The Indian Runner is a 1991 drama film written and directed by Sean Penn. It is based on Bruce Springsteen's song, "Highway Patrolman".

Cast[link]

• David Morse... Joe Roberts
• Viggo Mortensen... Frank Roberts
• Valeria Golino... Maria
• Patricia Arquette... Dorothy
• Charles Bronson... Mr. Roberts
• Sandy Dennis... Mrs. Roberts
• Dennis Hopper... Caesar
• Benicio Del Toro... Miguel

Plot[link]

The story, set in 1960s Nebraska, involves two very different brothers: Joe (David Morse) a small town deputy sheriff, and Frank (Viggo Mortensen), a criminal.

Before the events of the film, Joe had tried to farm for a living, but was unable to make ends meet, and the bank eventually foreclosed on his property. He became a deputy sheriff as a way to support his young wife (Valeria Golino) and child. Joe is a good, conscientious man, but has his own demons to fight with. The opening shot of the film shows a car chase which ends with Joe using his gun to kill a man in self-defense. This results in Joe's conflicted feelings about killing the criminal, as well as the praise and scorn from members of his community from this shooting. Frank, who had been involved with run-ins with the law before going to Vietnam, is described by his father (Charles Bronson) as plagued by "restlessness". Upon his return to town, he breaks into his brother's home and is nearly shot by Joe's wife. The next day, Frank leaves town without ever stopping by his parents' home. As Joe states in the narration, Frank was correct in his assessment that his parents would understand, as they always seem to when he hurts those who love him.

Joe does not hear from his brother for some time, but eventually discovers that he is in jail in another state from their father, who had kept the information quiet to avoid upsetting their mother (Sandy Dennis). Their mother dies and their father commits suicide soon after. Frank is then released from prison and returns to his hometown with his pregnant girlfriend (Patricia Arquette). He tries to settle down and works in construction, but keeps getting into trouble with the law, which puts him in conflict with Joe. When the time comes for Frank's wife to give birth, Frank is in a bar "drinking it down," which sparks a confrontation with Joe. After Joe leaves, Frank beats the bartender to death with a chair and drives out of town with Joe on his tail. The film concludes with Joe allowing Frank to escape across the state line.

Production[link]

The movie was shot partially in Plattsmouth, Nebraska and Omaha, Nebraska. Joe wears the uniform of a Cass County Sheriff's Deputy in the film.

Producer Don Phillips gave Penn's screenplay to two producers, who liked it but felt that the ending was not commercial enough to interest a Hollywood studio.^[1] Phillips' friend Thom Mount, who had his own production company and was a big fan of Penn's work, thought that they might interest a studio if they could get a movie star like Tom Cruise interested in appearing in the film. Penn spotted Mortensen in the film Fresh Horses and was drawn to the actor's "angularity, a severity to his handsomeness", that he thought would be perfect for the role of Frank.^[1]

Penn and Phillips sent Mortensen the script while he was making Young Guns II in Tucson, Arizona and flew there to meet with him.^[1] The actor agreed to star in Penn's film. Penn had Morse and Mortensen rehearse their pivotal scene in a bar for two weeks. The director had a bar set up in a gymnasium which allowed the actors to blow off steam by shooting baskets in between rehearsals. While making the film, Penn felt that Mortensen's "inherent kindness" was too visible and had him work with a member of the Hells Angels motorcycle club that the director knew in order to acquire an edginess that Penn felt necessary for the character.

The Indian Runner is the last film to feature Sandy Dennis, who died shortly after it was released. ^[1]

Critical reception[link]

The Indian Runner was, for the most part, positively received. It has a 'fresh' rating of 69% on Rotten Tomatoes.^[2] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a positive review, writing that Joe and Frank represent not only the two sides of manhood in society, but also, possibly, the two sides of Sean Penn's own character.^[3]

References[link]

External links[link]

Film portal

• The Indian Runner at the Internet Movie Database
• The Indian Runner at Rotten Tomatoes

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2010)

A pair of Runner Ducks.

