Editing Dennis Hopper (section)

=== 1967–1986: Breakthrough and acclaim ===
[[File:Dennis Hopper and Michelle Phillips, 1970.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Hopper with second wife [[Michelle Phillips]] in 1970, during editing of ''[[The Last Movie]]'']]
Hopper had a supporting role as the bet-taker, "Babalugats", in ''[[Cool Hand Luke]]'' (1967). In 1968, Hopper teamed with [[Peter Fonda]], [[Terry Southern]] and [[Jack Nicholson]] to make ''[[Easy Rider]]'', which premiered in July 1969. With the release of ''[[True Grit (1969 film)|True Grit]]'' a month earlier, Hopper had starring roles in two major box-office films that summer. Hopper won wide acclaim as the director for his improvisational methods and innovative editing for ''Easy Rider''.<ref name="Biskind2011">{{cite book|author=Peter Biskind|title=Easy Riders Raging Bulls|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J3ucTdpeE9YC&pg=PA74|access-date=November 18, 2012|date=December 13, 2011|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-1-4391-2661-5|pages=74–}}</ref> The production was plagued by creative differences and personal acrimony between Fonda and Hopper, the dissolution of Hopper's marriage to [[Brooke Hayward]], his unwillingness to leave the editor's desk and his accelerating abuse of drugs and alcohol.<ref>{{cite book|author=Peter Biskind|title=Easy Riders Raging Bulls|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J3ucTdpeE9YC&pg=PA71|access-date=November 19, 2012|date=December 13, 2011|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-1-4391-2661-5|pages=71–}}</ref> Hopper said of ''Easy Rider'': "The cocaine problem in the United States is really because of me. There was no cocaine before ''Easy Rider'' on the street. After ''Easy Rider'', it was everywhere".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jahsonic.com/NewHollywood.html|title=New Hollywood (1967–1977)|access-date=December 3, 2013|archive-date=June 23, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130623190630/http://www.jahsonic.com/NewHollywood.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Besides showing drug use on film, it was one of the first films to portray the hippie lifestyle. Hopper became a [[role model]] for some male youths who rejected traditional jobs and traditional American culture, partly exemplified by Fonda's long sideburns and Hopper wearing shoulder-length hair and a long mustache. They were denied rooms in motels and proper service in restaurants as a result of their radical looks.<ref name=Hillman>Hillman, Betty Luther. ''Dressing for the Culture Wars: Style and the Politics of Self-Presentation in the 1960s and 1970s'', Univ. of Nebraska Press (2015) e-book</ref> Their long hair became a point of contention in various scenes during the film.<ref name=Hillman/> Journalist Ann Hornaday wrote: "With its portrait of [[counterculture of the 1960s|counterculture]] heroes raising their middle fingers to the uptight middle-class hypocrisies, ''Easy Rider'' became the cinematic symbol of the 1960s, a celluloid anthem to freedom, macho bravado and anti-establishment rebellion".<ref>{{cite news|last=Hornaday|first=Ann|date=May 29, 2010|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/29/AR2010052903020.html|title=Dennis Hopper's influential career came full-circle|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=May 30, 2010|archive-date=November 10, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121110165754/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/29/AR2010052903020.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Film critic Matthew Hays wrote "no other persona better signifies the lost idealism of the 1960s than that of Dennis Hopper".<ref name=Hays>{{cite book|editor-last1=Unterburger|editor-first1=Amy L.|title=International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers – vol 3 Actors and Actresses|publisher=St. James Press|year=1997|page=564|isbn=9781558623002}}</ref>

[[File:Dennis Hopper 1973.jpg|thumb|Hopper in 1973]]
Hopper was unable to capitalize on his ''Easy Rider'' success for several years. In 1970 he filmed ''[[The Last Movie]]'', cowritten by [[Stewart Stern]] and photographed by [[László Kovács (cinematographer)|László Kovács]] in Peru, and completed production in 1971. It won the prestigious CIDALC Award at that year's Venice Film Festival, but Universal Studios leaders expected a blockbuster like ''Easy Rider'', and did not like the film or give it an enthusiastic release, while American film audiences found it confounding – as convoluted as an abstract painting. On viewing the first release print, fresh from the lab, in his screening room at Universal, [[MCA Inc.|MCA]] founder [[Jules C. Stein]] rose from his chair and said, "I just don't understand this younger generation."<ref>Rol Murrow, quoted in book ''HOPPER'' by Tom Folsom (2013)</ref> During the tumultuous editing process, Hopper ensconced himself at the [[Mabel Dodge Luhan House]] in Taos, New Mexico, which he had purchased in 1970,<ref name="Thompson">{{cite news|url=http://www.nmmagazine.com/outings_mdlhouse_feb10.php|title=Outings: Mabel Dodge Luhan House|last=Thompson|first=Linda|work=[[New Mexico Magazine]]|access-date=August 7, 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100504093655/http://www.nmmagazine.com/outings_mdlhouse_feb10.php|archive-date=May 4, 2010}}</ref> for almost an entire year. In between contesting Fonda's rights to the majority of the residual profits from ''Easy Rider'', he married singer [[Michelle Phillips]] of [[The Mamas and the Papas]]  on [[Halloween]] of 1970. The marriage lasted eight days.

