There now remain only two. With the death of counter-culture film icon Dennis Hopper, the only remaining real 1960’s rebels of film and TV are Peter Fonda (70) and Jack Nicholson (73).

Hopper was already a well established Hollywood fixture before the landmark debut of “Easy Rider,” a movie that literally changed future filmmaking. The actor was best known until “Rider” as the clean-cut, boy-next-door type in his early and teen flicks with angst legends James Dean and Sal Mineo. Some of his best performances came with Dean in “Rebel Without a Cause” and “Giant,” which starred Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor. Hopper became a 1950’s and early 1960’s televison staple guest starring on such hit western programs as “Cheyene” and “Sugarfoot,” as well as a host of well-known TV shows of that era.

Then in 1967 Paul Newman asked for Hopper to star opposite him and George Kennedy in the mega-hit film “Cool Hand Luke” as the slightly dim-witted Babalugats. This would forever change the way Hollywood viewed the young actor. In 1969 his film “Easy Rider,” co-starring Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson would catapault Hopper into a totally new era of filmmaking that still impacts the way movies are made some four decades later. Hopper directed “Easy Rider,” and co-wrote the film with Peter Fonda. In that same year John Wayne cast Hopper to star opposite him in Wayne’s Academy Award winning film “True Grit”. Hopper portrayed a low-down, dirty, thief and along with his role of Billy in “Rider,” Hopper’s image no longer was typed as the boy-next door.

For a full decade after the success of “Easy Rider” and “True Grit” Hopper tried to live up to that dark image on and off the screen driving the actor into the real seedy world of drug and alcohol addiction that nearly killed him and his professional career.

Then in 1979 his salvation came with a role in Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now”. Hopper starred opposite Marlon Brando and Martin Sheen as a drugged-out, mind-blown photojournalist caught up in the crazed world of Colonel Kurtz’s jungle nightmare and murderous madness. The role was a wake-up call for Hopper, who, in real life, had become a lot like his character in that film. It started him on the long road to sobriety where he was able to begin the climb back to what would culminate in a highly successful professional career and private life that would span five decades and over 200 appearances in film and television.

Ironically, Hopper’s most recognizable and memorable role turned out to be a dark, villainous character named Frank Booth from the David Lynch directed thriller “Blue Velvet”.

In 2008 Hopper returned to television to headline in Ben Cendars’ critically acclaimed Showtime series “Crash”.

For scifi, fantasy and horror genre fans the actor starred in several venues ranging from Romero’s “Land of the Dead,” Kevin Costner’s “Waterworld” to the satiric space opera “Space Truckers”, and the more serious Emmy winning TV show “24” where he starred in 5 episodes back in 2002 as Victor Drazen.

Hopper currently has two films awaiting release, “The Last Film Festival” and an animated film he lent his voice to due out in 2010 titled “Alpha and Omega”.

On a personal note, I will really miss Dennis Hopper. Watching him ply his craft was always a singular joy and illumination into the human psyche.

Dennis Hopper, a film counter-culture icon dead at age 74 from prostate cancer.