Actor Dennis Hopper, whose 50-year film career spanned such classics as “Rebel Without a Cause,” “Easy Rider,” “Apocalypse Now” and “Blue Velvet” died Saturday following a battle with prostate cancer. He was 74.
Hopper died from complications related to his prostate cancer, which had spread across his body. He died at his home in Venice, Calif., at 8:15am PT and had friends and family by his side, manager Sam Maydew said in a statement.
Hopper’s wife, Victoria Duffy, told CNN that Hopper wanted to be buried in Taos, New Mexico since Taos was “his heart home.” Funeral arrangements have not been announced.
Peter Fonda, who co-starred with Hopper in “Easy Rider,” said Saturday he was “blessed” to have known Hopper, TMZ reported.
PHOTOS: DENNIS HOPPER THROUGH THE YEARS
“Dennis introduced me to the world of Pop Art and ‘lost’ films. We rode the highways of America and changed the way movies were made in Hollywood. I was blessed by his passion and friendship,” Fonda told TMZ.
The unconventional, enigmatic Hopper played villains, counterculture heroes and even a young Napoleon Bonaparte with equal aplomb.
He began acting in television in the 1950s, and by 1955 was appearing with James Dean in “Rebel Without a Cause.” In the late ‘60s, he co-wrote, directed and starred in the counterculture classic “Easy Rider,” along with Fonda and Jack Nicholson, triggering a wave of anti-establishment films.
Following a period of substance abuse in the ‘70s, he came back in 1979’s Vietnam War epic “Apocalypse Now, “ then followed with such memorable efforts as “ Rumble Fish” (1983) the erotic “Blue Velvet” (1986) and “Speed” (1994).
More recently, from 2008-2009 he appeared in 26 episodes of the television series “Crash.”
In March, Hopper was given his own star on Hollywood Boulevard with a bevy of screen legends on hand to honor him.
“Everyone here today that I’ve invited and obviously some that I haven’t invited have enriched my life tremendously,” a frail-looking Hopper said at the time, flanked by fellow actors Jack Nicholson and Viggo Mortensen.
“They’ve shown me a world that I would never have seen being a farm boy from Dodge City, Kansas, and learning things I would never have learned.”
The actor’s last months also were marked by a bitter divorce dispute with his fifth wife, Duffy, after 14 years of marriage.
In March, Hopper, a noted art collector, demanded Duffy, return “the valuable works of art she literally stole from me.”
He claimed in an affidavit filed in L.A. Superior Court, that Duffy “surreptitiously removed from my home very valuable personal property while I was extremely ill, refused to tell me where the property was when I asked her, and then left town.”
Hopper estimated the missing art, including a portrait of himself by Andy Warhol and sculptures by Robert Graham and Brit wit Banksy, were worth more than $1.5 million.
Duffy claimed, “I removed my own property. He is making a big deal about me removing things that are legally mine from the house. I have legal letters saying they belong to me.”
Hopper and Duffy had a seven-year-old daughter, Galen. He also had three grown children by his earlier marriages.