Why Is Dennis Hopper Divorcing His Wife From What May Be His Deathbed?
Family Friends Say Money, Estate May Be Behind Divorce Filing From Victoria Duffy-Hopper
Dennis Hopper and Elizabeth Hurley in 1996's Samson and Deliiah
Dennis Hopper's Colorful Career
The Kansas-born Hopper has had a colorful career in Hollywood . He shot to fame with "Easy Rider" in which he served as both star and director. Before that, he had acted alongside James Dean in "Rebel Without a Cause" and "Giant." In 1979, Hopper appeared in "Apocalypse Now" and in 1994, "Speed." His more recent work includes the role of record producer Ben Cendars in the cable TV series "Crash."
In addition to his film and television projects, Hopper has been a photographer, painter and sculptor. In 2001, Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum displayed more than 100 of his works dating back to the mid-1950s. At the time, Hopper said the exhibit was his most significant achievement to date.
"It is the most important thing that ever happened to me, to be here at this museum," he said, according to the BBC. "That is serious, this is not about making 'Easy Rider,' it is about making these paintings. That is much more important to me than anything else that has ever happened in my life."
Nicolas Roeg
Nicolas Jack Roeg
Height
5' 7" (1.70 m)| Character | Actor/Actress |
| Samson | Eric Thal |
| Delilah | Elizabeth Hurley |
| General Tariq | Dennis Hopper |
| Mara | Diana Rigg |
| King Hanun | Michael Gambon |
| Ira | Daniel Massey |
| Manoah | Paul Freeman |
| Prince Sidqa | Ben Becker |
| Noomi | Jale Arıkan |
| Harach | Pinkas Braun |
| Amrok | Alessandro Gassman |
| Rani | Debora Caprioglio |
| Yoram | Sebastian Knapp |
| Jehiel | Karl Tessler |
| Amram | Luke Mullaney |
| Habor | Tim Gallagher |
| Adult Yoram | Matt Green |
| Mahal | Mark McGann |
| Young Samson | Jonathan Rhys Meyers |
| Young Jehiel | Leo Gregory |
| Young Amram | Tobias Saunders |
| Philistine Soldier | Luke de Lacey |
| Philistine Doctor | John Forbes-Robertson |
| Delilah's Servant | Mary Hanefey |
| Storyteller (voice) | Max von Sydow |
When he made his directorial debut in 1970, Nicolas Roeg was already a 23-year veteran of the British film industry, starting out in 1947 as an editing apprentice and working his way up to cinematographer twelve years later. He first came to attention as part of the second unit on David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia (1962), with Roger Corman's The Masque of the Red Death (1964) two years later containing his first really distinctive solo work. He went on to photograph films for such distinguished directors as François TruffautFahrenheit 451 (1966)), John Schlesinger (Far from the Madding Crowd (1967)) and Richard Lester (Petulia (1968)) before his sensational directorial debut in 1968. Co-directed with writer (and painter) Donald Cammell Performance (1970) was intended to be a simple-minded star vehicle for Mick Jagger and Warner Bros were so horrified when they saw the final multi-layered kaleidoscope of sex, violence, and questions of identity that they delayed its release for two years. Roeg went to Australia for his solo debut as director (Walkabout (1971)), which was also his last film as cinematographer, and throughout the next decade he produced a world-class body of work (Don't Look Now (1973); The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976); Bad Timing (1980)) that revealed his uniquely off-kilter view of the world, expressed through fragmented, dislocated images and a highly original yet strangely accessible approach to narrative. He married the star of Bad Timing (1980), the elegant Theresa Russell who would play the female lead in nearly all his subsequent films, though these have generally found less favor with critics and audiences, and the release of both Eureka (1983) and Cold Heaven (1991) was severely restricted due to problems with the films' distributors.
Spouse
| Harriett Harper | (2004 - present) |
| Theresa Russell | (1982 - ?) (divorced) 2 children |
| Susan Stephen | (1957 - 1977) (divorced) |
Trade Mark
Fragmented, non-linear narrative style
Trivia
Father of Luc Roeg.
The band Big Audio Dynamite paid tribute to Roeg on the song E=MC2 on their first album "This is Big Audio Dynamite". The song is filled with imagery from his movies including descriptive snippets of Performance, Man Who Fell to Earth and Insignificance.
Father of Sholto J. Roeg.
Never went to film school.
Once got a job at MGM and worked there for approximately two years.
Honorary Member of the Guild of British Camera Technicians (GBCT).
Brother of Nicolette Roeg.
Was originally going to direct Flash Gordon (1980), but didn't due to creative differences.
He was made a Fellow of the British Film Institute in recognition of his outstanding contribution to film culture.
Father of Statten Roeg.
Personal Quotes
"There are three lovely critical expressions: pretentious, gratuitous, profound. None of which I truly understand."
