Dennis Hopper Dies
Dennis Hopper Dies
Dennis Hopper Dies Hopper was a prolific photographer, painter, and sculptor whose works are exhibited worldwide.
Hopper was born in Dodge City, Kansas, the son of Marjorie Mae (née Davis, died 2006) and Jay Millard Hopper (June 1916 - August 1982). After World War II, the family moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where the young Hopper attended Saturday art classes at the Kansas City Art Institute taught by Thomas Hart Benton. At the age of 13, Hopper and his family moved to San Diego, where his mother worked as a lifeguard instructor and his father was a post office manager (Hopper has acknowledged, though, that his father was in the OSS, the precursor to the CIA). Hopper was voted most likely to succeed by his high school class (Helix High School, La Mesa, California, a suburb of San Diego).
It was there he developed an interest in acting, studying at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, California and the Actors Studio in New York City (studied with Lee Strasberg for five years). Hopper struck up a friendship with actor Vincent Price, whose passion for art influenced Hopper's interest in art. He was especially fond of the plays of William Shakespeare.
