Dennis Hopper was the Oscar-nominated performer who experienced many ups-and-downs throughout his career, with his off-screen antics often overshadowing his onscreen talent. Yet many of his movies have stood the test of time. Let’s take a look back at 15 of Hopper’s greatest films, ranked worst to best.
Born in 1936, Hopper made his movie debut at the age of 19 in “Rebel Without a Cause” (1955), where he became fast friends with James Dean. He had an even bigger role in “Giant” (1956), which would be Dean’s last film before his untimely death in 1955. Hopper struggled for several years trying to find his voice, making small appearances in such films as “Cool Hand Luke” (1967) and “True Grit”(1969).
He burst onto the scene with the counterculture phenomenon “Easy Rider” (1969), which he also directed and co-wrote (with co-star Peter Fonda and Terry Southern). The story of two bikers (Hopper and Fonda) traveling across the country to sell some cocaine became a box office sensation, speaking to a disaffected youth tired of sanitized entertainments that didn’t reflect the world at large. The film brought Hopper, Fonda and Southern an Oscar nomination in Best Adapted Screenplay and made a star of Jack Nicholson, who competed in Best Supporting Actor.
Hopper stumbled with his next directorial effort, “The Last Movie” (1971), an obtuse, fragmented examination of American Imperialism. His substance abuse problems and erratic behavior also soured his reputation, although he still managed to secure periodic acting work in films such as “The American Friend” (1977) and “Apocalypse Now” (1979).
After a stint in rehab, he came roaring back with a trio of films in 1986: the teenage true crime drama “River’s Edge,” the inspirational sports story “Hoosiers,” and David Lynch‘s surreal, disturbing “Blue Velvet.” His role in “Hoosiers” earned him an Oscar bid as Best Supporting Actor, while the Golden Globes nominated him for both that movie and “Blue Velvet.” After years in exile, Hopper was back and would keep busy until his death in 2010, giving wild-eyed, teeth-gnashing performances as the villains in such films as “Speed” (1994), “Red Rock West” (1994), and “Waterworld” (1995). He even returned to directing with such titles as “Out of the Blue” (1982) and “Colors” (1988), the later of which he didn’t appear in.
On the TV side, Hopper earned an Emmy nomination for his performance in “Paris Trout” (Best Movie/Mini Actor in 1991) and starred in a TV series based on the film “Crash” (2005).
Tour our photo gallery of Hopper’s 15 greatest films, including some of the titles listed above as well as “True Romance” (1993), “Rumble Fish” (1983) and “Land of the Dead” (2005).
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15. WATERWORLD (1995)
Image Credit: Ben Glass/Universal/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Directed by Kevin Reynolds. Written by Peter Rader and David Twohy. Starring Kevin Costner, Dennis Hopper, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Tina Majorino, Michael Jeter.
By the time it finally hit screens, “Waterworld” had taken such a pummeling in the press for its budget overruns and production problems that it was almost impossible to view it on its own merits. And sure, the script can’t support the movie’s massive costs (at $175 million, it was at that time the most expensive film ever made), but its stunning futuristic designs and action set pieces more than make up for its shortcomings. Plus, it offers up yet another juicy villain for Hopper to sink his teeth into, this time as the oddly-dressed leader of a gang of pirates in a post-apocalyptic world covered in water. It’s up to Kevin Costner as a heroic mariner to protect a young woman (Jeanne Tripplehorn) and her daughter (Tina Majorino) from the bad guys.
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14. THE LAST MOVIE (1971)
Image Credit: Universal/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Directed by Dennis Hopper. Screenplay by Stewart Stern, story by Dennis Hopper and Stern. Starring Dennis Hopper, Stella Garcia, Don Gordon, Julie Adams, Sylvia Miles, Peter Fonda, Samuel Fuller, Henry Jaglom, Michelle Phillips, Kris Kristofferson, Dean Stockwell, Russ Tamblyn, Tomas Milian.
After the breakout success of “Easy Rider,” Hopper’s directing career came to a screeching halt with the aptly titled “The Last Movie.” It’s hard to say how much of this fragmented, obtuse examination of American Imperialism was produced under the influence, but it’s safe to say that might be the proper way to view it. Hopper plays a Hollywood stuntman who stays behind in Peru after shooting a cheap western (Samuel Fuller, who helmed his fare share of low budget westerns, plays the director). He soon becomes involved in the “movie” being made by the locals with leftover sets and equipment. That’s about all there is in the way of plot here, as the story veers wildly from one incomprehensible set piece to the next involving romance, gold hunts, and pretentious opining. Yet for all its defects, there’s something very watchable about this cinematic oddity, which Hopper considered to be his lost masterwork.
