Dennis Hopper - The American Dreamer R.I.P. 1936-2010

A Rebel Without a Cause

Hopper, who directed and starred in the seminal counter-cultural film "Easy Rider" and later established himself as a highly distinct and flamboyant character actor, died Saturday at his home in Venice (Los Angeles County) after battling prostate cancer. He was 74.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/

m the LA Times:
In a more than five-decade acting career that was influenced early on by working with James Dean and studying at the Actors Studio, he made his film debut as one of the high school gang members who menace Dean in the 1955 classic "Rebel Without a Cause."

Hopper went on to appear in more than 115 films, including "Giant," "Cool Hand Luke," "Hang 'Em High," "True Grit," "Apocalypse Now," "The American Friend," "Rumble Fish," "Speed," "True Romance" and "Rivers Edge."

But it's his role as the long-haired, pot-smoking biker Billy opposite Peter Fonda's Wyatt (Captain America) in the hit movie "Easy Rider" that gave Hopper his most enduring claim to fame.

The low-budget tale of two bikers on an ultimately tragic cross-country odyssey after scoring a big cocaine sale, "Easy Rider" became a generational touchstone.

The movie, which boasted a star-making performance from a little-known Jack Nicholson as a boozy small-town lawyer who goes along for the ride and gets his first taste of marijuana, set old-guard Hollywood back on its heels.

"The impact of 'Easy Rider,' both on the filmmakers and the industry as a whole, was no less than seismic," Peter Biskind wrote in his 1998 book "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-And-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood."

"Hopper was catapulted into the pantheon of countercultural celebrities that included John Lennon, Abbie Hoffman and Timothy Leary," Biskind wrote. "He was surrounded by groupies and acolytes. He may have started down the slippery slope to megalomania and grandiloquence on his own, but he had plenty of help."

From All Movie Guide: The odyssey of Dennis Hopper has been one of Hollywood's longest, strangest trips. A onetime teen performer, he went through a series of career metamorphoses -- studio pariah, rebel filmmaker, drug casualty, and comeback kid -- before finally settling comfortably into the role of character actor par excellence, with a rogues' gallery of killers and freaks unmatched in psychotic intensity and demented glee. Along the way, Hopper defined a generation, documenting the shining hopes and bitter disappointments of the hippie counterculture and bringing their message to movie screens everywhere. By extension, he spearheaded a revolt in the motion picture industry, forcing the studio establishment to acknowledge a youth market they'd long done their best to deny.

Dennis Hopper  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Filmography

imdb.com

Dennis Hopper around the time he was making The Last Movie (1971), his second feature after the huge success of Easy Rider

BBC documentary film on the career of actor-director-writer Dennis Hopper.

the film (english)

the film (greek subtitles)

the soundtrack'69

YouTube - Easy Rider Documentary Shaking the Cage (7 parts)

The full movie of Easy Rider (1969) starring Peter Fonda, Dennis Hoper and Jack Nicholson.




Με τα χρήματα κάποιας συναλλαγής, δύο βαποράκια κοκαΐνης αποφασίζουν να ταξιδέψουν από το Λος Αντζελες μέχρι τοΝότο και να γιορτάσουν εκεί το καρναβάλι.
Στο δρόμο συναντούν διάφορους χαρακτήρες, έναν οικογενειάρχηαγρότη,
μια ομάδα σε κάποιο κοινόβιο, δύο πόρνες στη Νέα Ορλεάνη και έναν αλκοολικό δικηγόρο, τον George Hansen. 

Apocalypse Now - You can't go out into space... (Dennis Hopper)