Legendary actor Dennis Hopper has died from prostate cancer at 74 years of age. The veteran actor was diagnosed with the disease last year and was told that it was terminal at the beginning of this year. He died at his home in Venice, California. He leaves behind daughters Marin, Ruthella and Galen Grier and son Henry Lee.

Perhaps best known for co-writing, directing and starring in the classic movie; Easy Rider in 1969 for which he received a ‘best original screenplay’ Oscar nomination.

Hopper’s next trip to the Oscars came in 1986 when he was given a ‘Best Supporting Actor’ nomination for his part in the basketball movie Hoosiers.

Personally, from a purely Nerd perspective, I’ll remember Hopper for his roles in George A Romero’s The Land of the Dead, The Crow: Wicked Prayer, 24, Space Truckers, Waterworld, Speed, True Romance and of course Super Mario Brothers where he played King Kooper. (You can’t blame him for how Super Mario Bros the movie turned out.)

I’m not what you could consider a massive fan of Hopper but he appeared in movies that mean something to me and the thing with him was he didn’t just turn up in movies, no, usually he stole the show or at least owned the scenes that he was in. I mean, take for example his role in Super Mario, yeah the movie was pretty bunk but Hopper wasn’t.

I loved him in the Land of the Dead too. For me he made that movie, every scene he was in he just oozed with greed and power, screw the Zombies in that movie, the real threat was Hopper’s Kaufman.

Oh, and I should mention that Space Truckers is one of my guilty pleasures. Okay, it’s not the best sci-fi movie of all time, heck, it’s not even close to being the best b-movie of all time but it’s got Dennis Hopper in it and spaceships.

I’m going to miss Dennis Hopper, I suppose a lot of people are and at the end of the day that’s got to mean something.

Rest In Peace Dennis Hopper

Photo courtesy of topnews.in

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