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13. LAND OF THE DEAD (2005)
Image Credit: Michael Gibson/Universal/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Written and directed by George A. Romero. Starring Simon Baker, Dennis Hopper, Asia Argento, Robert Joy, Eugene Clark, John Leguizamo.
Hopper teamed up with horror maestro George A. Romero for this futuristic zombie flick. “Land of the Dead” imagines a world where the undead have taken over the planet, with the last surviving humans holing themselves off in an enclosed city with a disparate class system. The rich — including Hopper as a billionaire whose avarice would make Donald Trump blush — live in a gated community while the poor scrape by below. As a mercenary (John Leguizamo) leads a revolution on the inside, the zombies become increasingly more advanced on the outside. As is the case with all Romero films, this one is as interesting for its social commentary as for its creative uses of gore.
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12. RUMBLE FISH (1983)
Image Credit: Universal/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Screenplay by S. E. Hilton and Francis Ford Coppola, based on the novel by Hilton. Starring Matt Dillon, Mickey Rourke, Vincent Spano, Diane Lane, Diana Scarwid, Nicolas Cage, Dennis Hopper.
Francis Ford Coppola described “Rumble Fish” as “an art film for teenagers,” and while that’s certainly true, you don’t need to be going through puberty to be moved by this one. The second of two S. E. Hilton YA adaptations the director released in 1983 (the other being “The Outsiders”), this is an operatic story of a young street thug (Matt Dillon) and his older brother (Mickey Rourke), who returns home to Tulsa from California. Hopper costars as the boy’s alcoholic father, while Diane Lane makes a striking impression as Dillon’s girlfriend. Coppola shoots in stark black-and-white with deep shadows and dense smoke that echo German Expressionism, creating images that turn this Midwest town into a dream world.
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11. OUT OF THE BLUE (1982)
Image Credit: Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Directed by Dennis Hopper. Written by Leonard Yakir and Brenda Nielson. Starring Linda Manz, Dennis Hopper, Sharon Farrell, Don Gordon, Raymond Burr.
After stumbling big time with his sophomore directorial effort, “The Last Movie,” Hopper jumped back behind the camera to great success (artistically if not financially) with this deeply personal family drama. “Out of the Blue” casts Linda Manz (the haunted young narrator in “Days of Heaven”) as a rebellious teenager who loves Elvis Presley and punk rock. She has trouble dealing with her junkie mother (Sharon Farrell) and ex-con father (Hooper), who’s just been released from serving time for a deadly car accident. Hopper creaters a tender mood piece with the barebones story. Incidentally, he was not the film’s original director, but instead a last minute replacement for screenwriter Leonard Yakir, who left midway through production.
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10. RED ROCK WEST (1994)
Image Credit: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock Directed by John Dahl. Written by John Dahl and Rick Dahl. Starring Nicolas Cage, Dennis Hopper, Lara Flynn Boyle, Timothy Carhart, J. T. Walsh.
“Red Rock West” had a rocky road to the big screen: after premiering at the Toronto Film Festival, it was dumped on cable TV and home video. However, when a small San Francisco theater started playing it to sold-out houses, it began its successful tour of the art house scene. Directed by John Dahl, it’s a lean, mean western-noir hybrid about a drifter (Nicolas Cage) who’s mistaken for a hitman while traveling through Wyoming. The local sheriff (J. T. Walsh) pays him to murder his wife (Lara Flynn Boyle), and he plays along before the real killer (Hopper), a smiling, screwy madman from Dallas, arrives to collect his cash.
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9. RIVER’S EDGE (1986)
Image Credit: Hemdale/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Directed by Tim Hunter. Written by Neal Jimenez. Starring Crispin Glover, Keanu Reeves, Ione Skye, Roxana Zal, Daniel Roebuck, Joshua Miller, Dennis Hopper.
Few films have presented as grim and bleak a portrait of wayward adolescence as “River’s Edge.” Based in part on a true story, it centers on a group of friends (including Crispin Glover and Keanu Reeves) whose lives spin out of control when one of them murders his girlfriend. Yet their lives are already on the brink from drug and alcohol abuse, most of it provided by an older man (Hopper in a terrifying performance) who once killed a woman in his past. There’s no redemption or light at the end of this journey, nor any explanation given for the killing. Like “In Cold Blood” before it, it seems to suggest that these things just happen when people have no reason themselves to live. It’s a disturbing message, but a powerful one nonetheless.
