Dennis Lee Hopper

 Dennis Lee Hopper (May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010)

Hopper was an actor, filmmaker, photographer and artist. He attended the Actors Studio, made his first television appearance in 1954, and soon after appeared alongside James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and Giant (1956). In the next ten years he made a name in television, and by the end of the 1960s had appeared in several films. Hopper also began a prolific and acclaimed photography career in the 1960s. Hopper made his directorial film debut with Easy Rider (1969), which he and co-star Peter Fonda wrote with Terry Southern. The film earned Hopper a Cannes Film Festival Award for "Best First Work" and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay (shared with Fonda and Southern).

He worked on various small projects until he found new fame for his role as the American photojournalist in Apocalypse Now (1979). He went on to helm his third directorial work Out of the Blue (1980), for which he was again honored at Cannes, and appeared in Rumble Fish (1983) and The Osterman Weekend (1983). He saw a career resurgence in 1986 when he was widely acclaimed for his performances in Blue Velvet and Hoosiers, the latter of which saw him nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. His fourth directorial outing came about through Colors (1988), followed by an Emmy-nominated lead performance in Paris Trout (1991). Hopper found even greater fame for portraying the villains of the films Super Mario Bros. (1993), Speed (1994) and Waterworld (1995).

Hopper's later work included a leading role in the short-lived television series Crash (2008–2009), inspired by the Academy Award-winning film of the same name. Hopper who had prostate cancer, died at his home in Venice, California on the morning of May 29, 2010, 12 days after his 74th birthday. He is buried at Jesus Nazareno Cemetery in Ranchos de Taos, NM.