actor, director, writer, film editor, photographer and artist. Dallas actor Larry Hagman led a double life and kept many secrets long after he was . Dennis Hopper directing the film The Last Movie in 1971. His paranoid eyes avoided mine. He was 74. Hopper appeared on the final two episodes of the cult 1991 television show Fishing with John with host John Lurie. Over the last decade, Ive realized that hed always felt a specific fear about going into the true roots of his personal myth. [22] During the tumultuous editing process, Hopper ensconced himself at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House in Taos, New Mexico, which he had purchased in 1970,[23] for almost an entire year. The film was a hit at Cannes, netted a best-screenplay Oscar nomination for Hopper, Fonda and Terry Southern, and has since been listed on the American Film Institute's ranking of the top 100 American films. He returned to directing, with "Colors," "The Hot Spot" and "Chasers. Dennis Lee Hopper was born in 1936, in Dodge City, Kan., and spent much of his youth on the nearby farm of his grandparents. Known for such cult classics as Easy Rider, Apocalypse Now and Blue Velvet, Hopper embodied the . Or, perhaps, while dying he looked up at a teddy bear on a shelf the one handmade by his mother. And there was a time when I had a lot of energy to display how crazy that was.. But his . Hopper died Saturday at his home in the Los Angeles beach community of Venice, surrounded by family and friends, family friend Alex Hitz said. He went on to appear in several films in the early 1980s, including the well regarded "Rumblefish" and "The Osterman Weekend," as well as the campy "My Science Project" and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.". The moving image collection of Dennis Hopper is held at the Academy Film Archive. [6], Hopper was born on May 17, 1936, in Dodge City, Kansas, the son of Marjorie Mae (ne Davis; July 12, 1917 January 12, 2007)[7] and James Millard Hopper[8] (June 23, 1916 August 7, 1982). Mr. Hopper, who said he stopped drinking and using drugs in the mid-1980s, followed that change with a tireless phase of his career in which he claimed to have turned down no parts. Early in his career, he painted and wrote poetry, though many of his works were destroyed in a 1961 fire that burned scores of homes, including his, in the Los Angeles enclave Bel Air. [33], Hopper's fascination with art began with painting lessons at the Nelson-Atkins Museum while still a child in Kansas City, Missouri. It allows hot air to circulate. The lint trap wouldnt budge. The film caught on despite tension between Hopper and Fonda and between Hopper and the original choice for Nicholson's part, Rip Torn, who quit after a bitter argument with the director. Production was reportedly often delayed by his unreliable behavior. In gratitude for resurrecting his career and because, he said, I knew the art world, Hopper asked me to collaborate on his biography. The series starred Chuck Connors and the premiere episode "The Sharpshooter" was written by Sam Peckinpah.[28]. 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. They had a daughter, Marin, before Hopper's drug-induced violence led to divorce after eight years. Hopper took a large cast and crew to a village in Peru to film the tale of a Peruvian tribe corrupted by a movie company. He also built an extensive collection of works by artists he knew, including Warhol, Ed Ruscha and Julian Schnabel. "U taught me so much.". Hopper's lawyer argued in the divorce case that his estranged wife's presence was hampering his fight with cancer, but the judge allowed her to continue living in the family's Venice compound with their 6-year-old daughter, Galen. I wonder if Hopper saw his exit as a last movie? Using the interviews weve already done?. Get the best of Fox News' entertainment coverage, right in your inbox. He wanted the opening chapter to re-create his defiant confrontation with Columbia Pictures studio head Harry Cohn, whod dared to mock Hoppers Shakespeare background. After moving to San Diego with his family, he played Shakespeare at the Old Globe Theater. He appeared as a "crazed referee" in those ads. He was 74. And in 1996 he starred in the science fiction comedy Space Truckers directed by Stuart Gordon. He died before the movie was released. Sex is something that has to be in the book, he insisted. [51] Hopper was married five times. The story has several versions; the most common is that his refusal to play a scene in the manner that the director requested resulted in Mr. Hoppers stubbornly performing more than 80 takes before he finally followed orders. [45] The title of the exhibition, Double Standard, was taken from Hopper's iconic 1961 photograph of the two Standard Oil signs seen through an automobile windshield at the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard, Melrose Avenue, and North Doheny Drive on historic Route 66 in Los Angeles. His art, dating to a 1955 painting, is the subject of a show opening July 11 at the Museum of Contemporary Art's Geffen Contemporary space in downtown Los Angeles. [3] Film critic Matthew Hays wrote "no other persona better signifies the lost idealism of the 1960s than that of Dennis Hopper".[4]. [63] On May 12, 2010, a hearing was held before Judge Amy Pellman in downtown Los Angeles Superior Court. In 2008, Hopper starred in An American Carol. During a promotional tour last fall for that series, he fell ill; shortly thereafter, he began a new round of treatments for prostate cancer, which he said had been first diagnosed a decade ago. [64] The hearing also dealt with who would be the beneficiary on Hopper's life insurance policy, which listed his wife as a beneficiary. [34] One of the first art works Hopper owned was an early print of Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans bought for US$75. In 1995, Hopper played a greedy TV self-help guru, Dr. Luther Waxling in Search and Destroy. The marriage lasted eight days. 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.[6]. Biography - A Short Wiki. Advances in treatment for metastatic prostate cancer have improved outlook for men with the disease. The print sold at Christie's, New York, for US$302,500 in January 2011. Hopper and his fourth wife, dancer Katherine LaNasa, had a son, Henry, before divorcing. [27] 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. 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. Biography - A Short Wiki. The media is focusing on the psychopathic roles and his 1960s iconic status. Mostly on your own? Cash said the song was written by Kris Kristofferson about Hopper. Hopper stooped to ponder the dryers crammed contents. [40] German film director Wim Wenders said of Hopper that if hed only been a photographer, hed be one of the great photographers of the twentieth century.[39] In The New Yorker, Hopper, as photographer, was described as "a compelling, important, and weirdly omnipresent chronicler of his times. The cause was complications from metastasized prostate cancer, according to a statement issued by Alex Hitz, a family friend. When he finally completed filming, he retired to his home in Taos, N.M., to piece together the film, a process that took almost a year, in part because he was using psychedelic drugs for editing inspiration. He was nominated for an Emmy Award[26] for the 1991 HBO film Paris Trout. Share your favorite Hopper moments in the comments section, and scroll down for video highlights from his career. Hopper died Saturday at his home in the Los Angeles beach community of Venice, surrounded by family and friends, family friend Alex Hitz said. The remaining US$750,000 was to go to his estate. During his lifetime, Hopper's own work as well as his collection was shown in monographic and group exhibitions around the world including the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg; MAK Vienna: Austrian Museum of Applied Arts/Contemporary Art, Vienna; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the Cinmathque Franaise, Paris, and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne. Five months after former brothel owner and reality TV star Dennis Hof was found dead in his bedroom in Nevada, an autopsy report confirmed his cause of death as a heart attack. She also filed complaints about him keeping marijuana joints throughout his compound, ready to provide quick relief from pain, and loaded guns in strategic locations, ready to provide quick resolutions. The title was prescient. He made his first television appearance in 1955, and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and Giant (1956). Treatment at a detox clinic helped him stop drinking but he still used cocaine, and at one point he became so hallucinatory that he was committed to the psychiatric ward of a Los Angeles hospital. The Dennis Hopper Trust Collection represents Hopper's directorial efforts.[79]. Hopper, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer in October 2009, was surrounded by his children when he died, Victoria Hopper told CNN.