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8. GIANT (1956)
Image Credit: Snap/REX/Shutterstock Directed by George Stevens. Screenplay by Fred Guiol and Ivan Moffat, based on the novel by Edna Ferber. Starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean, Carroll Baker, Jane Withers, Chill Wills, Mercedes McCambridge, Sal Mineo, Dennis Hopper.
Hopper made his screen debut in “Rebel Without a Cause” (1955), where he became friends with James Dean. One year later, he was given a more substantial role in what would tragically be Dean’s final film: George Stevens’s sprawling epic “Giant.” Rock Hudson stars as a Texas cattle rancher who travels to Maryland to buy a horse and returns with a wife (Elizabeth Taylor). Dean is a ranch hand who falls in love with the boss’s spouse before striking oil, creating a rivalry between him and his boss that will last decades. Yet Dean isn’t the only person Hudson spars with: he also has problems with his son (Hopper), who sparks outrage both when he leaves the family business to become a doctor and when he marries a Mexican woman at a time when racial tensions run high. “Giant” was a massive hit, earning 10 Oscar nominations and winning Best Director for Stevens.
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7. TRUE ROMANCE (1993)
Image Credit: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock Directed by Tony Scott. Written by Quentin Tarantino. Starring Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper, Val Kilmer, Gary Oldman, Brad Pitt, Christopher Walken.
Hopper has a small but memorable role in this gloriously entertaining blending of Quentin Tarantino’s pulp-infused dialogue and Tony Scott’s pristine visuals. “True Romance” is a violent fairy tale of sorts about a pop culture nerd (Christian Slater) who falls in love with a beautiful call girl (Patricia Arquette). After murdering her pimp (Gary Oldman) and stealing his cocaine to try and sell in Hollywood, he runs afoul of some violent gangsters who want their goods back. While on the run, he visits his estranged father (Hopper) for help, and the two share a raw, hurt-filled confrontation. But when Hopper is threatened by a Sicilian gangster (Christopher Walken) for information on his son’s whereabouts, he refuses to give him up, instead needling the thug with information about his ethnic background in what becomes the famous “Moors” scene. It’s a brilliantly tense and funny moment with two veteran actors at the top of their game.
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6. THE AMERICAN FRIEND (1977)
Image Credit: Road Movies/Films Du Losange/Filmverlag Der Autoren/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Written and directed by Wim Wenders, based on the novel ‘Ripley’s Game’ by Patricia Highsmith. Starring Dennis Hopper, Bruno Ganz, Lisa Kreuzer, Gerard Blain.
Patricia Highsmith’s “Ripley” novels have led to some deliciously entertaining movies, and one of the best is this loose adaptation of the third book in her series, “Ripley’s Game.” Directed by Wim Wenders, “The American Friend” finds career con artist Tom Ripley (played this time by a wild-eyed Hopper) dealing art forgeries in Germany. When he’s slighted by a terminally ill picture framer (Bruno Ganz), he decides to get his revenge by entangling the dying man in the seedy underworld of organized crime. Less plot-heavy than it is stylized, this is a moody, hypnotic neo-noir, shot on location in Hamburg, Paris, and New York City and featuring cameos by such luminaries of the genre as Nicholas Ray and Samuel Fuller.
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5. HOOSIERS (1986)
Image Credit: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock Directed by David Anspaugh. Written by Angelo Pizzo. Starring Gene Hackman, Barbara Hershey, Dennis Hopper.
“Hoosiers” is one of the all-time great sports movies, a rousing entertainment that checks all the boxes of the genre while still managing to surprise us. On the surface, it’s a story about a small town high school basketball team that beats the odds to make it all the way to the state championship. But it’s also a story of redemption, both for the coach (Gene Hackman) whose origins are mysterious, and the town drunk (Hopper), who cleans himself up and helps him bring the team to victory. It’s impossible to watch that final game without cheering in the end. The film brought Hopper an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actor, although some would argue his performance in “Blue Velvet” that same year was more deserving (the Golden Globe nominated him for both). He lost to Michael Caine (“Hannah and Her Sisters”).
