ABSTRACT
Dennis Hopper, a prolific, energetic, charismatic performer in A grade and B grade films alike, in popular cinema and in art cinema – and a ubiquitous media celebrity – also came loaded with a past. Looking at Hopper from different methodological perspectives has the effect of creating multiple, sometimes overlapping, sometimes incommensurable Hoppers. Dennis Hopper is a creature of the 1960s – indelibly associated with that decade in the form in which it has been so relentlessly mythologised, de-mythologised and re-mythologised by the mass media ever since. Verbally, Hopper’s inventions – and clearly he had a creative hand in writing or rewriting a good number of them – are frequently astounding. Hopper’s size served the comic side of his acting well: the quick, agile movements he executes of walking, bending, nodding, ducking and weaving build a quietly humorous and utterly infectious aura around his tough, little body.