"I can't think how anyone can become a director without learning the craft of cinematography. I was very glad later when I was directing that I wasn't in the hands of a cinematographer and hoping that he would do it well. I would know what he was doing, and we could discuss how that scene would look. It was just lucky in a way that I didn't go to film school and just learned all this on the floor."
Between seduction and deception lies the fate of a mortal soul.
Theresa Russell
Mark Harmon
James Russo
Talia Shire
Will Patton
Theresa Russell stars as the restless wife of an unsuspecting surgeon (Mark Harmon). She gets involved with another doctor (James Russo) and plans to break things off with her husband during a Mexican business trip. Before she can do the deed, however, he's killed in a horrifying but oddly convenient boating accident. Or is he? Back home, the distraught wife gets a mysterious note requesting her presence in the cliffside hamlet of Carmel, at the same hotel where her infidelity began.
Intention of Brian Moore's novel on which Cold Heaven is based was apparently to make the surgeon's pseudo-death a metaphor for the emotional effect of his wife's betrayal. But the connection is all buried in the film.
Russell, under husband Roeg's direction, does terrific work in her scene with a priest (Will Patton), but she and Harmon have a tough and thankless task in playing out this tormenting psychodrama.
(Color) Available on VHS, DVD. Extract of a review from 1992. Running time: 105 MIN."I shoot a lot of stuff. I think that's probably come from not having gone to film school. Things work themselves out. You've lost the showmanship thing, the fairground barker, come-see-what's-inside aspect of film-making when you try to plan everything for the audience."
"In life, we all learn from everyone. But if you like and admire someone tremendously, perhaps because they think the way you do, or like the way you think, then inevitably you do."
"It fascinates me now that film has become a university subject; I can't believe it."
"It rather shattered me today when I went to see Eric Fellner's talk - it was fascinating, and he's probably one of the most successful producers right now in England. He talked about how his films are ordered and structured and market researched. In my day - and I was lucky that way - it was still a showman's place, a walk-right-up kind of thing. There was something vagabond-like about it, at the same time it was growing secretly. And the idea of photography as an art was ridiculous. But that was my life, in a factory setting."
"Movies are not scripts - movies are films; they're not books, they're not the theater. It's a completely different discipline, it exists on its own. I would say that the beauty of it is it's not the theater, it's not done over again. It's done in bits and pieces. Things are happening which you can't get again."
"People usually arrive to see something with an open mind. I want to make them feel something emotionally, but not by planning how to get them there. That would almost be like the communist days when newspapers told people what to think - when there was no competition with Pravda."
"Some people are very lucky, and have the story in their heads. I've never storyboarded anything. I like the idea of chance. What makes God laugh is people who make plans."
"The great difference between screen acting and theater acting is that screen acting is about reacting - 75% of the time, great screen actors are great reactors. When it comes to film, the director tells the audience what to look at. That doesn't happen on stage. When the dialog stops, people don't know where to look."
"You make the movie through the cinematography - it sounds quite a simple idea, but it was like a huge revelation to me. Curiously, it sank for a while when video and commercials came in. Because they had very little story to tell and they just had one thing to sell, they could have magnificent photography but not great cinematography. So quite a lot of people who've come into cinema from the commercials world have had to learn the very fact of what cinematography is over again."
I never watch them. It's like a trip to the past. You can't help but remember the day each scene was shot. It may be a shot to you, but it's a day to me. (on watching his own movies)
God laughs at people who make plans. If one does too much planning, you're not seeing the gold beneath your feet.
HairTemple
Betrayal
Biblical
Building Collapse
Sequel
Jewish
Beauty
Persia
Superhuman Strength
Religion
Re hamun: Do not mistake my throne for your pride.
