Dennis Hopper names the five greatest movie actors of all time
Thanks to his hell-raising antics that quickly established him as one of mainstream Hollywood’s most notorious party animals, the acting prowess of Dennis Hopper often found itself overlooked in favour of the salacious tabloid headlines that followed him everywhere he went.
Co-writing and starring in the counterculture classic Easy Rider made him one of the faces of the nascent ‘New Hollywood’ movement, but he never quite managed to attain a level of stardom even remotely close to that of castmate Jack Nicholson, not that it prevented him from carving out a hugely successful decades-long career as a charismatic character actor with a penchant for the unhinged.
A filmography that covers such heavyweights as Rebel Without a Cause, Cool Hand Luke, True Grit, the aforementioned Easy Rider, Apocalypse Now, Blue Velvet, Speed, Hoosiers, and True Romance underlines just how many esteemed auteurs and A-listers Hopper collaborated with over the years, but his candidates for the five greatest movie actors of all time still throws up a couple of surprises.
In what seems to be an obligation for any thespian who started in the aftermath of his one-man revolution, Marlon Brando was almost inevitably the first name to roll off the tip of Hopper’s tongue when he outlined his contenders to Mustard, although he does “wish he’d been a bit more serious about his acting”.
It would be an understatement to say Brando took his foot off the gas at the backend of his career, but if his profession was considered a trade, Hopper thinks there’s never been anyone better. “I mean, talking about acting as a craft, that always used to shit me,” he said. “But, hey, if he’s a craftsman, he’s one of the greatest craftsmen that ever lived.”
Throwing a curveball into the mix, Hopper’s second pick isn’t even an actor, but he maintained Bob Dylan is “so fucking good” in Sam Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid. “I never felt I was watching a rock star trying to be an actor,” he offered. “He just seemed really, really natural, and that’s all you can ask for in an actor.”
From Hopper’s perspective, Melanie Griffith is “possibly the greatest actor of her generation,” describing her natural abilities as something that can’t be taught. Instead, he labels it as “one of those ethereal things” that only the best in the business can make effortless, something he’s adamant Griffith has in spades.
Along similar lines, Mickey Rourke is “another guy with a special gift” who “had so much charisma” that he “dominates” any film he appears. On the argument that he never maximised his undoubted potential, Hopper thinks it was all by design. “Sure, he should be as big a star as he wants to be. He’s Mickey fucking Rourke, for Christ’s sake!”
His former co-star, James Dean, was succinctly summed up as “the fucking man”, even if Hopper recalls his dedication to his day job being significantly less than 100%. “Did he like acting? No, not at all. He had a particular disdain for movie acting,” the Rebel Without a Cause and Giant alumni remembered, not that it stopped his mythology from continuing to enjoy iconic status.