DENNIS HOPPER R.I.P.

He was not an actor I would put in my top ten list of favorites. But he was definitely an actor who could affect an entire movie by his mere presence in it, sometimes positively sometimes otherwise.

He is also one of those actors who has become part of my personal lexicon. In other words he's been around a long time. And he started out as such a part of his time, as an almost instant icon, that I took note of him right away

I don't know how great an actor Hopper was. I don't even know how we really access that. But the one thing that stands out about Hopper is that he was a character actor with the rare ability to constantly re-invent himself and that puts him on a different level.

It begins with Easy Rider of course. Well his career starts before that, as a supporting character in movies, usually as a squirmy little bad guy type. But then we get the Rider. A cultural icon. Hippies on the road selling drugs; back then that could be seen as revolutionary, today it would only have to be seen as criminal. It was Hopper's movie, in the writing and directing but people went to see it for Peter Fonda, or at least, Fonda, for that name. It's an anarchic movie, free form, lots of improv with the acting and I think in a lot of the direction as well. It suited the time perfectly and although, in the long run, I don't consider it a great movie, it's impact is undeniable

Hopper's "counterculture" run in Hollywood lasted as long as .. well .. the counterculture in Hollywood. He was busy, acting in and directing that most people didn't see but maintaining his public presence by being a bad boy.

Hopper's next major impact is not so much a reinvention of himself, but almost a parody of his burnt out hippie image, as the burnt out hippie photographer in Apocalypse Now. To call the performance a parody does not do it justice. In a move where a great deal of the acting was improv, Hopper not only holds his own with Sheen and Brando, I feel he surpasses Brando; Hopper stays on point, remaining within the structure of his character and absolutely commanding the screen when he's on it.

Hopper's first major reinvention is as uber creep Frank in Blue Velvet. This is an older Hopper, a tailored Hopper, with his lounge lizard suits and his carefully coiffed hairstyle. Frank is obstensibly the bad guy in the movie and he is certainly a creep but Hopper brings something to the role, he dives in with both feet and all his teeth and verges on scenery chewing but once again, commands the entire movie whenever he's on the screen.

Hoosiers saw Hopper playing another burn out, but instead of Apocalypse's manic, jittery photographer, Hopper gives us the sad, sympathetic drunk. He is brave, is Hopper, as character actors often all. He isn't afraid to look dirty, to look sick, be unlikeable. And once again, he pretty much steals the movie

As an actor Hopper could be his own worse enemy. He was smart, I don't think he ever left that improv sensibility he used to such great advantage in Rider and Apocalypse. That was bad if a director wasn't focused and disciplined, Hopper could run away with the character, never afraid to go big and if there wasn't someone to rein him, much like Brando, it wasn't always a pretty thing to see. But it was always entertaining.

No, Dennis Hopper never made any of my lists for favorite actors but writing this, I realized how good he was, and how much I liked him. And how much I'll miss him.