Dennis Hopper dies of prostate cancer
Hollywood actor Dennis Hopper has died at the age of 74 after a long battle with prostate cancer.
The star of cult hits like Easy Rider, Apocalypse Now and Blue Velvet was surrounded by friends and family at his home in Venice, California, when he passed away on Saturday morning.
The actor who made his debut alongside his mentor James Dean in was last seen in Rebel Without A Cause, was last seen in public in March, when he emerged looking frail for the unveiling of his star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.
The actor was locked in divorce proceedings with wife Victoria Duffy at the time of his death. He leaves behind three adult children as well as a seven-year-old daughter, Galen, reported the Daily Mail online.
In a wildly varied career spanning more than 50 years, Hopper was best known for playing characters with vivid shades of grey in films like Blue Velvet and Speed.
He received two Oscar nominations, for writing Easy Rider with co-star Peter Fonda and Terry Southern, and for a rare heart-warming turn as an alcoholic high-school basketball coach in the 1986 drama Hoosiers.
But his prodigious drug abuse, temper tantrums, propensity for domestic violence and poor choice of movie roles often made him a Hollywood pariah.
Still, his legacy rests securely on Easy Rider. Regarded as one of the greatest films of American cinema, it helped usher in a new era in which the old Hollywood guard was forced to cede power to young filmmakers such as Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese.
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