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Dennis Hopper was the Oscar-nominated performer who experienced many ups-and-downs throughout his career, with his off-screen antics often overshadowing his onscreen talent. Yet many of his movies have stood the test of time. Let’s take a look back at 15 of Hopper’s greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1936, Hopper made his movie debut at the age of 19 in “Rebel Without a Cause” (1955), where he became fast friends with James Dean. He had an even bigger role in “Giant” (1956), which would be Dean’s last film before his untimely death in 1955. Hopper struggled for several years trying to find his voice, making small appearances in such films as “Cool Hand Luke” (1967) and “True Grit”(1969).

He burst onto the scene with the counterculture phenomenon “Easy Rider” (1969), which he also directed and co-wrote (with co-star Peter Fonda and Terry Southern). The story of two bikers (Hopper and Fonda) traveling across...

David Anspaugh's 1986 sports drama "Hoosiers" has gone down in history as one of the most influential sports dramas ever made. Partly inspired by the real-life story of the 1954 Indiana state champions Milan High School, "Hoosiers" focuses on formerly-disgraced basketball coach Norman Dale (Gene Hackman), who gets a rare second chance to prove his mettle at Indiana's Hickory High School. The rather tight-knit town of Hickory seems a little too unforgiving towards Norman due to his sketchy past, but redemption finds its way to him via a David vs. Goliath situation that soon transforms into a classic underdog tale about dreaming big and achieving the impossible.

Some of the more saccharine themes in "Hoosiers" might feel a tad corny at times, but it is a film that brandishes sincere authenticity when it comes to the magic of unexpected second chances and the highs and lows of small-town sports. Moreover, a...

Abramorama has acquired North American distribution rights to “Uncharitable,” a documentary about the roles that charities and non-profits play in society. The indie distributor will open the film on Sept. 22 in New York at Angelika’s Village East and Sept. 29 in Los Angeles at Laemmle’s Royale before beginning its North American rollout.

“Uncharitable” was directed and produced by Stephen Gyllenhaal, the director of “Waterland” and “Dangerous Woman.” It features the humanitarian activist Dan Pallotta, whose Ted Talk “The Way We Think About Charity is Dead Wrong” was viewed more than 17 million times and has inspired conversations about how charities can be more effective and how we can support them.

An opportunity to address our own bias and overhaul the way we think about charities, the film expands the conversation including interviews with Scott Harrison (Charity Water), Dorri McWhorter (President and CEO Ymca of Chicago, Advisor First Women’s Bank), Steve Nardizzi,...

It took playing a woman who is empowered by becoming a film director in HBO series “The Deuce” for actress Maggie Gyllenhaal to imagine becoming one herself. As soon as she did, after binging the books of Elena Ferrante, from “My Brilliant Friend” to “The Days of Abandonment,” Gyllenhaal was inspired to take the plunge. Three years ago, on the verge of her 40th birthday, Gyllenhaal first wrote to Ferrante, asking the Italian author (whose identity is protected by her publisher) to let her option her 2006 novel “The Lost Daughter” for the movies. After a few email exchanges, the writer said yes. But her contract with Gyllenhaal was void, she told the actress, if she didn’t direct the feature herself. (Ferrante explained why in The Guardian.)

Gyllenhaal eventually obtained the author’s blessing on her script — which often departs from the original) —and cast Oscar winner Olivia Colman (“The Favourite...

It took playing a woman who is empowered by becoming a film director in HBO series “The Deuce” for actress Maggie Gyllenhaal to imagine becoming one herself. As soon as she did, after binging the books of Elena Ferrante, from “My Brilliant Friend” to “The Days of Abandonment,” Gyllenhaal was inspired to take the plunge. Three years ago, on the verge of her 40th birthday, Gyllenhaal first wrote to Ferrante, asking the Italian author (whose identity is protected by her publisher) to let her option her 2006 novel “The Lost Daughter” for the movies. After a few email exchanges, the writer said yes. But her contract with Gyllenhaal was void, she told the actress, if she didn’t direct the feature herself. (Ferrante explained why in The Guardian.)

Gyllenhaal eventually obtained the author’s blessing on her script — which often departs from the original —and cast Oscar winner Olivia Colman (“The Favourite...

Exclusive: Late last week in Los Angeles, Jake Gyllenhaal spoke to Deadline about The Guilty, a gritty pandemic-shot contained thriller which reunited him with Southpaw director Antoine Fuqua and which bows this Friday on Netflix, after premiering on select theaters last Friday. This after premiering at the Toronto Film Festival. He plays a cop who is up on police brutality charges, on a timeout answering 9-1-1 emergency calls as a dispatcher who catches hold of a serious crisis: a woman has been abducted by her felon husband, with their two kids left behind and in danger. Gyllenhaal and Fuqua spent a dozen days shooting the film during the Covid pandemic.

Gyllenhaal is very affable and funny in person, but this chat became so much more about the care and feeding of an actor/producer whose ability to turn in performances with high levels of intensity and testosterone (without chewing...