Hopper acted in another John Wayne film, ''[[True Grit (1969 film)|True Grit]]'' (1969), and during its production, he became well acquainted with Wayne. In both of the films with Wayne, Hopper's character is killed in the presence of Wayne's character, to whom he utters his dying words. On September 30, 1970, Hopper appeared on the second episode of season 2 of ''[[The Johnny Cash Show]]'' where he sang a duet with Cash entitled "Goin' Up Goin' Down". Cash said the song was written by [[Kris Kristofferson]] about Hopper. Hopper added that Kristofferson had written some songs for his Peruvian-shot movie ''The Last Movie'', in which Kristofferson appeared in his debut role with [[Julie Adams]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1123104/?ref_=nm_flmg_slf_248|title=Episode #2.2|date=September 30, 1970|via=IMDb|access-date=March 23, 2020|archive-date=March 8, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308105924/https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1123104/?ref_=nm_flmg_slf_248|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067327/?ref_=_142|title=The Last Movie|date=October 21, 1988|via=IMDb|access-date=March 23, 2020|archive-date=March 8, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308123038/https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067327/?ref_=_142|url-status=live}}</ref> Hopper also recited [[Rudyard Kipling]]'s famous poem [[If—]] during his appearance.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2LUbk_7uKg | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211028/T2LUbk_7uKg| archive-date=October 28, 2021|title=Video |website=www.youtube.com | date=March 24, 2015|access-date=September 21, 2020}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Hopper was able to sustain his lifestyle and a measure of celebrity by acting in numerous [[low budget]] and European films throughout the 1970s as the archetypal "tormented maniac", including ''[[Mad Dog Morgan]]'' (1976), ''[[Tracks (1976 film)|Tracks]]'' (1976), and ''[[The American Friend]]'' (1977). With [[Francis Ford Coppola]]'s blockbuster ''[[Apocalypse Now]]'' (1979), Hopper returned to prominence as a hyper-manic Vietnam-era photojournalist. Stepping in for an overwhelmed director, Hopper won praise in 1980 for his directing and acting in ''[[Out of the Blue (1980 film)|Out of the Blue]]''. Immediately thereafter, Hopper starred as an addled short-order cook "Cracker" in the [[Neil Young]]/[[Dean Stockwell]] low-budget collaboration ''[[Human Highway]]''. Production was reportedly often delayed by his unreliable behavior. [[Peter Biskind]] states in the [[New Hollywood]] history ''[[Easy Riders, Raging Bulls]]'' that Hopper's cocaine intake had reached three grams a day by this time, complemented by 30 beers, and some marijuana and [[Cuba libre]]s.

After staging a "suicide attempt" (really more of a daredevil act) in a coffin using 17 sticks of dynamite during an "art happening" at the Rice University Media Center (filmed by professor and documentary filmmaker Brian Huberman),<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.brianhuberman.com/about/ |title=Brian Huberman About Brian Huberman |publisher=Brianhuberman.com |date=January 5, 1995 |access-date=January 14, 2013 |archive-date=January 13, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130113102014/http://www.brianhuberman.com/about/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and later disappearing into the Mexican desert during a particularly extravagant bender, Hopper entered a [[drug rehabilitation]] program in 1983.

Though Hopper gave critically acclaimed performances in Coppola's ''[[Rumble Fish]]'' (1983) and [[Sam Peckinpah]]'s ''[[The Osterman Weekend (film)|The Osterman Weekend]]'' (1983), it was not until he portrayed the gas-huffing, obscenity-screaming villain [[Frank Booth (Blue Velvet)|Frank Booth]] in [[David Lynch]]'s ''[[Blue Velvet (film)|Blue Velvet]]'' (1986) that his career truly revived. On reading the script Hopper said to Lynch: "You have to let me play Frank Booth. Because I am Frank Booth!"<ref>Egan, Barry (November 2, 2007). [http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/film-cinema/keeping-your-hair-on-1210900.html Keeping your hair on] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080929071743/http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/film-cinema/keeping-your-hair-on-1210900.html |date=September 29, 2008 }}. [[Irish Independent|The Independent]]. Retrieved May 29, 2010.</ref> He won critical acclaim and several awards for this role, and in the same year received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role as an alcoholic assistant basketball coach in ''[[Hoosiers (film)|Hoosiers]]''. Also in 1986, Hopper portrayed Lt. Enright in the [[comedy horror]] ''[[The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2]]''.