'Easy Rider' Dennis Hopper Dies of Cancer

MAY 29, 2010 - 'Easy Rider' star Dennis Hopper is reported to have died at his home in Venice, California, today after a battle with prostrate cancer. He was 74.

Hopper (right) was last seen in public in March when he was honoured with a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. He directed the 1969 counter-culture road movie Easy Rider, which he co-wrote with and starred alongside Peter Fonda. The pair were nominated for a best screenplay Academy Award.

Following a promising start to his career, Hopper developed a reputation as a rabble-rouser with a penchant for drink and drugs. He was reported to have rows with directors and fellow actors, including John Wayne on the set of True Grit (1969).

Hopper was 19 when he was cast in his first movie opposite none other than James Dean in the 1955 Rebel Without a Cause. Later, in 1956, he co-starred with Dean again in Giant. Hopper won critical acclaim and several awards for this role as Frank Booth in David Lynch's Blue Velvet (1986). He received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for Hoosiers in 1986.

Hopper's is the second celebrity death this weekend - after TV star Gary Coleman (of Diff'rent Strokes) who died on Friday (May 28) at age 42 of brain hemorrhage.