Dennis Hopper, RIP
**Written by guest-blogger Doug Powers
This past week, Art Linkletter and Gary Coleman died, and this morning came news that actor Dennis Hopper has passed after a long battle with cancer:
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Hollywood actor Dennis Hopper, best known for directing and starring in the 1969 cult classic “Easy Rider,” died Saturday at his home in Venice, California, from complications of prostate cancer, a friend told Reuters. Hopper was 74.
The hard-living screen icon died at 8:15 a.m. PDT , surrounded by family and friends, said the friend, Alex Hitz.
I always enjoyed Hopper’s on-screen presence — something about him was easy to watch no matter what the role.
Hopper was also a Hollywood rarity: A Republican since Reagan (Hopper once said that in his earlier years he was “as left as you can get without being a communist”) — but that Republican streak ended after Hopper voted for Barack Obama, reportedly because he didn’t like McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin. But that was Dennis Hopper — unpredictable, but always interesting and entertaining.
So what was your favorite Dennis Hopper role (degree of difficulty: No “Easy Rider”)? Oh I’m just kidding — we can’t possibly remove that from the mix. Put me down for his role as “Shooter” in the film Hoosiers, for which Hopper received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
**Written by guest-blogger Doug Powers
Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
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Categories: R.I.P.
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I just saw this on Foxnews site. I have always loved Dennis. He was good in almost everything he was in. Good guy or bad guy. I can not think of a movie at this time that is my favorite. Yes, indeed, RIP Dennis. God be with your family.
L
Hoosiers (1986)
I never saw Easy Rider-not my venue at it were. As for Mr. Hooper voting for Bambi-it was a long battle with cancer.
Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord,
And let Perpetual Light shine upon him.
May his Soul
And the Souls of all the faithful departed
Through the Mercy of God
Rest in Peace.
Amen.
I personally really enjoyed the two seasons of his latest work “Crash” on Starz.
Apocalypse Now
Cool Hand Luke
Would it be wrong to say I heartily enjoyed his performance in Speed?
May he rest in peace.
*He was good in everything I saw him in, my favorite being Hoosiers, and he had a career not unlike a poor man’s Jack Nicholson!
*May he rest in peace!
Hoosiers.
That being said, he helped usher in the end of this country as we know it and I am not upset at all that he will not be around in 2012 to again cast his vote, and encourage others to as well, for zero.
RIP Mr. Hooper.
I had no idea he was in so many films, and only remember him in a few. Easy Rider was iconic of the counter culture. In ’73 I rode from Wisconsin to San Fran with some college buds, inspired in part by Hopper & Fonda…
Getcher motor runnin’
Get out on the Highway
Lookin for adventure
And whatever comes my way
Actually I had a “Rice Bike” – Kawasaki 900 Z1. Not a Harley, but way faster. I could get the front wheel up in 3 gears.
Instead of Haight Ashbury, we stayed at my aunt’s place in Oakland. Pretty pathetic hippies.
RIP Easy Rider.
Requiescat in pace Dennis, you will be missed.
I loved him in Easy Rider…but also as Bob in “My Science Project”.
Nobody yet has mentioned True Romance???
Surely the quintessential Hopper…and BTW, Walken too.
When he says “I’ll have that Chesterfield now”, the look on his and Walken’s faces show exactly what’s gonna happen.
And yet, when I saw him in Giant, I thought he was one of the worst actors ever. I presumed he had connections thru Hedda. Easy Rider changed my tune.
The Ref in the Nike commercials?
Voted most likely to succeed by his high school classmates, and a huge and troubled talent.
RIP
RIP…along with Gary Coleman
Wow, I once watched Hopper in at least 2 movies. I’m sorry to hear he’s gone too.
Speaking of Coleman, that’s certainly sad. I watched Diff’rent Strokes plenty of times in my youth, and I knew about how the lives of all 3 of the younger stars went into tailspin after it ended. Dana Plato, who all but left her role after the 6th season, died from drugs in the late 90s. A real shame all this had to happen. Someday, I wonder if it’ll be the subject of another book about the showbiz industry.
More than a hundred films, and not a single Emmy, Golden Globe or Oscar. That’s gotta hurt.
Nominated once for….take a guess.
While he wasn’t the greatest actor, his character added to every film and while many roles were really nothing more than he being himself, I loved his presence. I think of Blue Velvet when his name pops up, but there are many more. He’s one of Hollywood’s most memorable characters. Heartfelt condolences to the family and close friends for their loss.
I haven’t followed his career that closely, but I do remember him doing a series of mildly controversial promos for the NFL, playing the role of a slightly psycho groundskeeper (or something like that).
RIP, Dennis
Same goes for me, too. Hoosiers holds a personal meaning for me, and Dennis Hopper’s performance as Shooter was memorable. RIP, Mr. Hopper, and thanks for the memories.
His giving the rednecks the finger in the final scene of Easy Rider said it all for me. A real 60′s statement in one memorable scene.
He will be missed.
The father in ‘True Romance’. The scene with Christopher Walken is genius.
No votes for “Waterworld”?
