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 hipp
