Dennis Lee Hopper is a legendary American actor, director, producer and screenwriter who has received many awards, prizes and nominations for his creative career, including: Oscar, Golden Globe, Emmy, Directors Guild of America, Cannes Film Festival.
Hopper became famous in the 50s when he starred in his first Hollywood films with actor and friend James Dean. During his career, Dennis has performed more than 150 roles in film and television, and also shot several of his own films. He received his star on the “Walk of Fame” in Hollywood shortly before his death.
Children and teenagers
The boy was born in America in 1936. A family of Scottish immigrants lived in the city of George City, and as soon as the war ended, moved to Kansas, where the boy went to school.
Already in primary school, Dennis became interested in art, drawing and singing. He attended Sunday classes at the Institute of Arts, where he studied acting and stage speech, also sang in the choir and, together with school friends, participated in theatrical productions.
After a few years, the family moves again and settles in San Diego, where the father receives a position in one of the post offices, and his mother goes to work at the rescue station. In the post-war period, finding work was extremely difficult, so the family was forced to interrupt with temporary earnings and constantly move.
In San Diego, Hopper again succeeds in continuing his acting education, first at the Shakespeare Theater, and later at Lee Strasberg’s New York Studio, where the young man studied for several years.
The first film works
Dennis played his small roles in television productions and series, but his acting biography began much later, when the young man was invited to a big, real movie. He was helped by a close friend and director Nicholas Ray, who invited Hopper to play several roles in his paintings.
Several years of work in the cinema did not bring the actor neither fame nor luck. They began to talk about him as a “problem teenager”, which is very difficult to work with. As a result, Hopper was no longer invited to the shooting.
But Dennis did not stop making art and in the late 60s decided to make a film on his own, receiving the support of his friend Jack Nicholson and the private entrepreneurs who financed the project. His first work was called Careless Rider. The film about the life of bikers became a cult picture that won the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Oscar.
In the future, Hopper returned to directing more than once, but his acting work in films, which became a real classic of cinema, brought him worldwide fame. Among his well-known works in cinema are the films: “Blue Velvet”, “Water World”, “Speed”, “Fighting Fish” and many others, of which there were more than a hundred during his career.
Hopper devoted almost his entire adult life to art. In recent years, he drew a lot, was engaged in photography and continued to play in films. Dennis Hopper passed away in 2010 from cancer.
