Dennis Hopper: A Madness to His Method

Profiles the enigmatic actor, examining his troubled childhood, his three marriages, his turbulent career and the movies he has directed and acted in, tracing his fall from grace due to drugs and his subsequent sobriety and return

Hollywood's most publicized enfant terrible during the 1960s and '70s no longer uses alcohol or drugs and is engaged in rehabilitating himself, according to Rodriguez. A close friend of James Dean, Hopper was shattered by the star's death, went through three marriages and alienated the movie industry establishment largely through his contempt for authority, we're told in this routine celebrity biography by a first-time writer. A photographer and painter as well as an actor and director, he had his first big performing success in Easy Rider , followed it with the flop The Last Movie , took off for Taos and worked intermittently in foreign "B" pictures. He later got meatier roles in Blue Velvet and Hoosiers and directed the controversial Colors. But by and large this adoring biography does nothing to support the contention that Hopper is still a comer. Photos not seen by PW.
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