Saturday, May 29, 2010
RIP: Dennis Hopper (1936-2010)
I just saw the headline that Dennis Hopper passed today. In all honesty, I didn't realize that he was in such bad shape, and only now remember hearing that he had been battling prostate cancer. At any rate, he had a remarkable run in Hollywood, with a number of credits that would be considered highlights in the careers of many other people - directing a classic like Easy Rider and countless memorable supporting roles. The two that stick me with most are his Photojournalist in Apocalypse Now and Frank Booth in Blue Velvet. He was a truly great actor.
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I'll just add that his turn in Apocalypse Now is among my all-time favorites... just incredible. For the brief time he is actually in the movie, his off the wall performance is spellbinding.
ReplyDeleteOh, Dennis Hopper has died? That's truly tragic. Easy Rider happens to be among my favourites - what a rebellious film it was!!! And not to forget the cameo in True Romance - deliriously funny yet also moving. Can't forget that incredible 'face-off' with Christopher Walken. Hopper had such a huge range as an actor, and had a kind of maniacal energy about him, sort of like Jack Nicholson, which gave him such a powerful screen presence. And that made him such a perfect villain in the popular Speed.
ReplyDeleteLast week another actor called Tapen Chatterjee, who you might not be aware of, passed away too. He played the role of the affable 'Goopy' in Satyajit Ray's Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (The Adventures of Goopy & Bagha), one of my favourite films of all time, as well as the heavily satirical sequel, Hirak Rajar Deshe (Kingdom of Diamonds). He starred in the third part Goopy Bagha Firey Elo, which was penned by Ray & directed by his son, as well.
So Dennis Hopper's demise is a double blow for me in the short duration.
Shubhajit - Yes, that face off with Walken in True Romance is another great scene in Hopper's career... great one to bring up!
ReplyDeleteThe cinema of Ray (and really of the whole country) is a blind spot in my viewing... but sorry to hear that one of your favorites has passed.
Well, that's alright. Tapen Chatterjee wasn't really a great actor per se. He was a pretty good actor though. Just that, the film Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne is such a huge cultural icon & continues to be such a loved and enormously popular film to this date, that one couldn't help but mourn the death of the person who played one of the two protagonists in the film & its sequels. Rabi Ghosh, who played Bagha in the series, was a terrific actor & powerhouse performer, and hence was paid tribute for a lot of memorable performances when he'd died. But Tapen Chatterjee didn't have that big a filmography, and so for us Bengalis, he'll only and always be the face of good-old Goopy.
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ReplyDeleteI'm afraid I'm ignorant of Satyajit Ray as well (he's at the top of my to-explore list once I move through Mizoguchi and Godard), so I'm afraid I don't know of Chatterjee.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, it took me all day to realize just what an underrated actor we lost. I haven't seen The Last Movie or Out of the Blue, and Easy Rider doesn't hold as much for me as it does for some, but when I finally sat down and thought about it, Hopper's given so many great turns. I think people my age know him more as a paycheck actor but he was good even when he showed up to be a baddie in something absurd like Waterworld. Reading all the obits has reminded me how experimental he used to be and how his professional life has taken about as many turns as his roller coast of a personal life. I hate it when I put off something I've been planning to see (in this case Out of the Blue) until something like this happens and I start to feel that my motivation to finally get around to it is based on a morbid relation to a filmmaker's death.
Aye, Dave, he's been extremely ill for over a year now, and few expected him to make it even this long. There was a lamentable headline affair concerning his latest wife in past months which cast an ugly shadow over his struggle with prostate cancer. As everyone here has attested to he was truly a remarkable actor, who displayed a marked versatility. My absolute favorite of all his roles was as Frank Booth in BLUE VELVET.
ReplyDeleteI know of Tapen Chatterjee too Shubhajit, and that's a substantial loos as well.