Easy Rider star Dennis Hopper dies from cancer

Dennis Hopper, an actor and an artist (1936-2010)

Dennis Hopper, the star with acclaimed roles in films including Apocalypse Now and Easy Rider, died yesterday after battling with prostate cancer. He passed away at his home in Venice, California, at the age of 74.

Hopper had been taken ill last  September with serious flu-like symptoms. Doctors quickly discovered he had cancer which then spread to other parts of his body.

He was born in Dodge City, Kansas, in 1936. After the World War II the Hoppers moved to the rather refined metropolis of Kansas City, Missouri, where Hopper went to Saturday art classes. But after they moved again, to San Diego in California, Hopper was better able to express his interest in the arts.

His long-lived career began as a young actor in the era of the 1950s with a role opposite James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause, flourished in art films of the 1960s and 1970s, and then shifted into the modern era of the blockbuster, as he specialized in psychotic villains.

Of course, not every role Hopper took was a great one. Especially towards the end of his career, he appeared in many movies that did little to make an impact on critics or audiences. But his wild-eyed, scenery-chewing feats often elevates the quality of any B-movie, reminding viewers that he was one of the most watchable of Hollywood stars.

“There are moments that I’ve had some real brilliance, you know,” Hopper reflected recently. “But I think they are moments. And sometimes, in a career, moments are enough.”

He had also begun a career in photography in the 1960s. That led into an alternative career that included painting and poetry, bringing him on the shortlist for a show at the LA Museum of Contemporary Art earlier this year.

In the end Hopper’s career covered more than five decades and 100 films – a grand triumph by anyone’s standards.