Also Known As (AKA)Bibeln: Simson och Delila Sweden
Die Bibel: Samson und Delila Germany
Raamattu: Simson ja Delila Finland
Sampson kai Dalida Greece
Samson et Dalila France
Sansón y Dalila Venezuela
Sansone e Dalila Italy
Simson ja Delila Finland
Die Bibel - Samson und Delila
Samson und Delila | Eric Thal | ... | Samson | |||||||
 | Elizabeth Hurley | ... | Dalila | |||||||
 | Michael Gambon | ... | Re Hamun | |||||||
 | Dennis Hopper | Samson and Delilah (1996) (TV)Generale Tariq: I hate an incompetent enemy. They make me less. They turn a general into a butcher. | Generale Tariq | |||||||
Date of Birth17 May 1936, Dodge City, Kansas, USADate of Death29 May 2010, Venice Beach, California, USA (prostate cancer)Birth NameDennis Lee HopperHeight5' 9" (1.75 m)Mini BiographyMulti-talented and unconventional actor/director regarded by many as one of the true "enfant terribles" of Hollywood who has led an amazing cinematic career for more than five decades, Dennis Hopper was born on May 17, 1936, in Dodge City, Kansas. The young Hopper expressed interest in acting from a young age and first appeared in a slew of 1950s television shows, including "Medic" (1954), "Cheyenne" (1955) and "Sugarfoot" (1957). His first film role was in Johnny Guitar (1954), which was quickly followed by roles in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), Giant (1956) and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957). Hopper actually became good friends with James Dean and was shattered when Dean was killed in a car crash in September, 1955. Hopper portrayed a young Napoléon Bonaparte (!) in the star-spangled The Story of Mankind (1957) and regularly appeared on screen throughout the 1960s, often in rather undemanding parts, usually as a villain in westerns such as True Grit (1969) and Hang 'Em High (1968). However, in early 1969, Hopper, fellow actor Peter Fonda and writer Terry Southern, wrote a counterculture road movie script and managed to scrape together $400,000 in financial backing. Hopper directed the low-budget film, titled Easy Rider (1969), starring Fonda, Hopper and a young Jack Nicholson. The film was a phenomenal box-office success, appealing to the anti-establishment youth culture of the times. It changed the Hollywood landscape almost overnight and major studios all jumped onto the anti-establishment bandwagon, pumping out low-budget films about rebellious hippies, bikers, draft dodgers and pot smokers. However, Hopper's next directorial effort, The Last Movie (1971), was a critical and financial failure, and he has admitted that during the 1970s he was seriously abusing various substances, both legal and illegal, which led to a downturn in the quality of his work. He appeared in a sparse collection of European-produced films over the next eight years, before cropping up in a memorable performance as a pot-smoking photographer alongside Marlon Brando and Martin Sheen in Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam War epic Apocalypse Now (1979). He also received acclaim for his work in both acting and direction for Out of the Blue (1980).With these two notable efforts, the beginning of the 1980s saw a renaissance of interest by Hollywood in the talents of Dennis Hopper and exorcising the demons of drugs and alcohol via a rehabilitation program meant a return to invigorating and provoking performances. He was superb in Rumble Fish (1983), co-starred in the tepid spy thriller The Osterman Weekend (1983), played a groovy school teacher in My Science Project (1985), was a despicable and deranged drug dealer in River's Edge (1986) and, most memorably, electrified audiences as foul-mouthed Frank Booth in the eerie and erotic David Lynch film Blue Velvet (1986). Interestingly, the offbeat Hopper was selected in the early 1980s to provide the voice of "The StoryTeller" in the animated series of "Rabbit Ears" children's films based upon the works of Hans Christian Andersen!Hopper returned to film direction in the late 1980s and was at the helm of the controversial gang film Colors (1988), which was well received by both critics and audiences. He was back in front of the cameras for roles in Super Mario Bros. (1993), got on the wrong side of gangster Christopher Walken in True Romance (1993), led police officer Keanu Reeves and bus passenger Sandra Bullock on a deadly ride in Speed (1994/I) and challenged gill-man Kevin Costner for world supremacy in Waterworld (1995). The enigmatic Hopper has continued to remain busy through the 1990s and into the new century with performances in The Night We Called It a Day (2003), The Keeper (2004) and Land of the Dead (2005).As well as his acting/directing talents, Hopper is a skilled photographer and painter, having had his works displayed in galleries in both the US and overseas. He is additionally a dedicated and knowledgeable collector of modern art and has one of the most extensive collections in the US. IMDb Mini Biography By: firehouse44@hotmail.comSpouse
TriviaHis 1970 marriage to Michelle Phillips lasted just a few days, during his wild and woolly, drug-fueled period. She also appears briefly in The Last Movie (1971), Hopper's almost-disastrously appropriately entitled solo directorial effort, following Easy Rider (1969). At one point in this era, Hopper was arrested after he was found raving, naked. After early success as a child star in theater, his movie career was practically stillborn when Louis B. Mayer banned him from the MGM lot after Hopper responded forcefully, in kind, when the mogul belittled his desire to play Shakespearen roles. His house in Venice Beach, Los Angeles, is a radical architectural statement. Ranked #87 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997] Reported that Rip Torn has won a $475,000 defamation suit against Hopper. Lawsuit came about after remarks made by Hopper on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" (1992) on 31 May 1994. [14 March 1997] Dennis Hopper married Victoria Duffy in Boston, at the Old South Church. Lamenting to an audience Q & A in Sydney that he had "never had any great roles", Hopper nominated Splendor in the Grass (1961) as the one he most wished he'd been given. Belongs to the Top 100 collectors of modern art. Had his photography exhibited at Fort Worth, Denver, Wichita, Cochran, and Spileto art museums, as well as the Parco Gallery and in the cities of Tokyo, Osaka and Kumatomo, Japan. As a youngster in Kansas City, he took classes taught by legendary painter Thomas Hart Benton, who told him: "One day you'll learn to get tight, and paint loose.". At one time, was blackballed from Hollywood roles for eight years. 