Dennis Hopper Dead at 74

Dennis Hopper, best known as the director and star of Easy Rider and for his roles in Hoosiers, Blue Velvet and Apocalypse Now, died Saturday in Venice, California of prostate cancer. He turned 74 two weeks ago.

Born May 17, 1936 in Dodge City, Kansas, Hopper was a life-long fixture in Hollywood. His long career included roles in some of the best or most well-known films from each decade of the last half-century. In the '50s he appeared in two of James Dean's three films; as one of the goons, troubling Dean's Jim Stark in 1955's Rebel Without a Cause, then as Jordan Benedict III in Giant. Hopper became friends with Dean, who died in a car accident in September of 1955, as his star was on the rise.

Hopper spent much of the '60s on television, usually playing a nervous, fidgety criminal but Hopper ended the decade with a triumph. He directed and starred in Easy Rider, a film made on a shoestring that became a nation-wide phenomenon and that helped define the hippie generation (at least for people who weren't really of that generation). Hopper played Billy, half of an iconic duo, looking for America with Wyatt (aka Captain America), played by Peter Fonda (who also co-wrote the film). The memorable third act line from Wyatt, "You know Billy, we blew it" would bedevil critics as they hounded both actors for the meaning of the line for the next forty years. Nevertheless the film was nominated for an Academy Award for the script and neither men ever essentially divulged what that line truly meant.

The film made so much money that Hopper was allowed to indulge in his whims and darker demons through the next thirteen years, first directing the bizarre The Last Movie and thereafter cementing his reputation as an erratic, difficult ... more on IMDB