True Romance

He was an inter-generational bad boy, an artist whose work tied James Dean to Keanu Reeves, an actor, director, photographer and self-admitted drug abuser, and one of the key links between old Hollywood and the new age of independent film.
Dennis Hopper died Saturday morning at his home in Venice, Calif.., after a long battle with prostate cancer. He was 74.
Hopper, who starred with his friend James Dean in "Rebel Without a Cause" and "Giant" in the 1950s, has more than 200 performances in film and television listed on the Internet Movie Database, ranging from bit parts in "Cool Hand Luke" and an episode of "Naked City" to classic performances in "Blue Velvet," "True Romance," "Apocalypse Now" and many other films.
Hopper will forever be remembered, though, for directing and starring in 1969's "Easy Rider," the bikers-in-search-of-America film he made with Peter Fonda, which also first introduced Jack Nicholson to a mass audience. The movie signaled an end to the traditional Hollywood system and the beginning of a new brand of outlaw filmmaker with the ability to connect to mainstream audiences.
But Hopper was never again able to match the success of "Easy Rider" as a director, and he spent many years battling both his tendency to indulge in substance abuse and a bad reputation.
In 1986, though, Hopper bounced back with two films that re-established his career -- "Hoosiers" and "Blue Velvet." He earned a supporting actor Oscar nomination for "Hoosiers," playing an alcoholic basketball coach, but it was his fierce turn as the gas-huffing fiend Frank Booth in David Lynch's "Blue Velvet" that wowed most critics.
In the years since, Hopper appeared in blockbusters such as "Speed" and "Waterworld" while signing on to numerous cheesy films such as "Super Mario Bros." And every once in a while, he'd find a gem like "Paris Trout" or "Elegy," or his small, perfect role in "True Romance."
"You can only do what's offered to you, sometimes you have choices and sometimes you don't," Hopper told The News in an August 2008 interview
."I've done over 150 movies. A lot of them, unfortunately, are only seen in Eastern Europe and Fiji, and they love bad movies there by the way," Hopper said.
Still, Hopper said he continued to love acting.
"I still feel the same way about acting as when I was a kid," he said. "It's always a challenge and you're always learning."
And he knew he'd been lucky to survive his tumultuous youth.
"I never thought I'd live to be 30," Hopper said.