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Dennis Hopper Has Died

Sad news.  The rebel with a self-destructive streak, some-time actor and artist and director Dennis Hopper has died of cancer in his 70s.  Notable for directing Easy Rider, the breakthrough Hollywood film of its time, as well as for co-starring with James Dean in Rebel Without A Cause, Hopper later put in bizarre and unforgettable performances as a character actor in several off-kilter movies, including Apocalypse Now and Blue Velvet.  He had an unexpected return in the big-budget Speed, as the lunatic bomber.  Hopper's role in Lynch's classic will remain his signature performance, perhaps the most vile, upsetting and original portrayal of sexual evil ever put onto US celluloid.  He managed to both fail endlessly in his life and career and remain a freewheeling icon of a somewhat faded ideal of American hedonism and freedom.
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