Posts: 947
From: Leeds
Registered: Apr 2009

posted June 01, 2010 02:51 AM         

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I read that he was blacklisted from hollywood, which I find unbelievable. How could a talented person like that not be allowed to work and these rubbish actors allowed to do whatever? Give the Man some space and freedom and he will act.

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Posts: 184
From:
Registered: May 2009

posted June 01, 2010 02:55 AM         

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Who?

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Posts: 947
From: Leeds
Registered: Apr 2009

posted June 01, 2010 03:00 AM         

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Denis Hopper. Damn silly pink board.

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Posts: 2570
From: Bay Area, CA
Registered: May 2009

posted June 01, 2010 03:01 AM         

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lol oops

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Posts: 184
From:
Registered: May 2009

posted June 01, 2010 03:20 AM         

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I like how the number of replies is "Coffee."

I didn't know Hopper was blacklisted. That's crazy. Why in the world would he be? I'm not very familiar with him other than his roles in Blue Velvet and Easy Rider.

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Posts: 3930
From:
Registered: Apr 2009

posted June 01, 2010 07:47 AM         

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Unreal. I agree Coffee, that is just insane!

Apocalypse Now alone should have given him a lifetime membership to Hollywood and a stupid star in the pavement.

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Posts: 184
From:
Registered: May 2009

posted June 01, 2010 01:36 PM         

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Okay, so I read up on Hopper a bit and found out that in 1958 he was in a movie directed by Henry Hathaway. Hopper (influenced by James Dean's reputation as a rebel and wanting to take over the role of rebel now that Dean was dead) engaged in a "battle of artistic wills" with the director and refused to play a scene according to Hathaway's direction, causing 85 takes before finally doing it correctly. Considering that it's expensive and time-consuming to *everyone* on a set (including fellow actors) when someone blows a scene, to have someone blow 85 scenes on purpose, Hopper was really being an immature jerk in the situation. To be fair to Hopper, the director may have been a jerk also, but every actor knows that their "job" is to act as directed by the director. After the scene finished, Hathaway said Hopper would "never work in this town again", and I'm sure he complained to his director friends about what Hopper did.

However, Hopper didn't want to act in Hollywood as he was frustrated also, so he headed for NYC and studied with Strasberg while working steadily on stage and TV. He earned a lot of money, too, and he did return to Hollywood where he was well-respected and even worked for Henry Hathaway again.

Something that surprised me is that he was a conservative Republican party member, although he voted for Obama in the last election because he said he couldn't support the choice of Palin for Republican VP.

He was a very interesting character indeed. Lara, I'm slightly embarrassed to admit this, but I've never seen Apocalypse Now. There are big gaps in my film viewing in 1960s and 1970s movies. I need to correct this. (And Hopper does have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.)

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