Actually Chap it is one of my Dennis Hopper favorites, losing the eye, the patch, crazy loon, all quite good.
His spot in the Gorillaz video from Harlem is pretty good too.
Although the monkeys on the mountain thing is a bit hard to follow…..
Frank in Blue Velvet.
100% sick.
I kinda liked him as Deacon in Waterworld.
For some reason I was just thinking about the ship he was on.
My tribute to Dennis Hopper:
Once upon a time at the foot of a great mountain,
there was a town where the people known as Happyfolk lived,
their very existence a mystery to the rest of the world,
obscured as it was by great clouds.
Here they played out their peaceful lives,
innocent of the litany of excess and violence that was growing in the world below.
To live in harmony with the spirit of the mountain called Monkey was enough.
Then one day Strangefolk arrived in the town.
They came in camouflage, hidden behind dark glasses, but no one noticed them: they only saw shadows.
You see, without the Truth of the Eyes, the Happyfolk were blind.
Falling out of aeroplanes and hiding out in holes
Waiting for the sunset to come, people going home
Jump out from behind them and shoot them in the head
Now everybody dancing the dance of the dead,
the dance of the dead,
the dance of the dead
In time, Strangefolk found their way into the higher reaches of the mountain,
and it was there that they found the caves of unimaginable Sincerity and Beauty.
By chance, they stumbled upon the Place Where All Good Souls Come to Rest.
The Strangefolk, they coveted the jewels in these caves above all things,
and soon they began to mine the mountain, its rich seam fueling the chaos of their own world.
Meanwhile, down in the town, the Happyfolk slept restlessly,
their dreams invaded by shadowy figures digging away at their souls.
Every day, people would wake and stare at the mountain.
Why was it bringing darkness into their lives?
And as the Strangefolk mined deeper and deeper into the mountain,
holes began to appear, bringing with them a cold and bitter wind that chilled the very soul of the monkey.
For the first time, the Happyfolk felt fearful for they knew that soon the Monkey would stir from its deep sleep.
And then came a sound. Distant first, it grew into castrophany so immense it could be heard far away in space.
There were no screams. There was no time.
The mountain called Monkey had spoken.
There was only fire.
And then, nothing.
O little town in U.S.A, your time has come to see
There’s nothing you believe you want
But where were you when it all came down on me?
Did you call me now?
I recently saw Dennis Hopper in an episode of The Rifleman on the Retro-channel as a young gunfighter. Hopper also was very young and very good.
RIP
His vote for Obama demonstrates once again how poorly formed intellectually most Hollywood types are. RIP.
“Blue Velvet”, by far my favorite…
Blue Velvet was awesome.
RIP Dennis…BTW he was awesome in one of my favorite classic movies—Giant with Hudson/Taylor.
It was the Smeat that held him back.
“Blue Velvet” it is!
Frank Booth: Don’t toast to my health, toast to my f!@#!
Frank Booth: What kind of beer do you like to drink, neighbor?
Jeffrey Beaumont: Heineken.
Frank Booth: Heineken? F!@# that sh!t! Pabst Blue Ribbon!
Frank Booth: Don’t you f!@#ing look at me!
We can’t forget the zombie hunting judge in an American Carol.
The late Mr. Coleman was in that one as well.
Funny how life changes things. Then I identified with Hopper. Now, I’d probably be the redneck. Sigh.
To me he represented the 60′s counter culture due to his attitude more than his roles on screen.
He always seemed happy-go-lucky and excited at the same time.
My favorite movie of his was Flashback. The quote I loved from that movie was at the end when he said ‘the 90′s are going to make the 60′s look like the 50′s’.
it is quite remarkable with the permissive nature of our society today that the youth of the 60′s were considered ‘edgy’. There weren’t nearly as many victims then as they are now.
Back to Hopper, I always enjoyed seeing him in any role. There was an honesty about him that came through in his acting.
My favorite was “The River’s Edge”. Feck was the classic Hopper character.
Dennis Hopper, Bruce Dern, Claude Akins, John Doucette: You always knew they were going to get shot before the final commercial. Best bad guys on early Western TV.
Yesterday I cruised my H-D Sportster out to Amarillo and back.
This morning, I learn we lost Dennis Hopper.
I pray that you are now cruising the Golden Highway in Heaven on your flamed red chopper.
My favorite Hopper role? Well, of course I liked Easy Rider, but I liked The Sons of Katie Elder and Speed, too.
Gotta agree with Crash, followed by Waterworld.
Especially when you consider Michael Moore, Al Gore, and Roman Polanski have Oscars. What a joke.
I saw that in theatres when I was young and stupid; that’s a couple hours of my life that I want to sue to get back.
I liked Dennis Hopper’s acting, but even “back then” I would upset my friends by saying about Easy Rider, “I was rooting for the rednecks.”
He played one of the greatest action movie villains of all time in Speed.
Definitely Blue Velvet, but thought he was great as “Feck” in the movie River’s Edge with Keanu Reaves and Crispin Glover. Played a psycho vietnam vet that supplied weed to the local high school kids…who were also covering up the murder of one of their classmates.