Denise Di Novi and Nina Tassler’s PatMa Productions has tapped former Showtime programming executive Joan Boorstein as President of the multiplatform independent production company.

“We’re very lucky to have such a seasoned and talented executive join our team,” said Tassler and Di Novi. “There’s no substitute for experience and relationships in this business and Joan possesses both in spades.”

Boorstein began her career at Showtime where she ultimately became Senior Vice President, Creative Affairs. Originally a movie executive, she worked on more than 100 movies, including Golden Globe winner Dirty Pictures, as well as Soldier’s Girl, The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone and Paris Trout. She then moved over to series, where she worked on such shows as Brotherhood, The United States of Tara, The Borgias, Episodes and Penny Dreadful created by John Logan.

Boorstein also focused on feature documentaries including Listen to Me Marlon, which was...

“Escape at Dannemora” is the current frontrunner to take home the Best Limited Series Emmy, which would not only be a huge coup for Ben Stiller & Co., but would be a landmark win for Showtime as the network has never won the category before.

Showtime only has a mere six nominations in the category, which through various times over the years has been merged with and split from the Best TV Movie category. For comparison, NBC and PBS have a record 10 wins each. Last year, Showtime’s bid for “Patrick Melrose” marked the network’s first nomination in the category since “Sleeper Cell” 12 years prior. Its other nominations were for “Paris Trout”, “Hiroshima” (1996), “Armistead Maupin’s More Tales of the City” (1998) and “Armistead Maupin’s Further Tales of the City” (2001).

See Readers don’t think Patricia Arquette will win 2 Emmys in a night, but ‘if anyone can, it’s Patricia...

Pocket Full of Sunshine: Slattery’s Debut Weak in the Knees

The devil’s not in all the details he should be of God’s Pocket, the directorial debut of actor John Slattery, most known for his presence on the series Mad Men. An adaptation of a 1983 novel by Pete Dexter, author of the novels that would spawn the unfairly shamed pulp of The Paperboy (2012) and Paris Trout (1991), this blue collar binge, tinged with a smeary myopic hue of sickly greens and faded palettes, plays like a sometimes comical visit to an outer ring of hell. Receiving mixed reviews after its premiere at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, the death of Philip Seymour Hoffman, who portrays the lead protagonist, inevitably renews the rather moribund anticipation of the film. Unfortunate as that may be, it’s an enjoyable performance from the late Mr. Hoffman, even though the film isn’t quite effective as it could be.

He's been part of Emmy Award-winning acting teams in Mad Men and Desperate Housewives, and recently distinguished himself as Stark Sr. in the globe-conquering Marvel movies. And if that all wasn't enough, next up for John Slattery is a directing debut. He'll be behind the camera for God's Pocket, and he's clearly been earning the respect of his peers, since he's been able to pull in Philip Seymour Hoffman, John Turturro, Christina Hendricks and Richard Jenkins to star.The film's based on the novel by Pete Dexter, who also penned the source for last year's crazed Lee Daniels effort The Paperboy. If you'd prefer to forget those swamp-gothic shenangians (though that film definitely has its loony pleasures), Dexter also wrote Paris Trout and Deadwood: the former terrifyingly filmed by Stephen Gyllenhaal with Dennis Hopper, and the latter the basis for Walter Hill's Wild Bill (if not the fantastic HBO series,...

As the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy approaches next year, award-winning director Stephen Gyllenhaal has signed on to the feature film The Kennedy Detail as Screenwriter and Director.  The motion picture focuses on the men of the Secret Service protective detail assigned to President John F. Kennedy. The project is targeted for a November, 2013 release, coinciding with the tragic anniversary.

.This is the project of a lifetime and I could not be more excited to be part of it,. said Gyllenhaal. .Everyone knows how this story ends, but the true stories told through the eyes of this extraordinary band of brothers, from JFK.s election to that awful day in Dallas, have never been told.  It is time to share their perspective with the world..

Gyllenhaal has begun work on the script with his research including interviews with many of the surviving members of President...

HollywoodNews.com:Directors Guild of America President Taylor Hackford today announced the DGA’s nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Television and Commercials for the year 2011.

?The caliber of work being done on television these days is incredible, and our director nominees in each category are an indispensable element to the success of every project — establishing and enhancing the vision and tone, eliciting outstanding performances and furthering the narrative arc through their creative choices,? said Hackford. ?That they are able to create excellence regardless of obstacles like tighter schedules and in an environment in which audiences have more entertainment options to choose from — is a true testament to the importance of directorial skill in television.?

The winners will be announced at the 64th Annual DGA Awards Dinner on Saturday, January 28, 2012 at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland in Los Angeles.

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Movies For Television And Mini-series

The nominees for the Directors Guild...

Jake Gyllenhaal has shown support to his film director father's second wedding. The Prince Dastan of "Prince of Persia: Sands of Time" took a break from his busy schedule to witness Stephen Gyllenhaal tying the knot with Kathleen Man on the North Shore of Oahu over the weekend.

