RIP Dennis Hopper

[leslie_cheung]

<p>"I never made a cent from these photos. They cost me money but kept me alive … They were the only creative outlet I had for these years until Easy Rider. I never carried a camera again." <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/apr/26/dennis-hopper-photograph-moca">link</a></p>

<p>Never got into his photography but I still remember when I saw the anticlimax of Easy Rider for the very first time. Of course...Blue Velvet, Apocalypse Now, Speed, Rebel Without a Cause, True Romance in the scene with Christopher Walkens...</p>

<p>He created and defined on screen madmanship.</p>

[Tim_Lookingbill]

<p>Loved how Hopper upstaged John Wayne in a death scene in "True Grit" where Dennis's character reacts convulsively to getting his fingers cut off when later he was shot.</p>

<p>Hopper's full on method acting seemed to make Wayne appear as a "deer in the headlights" as he stood over him to deliver his lines.</p>

<p>I was around 9 years old when I first saw "True Grit" at the theatre and Dennis's performance though brief still sticks in my head to this day. I'ld never seen anyone act that way in a movie especially in a death scene.</p>

<p>His talents and persona will be truly missed.</p>

<p> </p>

[JDMvW]

<p>For me, it was always the role in <em>Apocalypse Now</em>. I have friends who had the real experience and Hopper captured (type casting?) the character exactly.</p>

[Charles_Webster]

<p>He was best when he got to be what he was, a madman, playing what he was, a madman.<br>

He will be missed.</p>

<p><Chas></p>

[photojen]

<p>I just finished watching Space Truckers, in memory of Mr. Hopper.</p>

[Brad_]

And I just finished watching The Cool School, which he was in. It's a great documentary about the LA art scene in the late

'50s and '60s.

[jeff_higdon]

<p>+1 to what JDM said</p>

[hillary_charles]

<p>Can't get the image of Hopper as Frank Booth out of my head--stuck in there ever since seeing "Blue Velvet" back in 1984. And "True Grit" is a good one, but he's also great in yet another John Wayne western, "The Sons of Katie Elder." </p>

[steve_lantz]

<p><em>Flashback</em> has also been one of my favorites along with <em>Boiling Point. </em></p>

[976photo]

<p>Man, celebrities have been dropping like flies it seems lately, or maybe I'm just getting older and everyone I remember growing up watching/listening to are passing on. Still sad to hear.</p>

[lex_jenkins]

<p>I'll hoist a Pabst Blue Ribbon in his honor... if I can find one around here. Not enough hipsters in my neighborhood.</p>

[machts gut]

<p>He was definitely a great actor and with his photos he got so close to his models because he was one of them. In the last film by Wim Wenders he played the "death" and talked with a photographer about life and death and photography. In this scene Wenders let him say, "He loves film more than digital, because as the death he was always fond of the negative" :-)</p>

[jtk]

<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dennis-Hopper-Photographs-1961-1967-Limited/dp/3836500574/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275397788&sr=8-1">http://www.amazon.com/Dennis-Hopper-Photographs-1961-1967-Limited/dp/3836500574/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275397788&sr=8-1</a></p>

<p>!</p>

[KenPapai]

<p>Lex, that's funny!</p>

<p><strong>P....</strong></p>

<p><strong>B.. !</strong></p>

<p><strong>R ! ! !</strong></p>

<p>Long live Frank Booth and Hopper please R.I.P. </p>