Hopper made his acting debut on an episode of the Richard Boone television show
Medic in 1955 playing a young epileptic. Hopper was then cast in two roles with
James Dean (whom he admired immensely) in
Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and
Giant (1956). Dean's death in a 1955 car accident affected the young Hopper deeply and it was shortly afterwards that he got into a confrontation with veteran director
Henry Hathaway on the film
From Hell To Texas. Hopper refused directions for 80 takes over several days. This infamous incident resulted in his being blacklisted from films for several years.
In his book
Last Train to Memphis, American popular music
historian Peter Guralnick says that in 1956 when
Elvis Presley was making his first film in Hollywood, Dennis Hopper was roommates with fellow actor
Nick Adams and the three became friends and socialized together. Hopper moved to New York and studied at the famous Lee Strasberg acting school. He appeared in over 140 episodes of television shows such as
Bonanza,
The Twilight Zone,
The Defenders,
The Big Valley,
The Time Tunnel,
The Rifleman and
Combat!. Hopper also became an accomplished professional
photographer (he has had many exhibitions of his work). He also was very talented as a
painter and a
poet as well as being an enthusiastic collector of Art, particularly
Pop Art. One of the first art works Hopper owned was an early print of
Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans bought for $75.
Hopper had a supporting role as "Babalugats," the bet-taker in
Cool Hand Luke (1967). Hopper was able to resume acting in mainstream films including
The Sons of Katie Elder (1965) and
True Grit (1969), and in both of these films he had death scenes with
John Wayne. During the production of
True Grit, he became acquainted Wayne in earnest. Although the screen legend would regularly (and good-naturedly) assail Hopper for his archliberal social and political leanings, a genuine kinship developed between the two men.
It was not until he teamed with
Peter Fonda and
Jack Nicholson and made
Easy Rider that he really shook up the Hollywood establishment. This film came to represent the generation of the
Vietnam War and to this day is one of the most successful independent films ever made. Hopper won wide acclaim as the director of the film for his improvisational methods and innovative editing. However, the production was plagued by creative differences and personal acrimony between Fonda and Hopper, the dissolution of his marriage to
Brooke Hayward, and an unwillingness to leave the editor's desk — all of which could be attributed to accelerating abuse of drugs and alcohol that would prove to be fatally
detrimental to the production of his next film.
In 1971, Hopper released
The Last Movie. Expecting an accessible follow-up to
Easy Rider, audiences were treated to inscrutable artistic flourishes (the inclusion of "scene missing" cards) and a hazily existentialist plot that verged on the nonlinear and absurd. After finishing first at the
Venice Film Festival, the film was dismissed by audiences and critics alike during its first domestic engagement in New York City and never entered national release. During the tumultuous editing process, Hopper ensconced himself in Taos, New Mexico for nearly a year, publicly cavorting with young women. In between contesting Fonda's rights to the majority of the residual profits from
Easy Rider, he married Michelle Phillips in October 1970. Citing spousal abuse and his various addictions, she filed for divorce a week after their wedding. This whirlwind of negative publicity, combined with the failure of
The Last Movie, ensured that the former wunderkind became a pariah within the industry, widely regarded as the New Hollywood's first "drug burnout".
Although he was shunned by the mainstream American film industry, Hopper was able to sustain his lifestyle and a measure of celebrity by acting in numerous
low budget and European films throughout the 1970s as the archetypical "tormented maniac", including
Mad Dog Morgan (1976),
Tracks (1976), and
The American Friend (1977). With
Francis Ford Coppola's blockbuster
Apocalypse Now (1979), Hopper returned to prominence as a hypomanic Vietnam-era photojournalist, essentially portraying himself in the eyes of many viewers and critics. Stepping in for an overwhelmed director, Hopper won praise in 1980 for his directing and acting in
Out of the Blue, the first indication that a fragment of his creative talents had remained intact.
Immediately thereafter, Hopper starred as an addled short-order cook "Cracker" in the low-budget
Neil Young and
Dean Stockwell collaboration
Human Highway with the new wave group
Devo. Production was often delayed by his unreliable behavior.
Peter Biskind states in the
New Hollywood history
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls that Hopper's cocaine intake had reached three grams a day by this time period, complemented by an additional thirty beers, marijuana, and
Cuba libres.
After staging a "suicide attempt" (really more of a
daredevil act) using 17 sticks of dynamite at an "art happening" near Houston and later disappearing into the Mexican desert during a particularly extravagant bender, Hopper entered a
drug rehabilitation program in 1983. The not-entirely-rejuvenated Hopper gave powerful performances in
Rumble Fish (1983) and
The Osterman Weekend (1983). However, it was not until he portrayed the intoxicating gas-huffing, obscenity-screaming Frank Booth in
David Lynch's film
Blue Velvet (1986) that his career truly revived. After reading the script, Hopper called Lynch and told him "You have to let me play Frank Booth. Because I am Frank Booth!" Hopper won critical acclaim and several awards for this role and the same year won an
Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for
Hoosiers. It is widely believed that the nomination was actually in recognition for his work in
Blue Velvet, but that the Academy was reticent to recognize his portrayal of such a vile and irredeemable character.
In 1988, Hopper directed a critically acclaimed film about
Los Angeles gangs called
Colors. He has continued to be an important actor, photographer and director. He was nominated for an
Emmy award for the 1991
HBO films
Paris Trout and
Doublecrossed (in which he played real life drug smuggler and
DEA informant
Barry Seal). He also co-starred in the 1994 blockbuster
Speed with
Keanu Reeves and
Sandra Bullock. He recently contributed to the film
1 Giant Leap with provocative anecdotes on spirituality, unity and culture. In 1995 Hopper played the villain "Deacon" in
Waterworld.
Hopper teamed with Nike in the early 1990s to make a series of successful television commercials . He appeared as a "crazed referee" in those ads. He portrayed villain Victor Drazen in the first season of the popular
24 drama on the
Fox television network. Hopper also starred in the
NBC 2006 television series
E-Ring, a drama set at
The Pentagon, but the series was cancelled after 14 episodes aired.
In 2005, Dennis Hopper read for the song,
Fire Coming Out Of The Monkeys Head on the
Gorillaz Demon Days album.