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4. SPEED (1994)
Image Credit: SNAP/REX/Shutterstock Directed by Jan de Bont. Written by Graham Yost. Starring Keanu Reeves, Dennis Hopper, Sandra Bullock, Joe Morton, Alan Ruck, Jeff Daniels.
Pop quiz, hot shot: which high speed action flick features Hopper at his winking devilish best? It’s this Jan de Bont thrill-ride about a runaway bus strapped with TNT courtesy of a deranged ex-cop (Hopper). Keanu Reeves stars as Jack Traven, a young police officer who must stop the bomb from exploding by making sure it doesn’t drop below 50 mph with the help of a plucky driver (Sandra Bullock). Hopper gnarls his teeth with glee as the ingenious madman, proving that a potboiler is only as good as its villain. The film veers wildly from one action sequence to the next, never giving the audience a second to think about the absurdity of its premise. Even Oscar voters couldn’t help but enjoy the ride, awarding it prizes for Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing.
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3. APOCALYPSE NOW (1979)
Image Credit: Snap Stills/REX/Shutterstock Directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Screenplay by John Milius and Francis Ford Coppola, narration by Michael Herr, based on ‘Heart of Darkness’ by Joseph Conrad. Starring Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Frederic Forrest, Albert Hall, Sam Bottoms, Larry Fishburne, Dennis Hopper.
“The horror. The horror,” whispers Col. Kurtz (Marlon Brando), and throughout Francis Ford Coppola’s haunting Vietnam War saga, we see firsthand the horrors of which he speaks. Based in part on Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness,” it centers on Captain Willard (Martin Sheen), who’s sent on a perilous mission through Cambodia to assassinate the renegade Kurtz. After a long and deadly journey on a riverboat, he finds the colonel living as a deity amongst a local tribe, quoting poetry while recounting the terrors that drove him mad. Hopper gives one of his most manic performances as the drugged-out photojournalist who stumbled upon the camp and hangs on its leader’s every word as if it were scripture. After winning the Palme d’Or, the film earned eight Oscar nominations (including Best Picture) and won two (cinematography and sound).
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2. EASY RIDER (1969)
Image Credit: Columbia/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Directed by Dennis Hopper. Written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Terry Southern. Starring Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson, Toni Basil, Karen Black.
The counterculture came racing into cinemas with “Easy Rider,” a cheaply-made biker flick that became a phenomenon for a disaffected youth weary of sanitized entertainments. It also heralded the arrival of Hopper as a singular talent both in front of and behind the camera after years spent struggling to find his voice. It centers on Wyatt (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Hopper), two bikers traveling across America to sell cocaine in California. Along the way they encounter a drunken lawyer (Jack Nicholson in a star-making performance) and link up with two women (Toni Basil and Karen Black) for a drug-induced Mardi Gras celebration. With its rock-and-roll soundtrack, fragmented editing, and matter-of-fact presentation of sex and drug use, the film helped changed the course of American movies forever. Nicholson earned an Oscar nomination in Best Supporting Actor, as did Hopper, Fonda, and Terry Southern in Best Original Screenplay. Hopper also competed at the DGA and won the Best First Film prize at Cannes.
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1. BLUE VELVET (1986)
Image Credit: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock Written and directed by David Lynch. Starring Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper, Laura Dern, Hope Lange, George Dickerson, Dean Stockwell.
Of the many villains Hopper played in his career, none is as terrifying as Frank Booth, the gas-sniffing, sexually-deranged madman at the center of “Blue Velvet.” And few films have had the kind of lasting impact of David Lynch’s haunting masterpiece, which burrows underneath the facade of suburbia and finds a disturbing nightmare of perversion and malice. Kyle MacLachlan stars as Jeffrey Beaumont, an outwardly clean-cut college student who returns to his small town and discovers a severed human ear in a field. He teams up with a plucky neighborhood girl (Laura Dern), and the two discover a Hitchcockian mystery involving an alluring nightclub singer (Isabella Rossellini) being held captive by Booth, who has kidnapped her husband and son in order to keep her as his sex slave. But Jeffrey might just be as kinky as everyone else. “Blue Velvet” created a stir when it was first released, with passionate defenders and detractors on both sides. Decades later, its ability to shock and unsettle audiences hasn’t lessened. Lynch competed at the Oscars as Best Director, the film’s sole bid. Hopper earned a Golden Globe nomination as Best Supporting Actor, but was recognized for “Hoosiers” at the Academy instead.
