Dennis Hopper had a successful film career, including appearing in Hoosiers, an iconic sports film.
Hopper earned critical acclaim for Hoosiers (1986), a film inspired by the Milan High School boys’ basketball team, which won the 1954 state championship against Muncie Central High School. Audiences were drawn to the David-versus-Goliath battle between David (Milan) and Goliath (Muncie Central), which David won.
Hooper as “Shooter” (photo courtesy BallinEurope)
Hopper played Wilbur “Shooter” Flatch, a mild-mannered alcoholic turned assistant basketball coach who helps the team during the season. Shooter agrees to stay sober for all the team’s games and practices, which his son, Everett, requires. His sobriety helped him reconcile his relationship with his son, who played for the basketball team.
Hopper often played troubled characters, as he did in Hoosiers. Examples include Rebel Without a Cause (1955), Giant (1956), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), Cool Hand Luke (1967), Easy Rider (1969), The Last Movie (1971), Mad Dog Morgan (1976), Apocalypse Now (1979), Blue Velvet (1986), Speed (1994), and Waterworld (1995).
Hopper also starred in a series of 1990s-era Nike television commercials, and did so without changing the nature of his on-screen character. He played Stanley Craver, a neurotic, paranoid football fan obsessed with getting close to famous NFL stars and their gear. In that role, he delivered frenzied monologues full of catchphrases. Here are three examples.
“Do you know what Bruce Smith does in these shoes, man? Bad things, man, I mean bad things.”
He described Barry Sanders’ running style as a “cannonball loose inside a pinball machine.”
Sterling Sharpe running down the field is “like a freight train, man!”
Dennis Hopper lived a full life. He died at 74 in 2010 from complications associated with prostate cancer.
