Biography
Once relishing in his image as a drug-addled rebel of the 1960s counterculture, Dennis Hopper overcame years of substance abuse and a string of mediocre films to cement his reputation as one of Hollywood's most prolific and unpredictable actors. Following his screen debut alongside the original Hollywood bad boy, mentor James Dean, in "Rebel Without a Cause" (1955), Hopper nearly shot his career in the foot because of his penchant for being difficult on set. When he returned to Los Angeles after a stint making television in New York, Hopper scored a critical and commercial success as the director, writer and one of the stars of "Easy Rider" (1969), perhaps one of the most culturally impactful film ever made. But his subsequent descent into self-indulgence, drugs and alcohol derailed his career yet again and served as a lively cautionary tale about the excesses of 1970s Hollywood. Finally reaching sobriety in the early 1980s, Hopper re-emerged as a sober, hard-working, middle-aged character actor who made a stunning comeback with standout performances in "Blue Velvet" (1986), "Rivers Edge" (1987) and "True Romance" (1993), all of which transformed the once-reckless rebel into a well-respected veteran of the silver screen.