1 September 2000 - A Canadian judge dismissed marijuana charges against Hopper stemming from an October 1999 arrest in Calgary. Father of Marin Hopper, born June 26th 1962, with Brooke Hayward. In The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986), he says "Boys, boys, boys." when he first meets Leatherface and the Sawyer family. Hopper says the exact same thing when he first meets the heroes in Super Mario Bros. (1993). Dennis and Victoria Duffy Hopper's first child, daughter Galen Grier Hopper, was born on March 26, 2003 in L.A. His parents are Jay and Marjorie Hopper. His father died in 1982 and his mother remarried. Graduate of Helix High School, La Mesa, California. Class of 1954, which voted him "Most Likely To Succeed." Hopper is quoted in the book "Marilyn Beck's Hollywood" (1973) as saying that the Manson Massacre of Sharon Tate and friends was the backlash from a sex and drugs party the week previously, in which a drug dealer was tied up and whipped before a crowd for selling "bad dope" to the residents of 10050 Cielo Drive. As can be seen by Rip Torn's success in prosecuting a defamation suit against Hopper in the 1990s, he is not the most reliable witness to history. James Dean learned he had an interest in photography when they worked together, and encouraged him to pursue it as an alternative to just being an actor. Hopper published a book of photos in the late 1980s, including pictures of stars he'd known, and thanked Dean. Is portrayed by Jarrod Dean in The Mystery of Natalie Wood (2004) (TV). Provided the narration for the Gorillaz song "Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey's Head". Member of the US Republican Party. Thinks that James Dean is the best actor he ever worked with since he met him on the set of Rebel Without a Cause (1955). His performance as Frank Booth in Blue Velvet (1986) is ranked #54 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time. Has a son, with Katherine LaNasa, named Henry Hopper, born on September 1990. Father of Ruthanna Hopper with Daria Halprin. His acting career has taken him all over the world, and to date he has filmed movies in over 22 countries. (May 2007). Despite his Republican affiliations, he intentionally parodied Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld while playing the greedy, racist villain, Mr. Kaufman in Land of the Dead (2005). He also voted for Barack Obama in the 2008 election. Alumni of the Lee Strasberg Institute. He thinks that the worst movie that he has ever done was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986). Was due to appear in the Doctor Who 2007 Christmas Special, Voyage of the Damned, guest starring along with Kylie Minogue. However, Hopper wasn't available for long enough, so the part had to be recast. Clive Swift eventually took on Hopper's intended role, Mr Copper. In 1999, he, his young son, Henry, and two buddies were in Jamaica, heading to a golf course to play a few holes. As they drove through a small village, a speeding truck barreled head-on into their car. Hopper's friends were badly injured in the crash -- broken legs, head traumas -- but Hopper climbed out of the passenger seat without a scratch. He pulled Henry, then 10 years old, from the backseat, covered in splattered blood, also eerily unhurt. "At that point, I really thought, maybe there is a force looking out for me, because I can't figure out how we survived," Hopper said. Rushed to a New York City hospital with flu-like symptoms on September 30, 2009. On 29 October 2009 he revealed that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2002. Hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles shortly before Christmas 2009. Lives in Venice, California. Received the 2,403th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on March 26, 2010. Personal Quotes[1997]: Like all artists I want to cheat death a little and contribute something to the next generation. In the 50s, when me and Natalie Wood and James Dean and Nick Adams and Tony Perkins (Anthony Perkins) suddenly arrived... God, it was a whole group of us that sort of felt like that earlier group - the John Barrymores, Errol Flynns, Sinatras, Clifts - were a little farther out than we were... So we tried to emulate that lifestyle. For instance, once Natalie and I decided we'd have an orgy. And Natalie says "O.K., but we have to have a champagne bath." So we filled the bathtub full of champagne. Natalie takes off her clothes, sits down in the champagne, starts screaming. We take her to the emergency hospital. That was *our* orgy, you understand? [Quote from 2001]: I've been sober now for 18 years. With all the drugs, psychedelics and narcotics I did, I was [really] an alcoholic. Honestly, I only used to do cocaine so I could sober up and drink more. My last five years of drinking was a nightmare. I was drinking a half-gallon of rum with a fifth of rum on the side, in case I ran out, 28 beers a day, and three grams of cocaine just to keep me moving around. And I thought I was doing fine because I wasn't crawling around drunk on the floor. I've been a Republican since Reagan. I voted for Bush and his father. I don't tell a lot of people, because I live in a city where somebody who voted for Bush is really an outcast. I should have been dead ten times over. I've thought about that a lot. I believe in miracles. It's an absolute miracle that I'm still around. [on James D |