Serving as a groomsman, the 30-year-old actor donned loose-fitted khaki trousers and brown shirts. He also sported a shaved head and wore lei around his neck for the informal ceremony attended by about 30 guests. Also present for the fete was the "Source Code" actor's sister Maggie Gyllenhaal, who wore a long floral dress.

Jake's father, Stephen, divorced his wife of 32 years, Naomi Foner, in 2009. He is known for his work in directing 1991's "Paris Trout", which was nominated for five Emmy Awards, and 1998's "Homegrown". According to PopSugar, the 61-year-old worked on film project "Grassroots" along with his new wife Kathleen.

We all had a little dilemma about Lee Daniels‘ next project. But now, it looks that we finally have the answer, because according to the latest reports, Precious director is currently rewriting an adaptation of Pete Dexter’s 1995 novel The Paperboy, and that’s not all!

Apparently, Daniels wants Bradley Cooper, Sofia Vergara and Alex Pettyfer to star in it!

That’s definitely an interesting cast for the upcoming thriller that will (according to Vulture) follow “the slacker son of backwater Florida newspaper editor and publisher, gets pulled into his older, big-city reporter brother’s investigation of a rural sheriff’s murder, and whether the death-row inmate convicted of it was truly responsible. Being a Pete Dexter novel, things don’t go smoothly.”

So, it’s not hard to guess that lovely Vergara will play the wife of a death-row inmate, while Cooper would play Pettyfer’s older brother.

Here...

Dennis Hopper’s long film career began with the 1955 teen angst classic Rebel Without a Cause with James Dean, and he helped usher in Hollywood’s New Wave as director and star of the counterculture anthem Easy Rider in 1969. He later became a respected character actor, specializing in such off-beat villains as the drug-addicted, obscenity-spouting Frank Black in David Lynch’s Blue Velvet (1986), crazed bomber Howard Payne in the 1994 action-thriller Speed with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, and Deacon in Kevin Costner’s soggy post-apocalyptic saga Waterworld (1995).

Hopper was born in Dodge City, Kansas on May 17, 1936. He moved to San Diego, California with his family in the late 1940s, and began studying at the local Old Globe Theater while attending high school. He soon signed with Warner Brothers and was featured in a small role in 1955’s Rebel Without a Cause. He was later featured as Jordan Benedict III, the...

Dennis Hopper, who personified Hollywood rebellion, both on screen and off, died Saturday at his home in Venice, Ca. after a long battle with prostate cancer. He was 74.

Having made his big screen debut in 1955's iconic "Rebel Without a Cause," opposite his friend James Dean, Hopper biked to fame as director/co-writer and finger-flashing cyclist, along with Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson, in 1969's "Easy Rider." That movie, which was embraced by the burgeoning youth culture, signaled a generational change in Hollywood and also earned Hopper a best original screenplay Oscar nomination, which he shared with Hopper and Terry Southern.

He was also nominated for an Oscar for his performance as an alcoholic high school basketball coach in 1986's "Hoosiers."

Hopper, like many of the characters he played early in his career, was known for his sometimes anarchic off-screen moves and drug use in the first half of his life.

Actor had so many diverse roles -- from 'Rebel Without a Cause' to 'Easy Rider' to 'Blue Velvet' -- that none is truly definitive.

By Adam Rosenberg with Jem Aswad

Dennis Hopper

Photo: Evan Agostini/ImageDirect

In Hollywood history, a mere handful of stars have had careers that reached the peaks, the depths, the diversity and the longevity of Dennis Hopper's. The legendary — and legendarily rebellious — actor died of prostate cancer early Saturday (May 29) at the age of 74.

Indeed, Hopper's signature roles were so different from each other — and so widely separated by years over his nearly six-decade-long career — that it's difficult to choose one as definitive. Some might single out the teen who appeared with James Dean in 1955's "Rebel Without A Cause." Others recall the nitrous-oxide-huffing psychopath Frank Booth, villain of David Lynch's classic 1986 thriller, "Blue Velvet." Hopper played another memorable villain (who meets a memorable end) in 1994's "Speed.

Actor had so many diverse roles -- from 'Rebel Without a Cause' to 'Easy Rider' to 'Blue Velvet' -- that none is truly definitive.

By Adam Rosenberg with Jem Aswad

Dennis Hopper

Photo: Evan Agostini/ImageDirect

In Hollywood history, a mere handful of stars have had careers that reached the peaks, the depths, the diversity and the longevity of Dennis Hopper's. The legendary — and legendarily rebellious — actor died of prostate cancer early Saturday (May 29) at the age of 74.

Indeed, Hopper's signature roles were so different from each other — and so widely separated by years over his nearly six-decade-long career — that it's difficult to choose one as definitive. Some might single out the teen who appeared with James Dean in 1955's "Rebel Without A Cause." Others recall the nitrous-oxide-huffing psychopath Frank Booth, villain of David Lynch's classic 1986 thriller, "Blue Velvet." Hopper played another memorable villain (who meets a memorable end) in 1994's "Speed.