Dennis Hopper was a person.
Dennis Lee Hopper ( May 17 , 1936 -- May 29 , 2010 ) was an American actor , filmmaker , photographer and artist . He attended the Actors Studio , made his first television appearance in 1954 , and soon after appeared alongside James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause ( 1955 ) and Giant ( 1956 ) . In the next ten years he made a name in television , and by the end of the 1960s had appeared in several films . Hopper made his directorial film debut with Easy Rider ( 1969 ) , which he and co-star Peter Fonda wrote with Terry Southern . He worked on various small projects until he found new fame for his role as the American photojournalist in Apocalypse Now ( 1979 ) .