In Memoriam: Dennis Hopper (1936–2010)

Go here to read Roger Ebert’s “In Memory of Dennis Hopper”. An excerpt:

For Hopper, life was an art form. His acting took such shape because he was able to reinvent himself as a character. More than many actors , he created characters we remember vividly for themselves: James Dean’s sidekick in “Rebel,” Marlon Brando’s drug-crazed acolyte in “Apocalypse Now,” the terrifying gas-sniffing pervert of “Blue Velvet,” the town drunk in “Hoosiers,” a hit man in “Red Rock West,” the villain in “Waterworld.”

He was also an intellectual, although that side was masked by his somewhat notorious drug abuse, gradually escalating from the 1960s until about 1983. Some of those years were lost.

“I was thinking I had no life or any memory really until now,” he told me one day in 1990. “There’s always this fear of not being able to make the films, not being able to do the work. I don’t think anybody, no matter how successful they get, ever loses that fear. If you’ve ever had a period of time, where you weren’t allowed to work — maybe because you were doing drugs and alcohol, but you didn’t know that was their reason — then the fear is always with you.”

Hopper’s last public appearance:

Interview (1983)

Inside the Actors Studio — Part 1

Inside the Actors Studio — Part 2

Inside the Actors Studio — Part 3

Inside the Actors Studio — Part 4

Inside the Actors Studio — Part 5

Here Hopper reflects on his role in the movie Hoosiers:

But let’s end this with one of his most memorable roles, albeit a brief one, from Apocalypse Now:

What are your favorite Dennis Hopper roles?

UPDATE: Peter Fonda, Gene Hackman, and Isabella Rosselini remember Dennis Hopper.

UPDATE #2: From a comment by Josh K-sky, a link to a great compilation of Dennis Hopper clips.

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