Biography
Film actor. The image of actor Dennis Hopper as a wild and intense bad boy has softened in recent years, but he's still famous for his many roles in independent movies and for his work in a handful of cinema classics. He started in the movies in the early 1950s, appearing in Johnny Guitar (1953), Rebel Without A Cause (1955) and Giant (1956). In the '60s his reputation as a "difficult" actor who favored improvisation kept him from getting many mainstream roles, and he appeared in several low-budget movies, including the "hippie" cult favorites The Trip (1967) and Head (1968). He directed and starred in 1969's Easy Rider with Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson, a box office success that steered Hollywood toward the as yet untapped counter-culture. During the 1970s Hopper was mostly known for being out of control and out of work, excepting a memorable role as a whacked-out journalist in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979, starring Martin Sheen). During the 1980s his career was revived by appearances in small, independent films and by a crazed performance in David Lynch's Blue Velvet (1986). Since then Hopper has directed films (including 1988's Colors) and played oddballs in a string of independent films, as well as making appearances in mainstream Hollywood productions such as Speed (1994, starring Keanu Reeves) and Knockaround Guys (2002, starring Vin Diesel). Hopper is also an art collector and photographer.

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