Indian Runners are an unusual breed of domestic duck. They stand erect like penguins and, rather than waddling, they run. The females usually lay about 150 – 200 eggs a year or more, depending whether they are from exhibition or utility strains. They were found on the Indonesian Islands of Lombok, Java and Bali where they were 'walked' to market and sold as egg-layers or for meat. These ducks do not fly and only rarely form nests and incubate their own eggs. They run or walk, often dropping their eggs wherever they happen to be. Duck-breeders need to house their birds over night or be extremely vigilant in picking up the eggs to prevent them from being taken by other animals. Keeping the birds in sheds until well after dawn is reportedly the best solution.

The ducks vary in weight between 1.4 and 2.3 kg (3-5 lbs). Their height (from crown to tail tip) ranges from 50 cm (20 inches) in small females to about 76 cm (30 inches) in the taller males. The eggs are often greenish-white in color, but these too vary.

Indian Runners love foraging. They also like swimming in ponds and streams, but they are likely to be preoccupied in running around grassy meadows looking for worms, slugs, even catching flies. They appreciate open spaces but are happy in gardens from which they cannot fly and where they make much less noise than Call Ducks. Only the females quack. All drakes are limited to a hoarse whisper. Runners eat less in the way of grain and pellet supplement than big table ducks. Of course, they should be given calcium and protein-rich food, especially the ducks during the extensive laying season.

Approximate weight (metric/pounds)[link]

Drake 3.5-5lbs

Duck 3-4.4lbs

Origins of the Breed[link]

The Indian Runner Ducks are domesticated waterfowl that live in the archipelago of the 'East Indies'. There is no evidence that they came originally from India itself. Attempts by British breeders at the beginning of the twentieth century to find examples in the subcontinent had very limited success. Like many other breeds of waterfowl imported into Europe and America, the term 'Indian' may well be fanciful, denoting a loading port or the transport by 'India-men' sailing ships of the East India Company. Other misnamed geese and ducks include the 'African Goose', the 'Black East Indian Duck' and the 'Muscovy Duck'.

The Runner became popular in Europe and America as an egg-laying variety towards the end of the nineteenth century largely as a result of an undated pamphlet called The India Runner: its History and Description published by John Donald of Wigton between 1885^[1] and 1890.^[2] Donald describes the pied variety and gives the popular story of the importation into Cumbria (Northwest England) by a sea captain some fifty years earlier.

The breed is unusual not only for its high egg production but also for its upright stance and variety of color genes, some of which are seen in seventeenth century the Dutch paintings.^[3] Other references^[4] to such domestic ducks use the names 'Penguin Ducks' and 'Baly Soldiers'. Harrison Weir's Our Poultry (1902) describes the Penguin Ducks belonging to Mr Edward Cross in the Surrey Zoological Gardens between 1837-38. These may well have been imported by the 13th Earl of Derby.^[5] Darwin describes them (1868) as having elongated 'femur and meta-tarsi', contrary to Tegetmeier’s assertions.^[6]

The Cumbrian importations, according to Matthew Smith in 1923,^[7] included completely Fawn Runners and completely White Runners as well as the pied (Fawn-and-white and Grey-and-white) varieties. The most successful attempt to import fresh blood lines was by Joseph Walton between 1908 and 1909. A detailed account of these ventures can be found in Coutts (1927) and Ashton (2002). Walton shipped in birds from Lombok and Java, revolutionizing the breeding stock which, according to Donald, had become badly mixed with local birds.^[8] Further importations by Miss Chisholm and Miss Davidson in 1924 and 1926^[9] continued to revive the breed.

Development[link]

Pure breed enthusiasts, exhibitors and show judges wanted to establish standard descriptions. Standards were drawn up in America (1898) and England (1901) for the pied color varieties. These were largely the same until 1915 when the two countries diverged. The American Poultry Association chose a variety with blue in the genotype whilst the English Poultry Club Standard kept to the pure form described by Donald in his original pamphlet. Other colors followed making use of black genes brought in by some of Walton's birds. These were to produce Black, Chocolate and Cumberland Blue. Later were developed the Mallard, Trout, Blue Trout, and Apricot Trout versions.^[10] Slightly different names and descriptions can be found in American and German Standards. A full account of the influence of the Indian Runner Duck Club (founded in 1906), particularly the input by John Donald, Joseph Walton, Dr J.A. Coutts and Matthew Smith, can be found in Ashton (2002).

