Ride ends for Hollywood hell-raiser Dennis Hopper

• Picture: Getty

Hollywood star and director Dennis Hopper died yesterday aged 74 after losing his fight with prostate cancer, surrounded by family and friends.

The celebrated actor, best known for directing, co-writing and starring in 1969 cult classic Easy Rider, passed away yesterday morning at his home in Venice, California. A friend said he had been suffering from complications relating to his illness.

He died at 8.15am following a battle with prostate cancer which began in September last year.

Despite a deteriorating condition, the hard-living star, who openly admitted his fondness for drink and drugs, continued to work almost to the very end, both on his cable TV series Crash and on a book showcasing his photography.

Hopper, who won an award for Easy Rider at the Cannes Film Festival, also starred alongside James Dean in two 1950s films, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant. He played an offbeat photographer in Apocalypse Now, and the bad guy in Blue Velvet and Speed in the course of a career that spanned more than half a century.

He was also nominated for an Oscar for co-writing Easy Rider with Peter Fonda and won several other accolades, including a Best Supporting Actor award from the National Society of Film Critics, for his performance in Blue Velvet. Another Oscar nomination came his way following a rare heartwarming performance as an alcoholic high-school basketball coach in 1986 film Hoosiers.

British broadcaster Jonathan Ross described yesterday Hopper as "one of the greats". In a message on Twitter, he said: "Dennis Hopper RIP.

"One of the greats. I was privileged to have met him many years ago."

Easy Rider is regarded by film fans as one of the greatest films of American cinema, influencing young filmmakers such as Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese. Hopper was said to have introduced mainstream cinema audiences to pot-smoking, cocaine-dealing, long-haired bikers.

He told one magazine in 2005: "We'd gone through the whole '60s and nobody had made a film about anybody smoking grass without going out and killing a bunch of nurses. I wanted Easy Rider to be a time capsule for people about that period."

Hopper and his co-writer and co-star Fonda were joined on screen in Easy Rider by the then-unknown Jack Nicholson, , but their relationship was reported not to be a harmonious set. In fact, Hopper is said to have clashed violently with everyone and Fonda later described him as a "little fascist freak", destroying their friendship.

Many others went on to talk about his terrible tantrums and demanding ways. He mellowed in later years, however, becoming a Republican and promoting brands such as Gap and Nike.

Hopper felt over-indulgence was a requirement for great artists. He once claimed he snorted lines of cocaine "as long as your arm every five minutes, just so I could carry on drinking."

Relationships in his private life were not much better. In a personal life that could easily have made a film plot in its own right, he married five times, which included an eight-day union in 1970 with Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and Papas.

Just before he died, he was engaged in a bitter divorce dispute with his final wife, Victoria Duffy, whom he dubbed "insane", "inhuman", and "volatile" in a lawyer's report. Hopper was granted a restraining order against his wife of 14 years on 11 February following fiery arguments.

On 9 March, Duffy refused to move out of the Hopper home, despite the court's order that she do so. Hopper later filed papers in court alleging Duffy had absconded with over a million pounds worth of his art. In early April a court ruled that Duffy could continue living on Hopper's property, and he was ordered to pay $12,000 per month maintenance for their daughter Galen.

Later in life Hopper was a prolific sculptor, photographer and painter and he displayed work throughout the world.

Just before his death he was reported to weigh only 100 pounds and had struggled to keep his focus and engage in long conversations.

His fragile condition meant he was unable to undergo chemotherapy to treat his prostate cancer. On 25 March his lawyer announced that he was dying from cancer.

He is survived by four children.