The most profound impact of the Indian Runners was on the development of the modern 'light duck' breeds. Before 1900, most ducks were bred for the table. Aylesbury and Rouen Ducks were famous throughout the nineteenth century, and these were supplemented or replaced, after 1873-4, by importation from China of the Pekin Duck. As soon as the Indian Runners became fashionable, a demand for egg-layers and general purpose breeds developed. Using Runners crossed to Rouens, Aylesburys and Cayugas (the large black American breed), William Cook produced his famous Orpington ducks. Mrs Campbell crossed her Fawn-and-white Runner Duck to a Rouen drake to create the Campbell ducks. Later, she introduced wild mallard blood and managed to create the most prolific egg-layer, the Khaki Campbell (announced in 1901). Other breeds followed, some of which emerged as direct mutations of the Khaki Campbell, along with crosses back to Indian Runners, the most famous being the Abacot Ranger (known in Germany as the Streicher) and the Welsh Harlequin.

Colour Breeding[link]

Indian Runner Ducks and Pekins brought in unusual plumage colour mutations. These included the dusky and restricted mallard genes, light phase, harlequin phase, blue and brown dilutions, as well as the famous pied varieties named by the geneticist F.M. Lancaster^[11] as the 'Runner pattern'. Much of the proliferation of new colour varieties in breeds of domestic duck begins with the importation of these oriental ducks. Original research by R.G. Jaap (1930s) and F.M. Lancaster has allowed breeders to understand the effect of genotypes in managing and creating colour varieties. Simplified information can be found in writings by Dave Holderread, and Mike and Chris Ashton.^[12]

In popular culture[link]

Beatrix Potter's depiction of Jemima Puddle-Duck (pub. 1908) with a mostly upright, elongated posture, being an errant laying duck not trusted to incubate its own eggs, suggests that the actual duck she was based on,^[13] at her Hill Top Farm, Cumbria, was a Runner or derivative thereof.

Ferdinand from the 1995 film Babe is an Indian Runner Duck.

See also[link]

• List of duck breeds

References[link]

• Poultryhub.org Fancy Duck Breeds - Indian Runner

External links[link]

Media related to Indian Runner Ducks at Wikimedia Commons

• British Indian Runner Duck Association
• Indian Runner Ducks page on the British Waterfowl Association website.
• Indian Runner Ducks page on poultrykeeper.com including photos.
• Indian Runner Ducks page on feathersite including photos.
• A website designed to encourage others to enjoy keeping Indian Runner ducks.

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The Indian Express is an Indian English-language daily newspaper. It is published in Mumbai by Indian Express Group. After Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split in 1999 among his family members into two with the southern editions taking the name The New Indian Express, while the old Indian Express name was retained in the northern editions based in Mumbai with a prefix "The".

The Indian Express is owned by the Indian Express Group with Viveck Goenka as the Chairman and Managing Director. The group also owns other newspapers in India such as the Financial Express, a newspaper focused on the Indian economy, stock markets, and fiscal policies, the Marathi-language daily Loksatta, and the Hindi daily Jansatta. The group also has other publications such as Screen, a weekly magazine focused on entertainment news.

The Indian Express is published from 9 locations — Delhi, Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, Kolkata, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Lucknow and Ahmedabad.

History of the group[link]

Indian Express was started by an Ayurvedic doctor, Perumal Varadarajulu Naidu, in 1931 at Chennai (then Madras), published by his “Tamil Nadu” press. But soon under financial difficulties he sold it to S. Sadanand, founder of The Free Press Journal, a national news agency.

In 1933 The Indian Express opened its second office in Madurai and launched the Tamil edition Dinamani. Sadanand introduced several innovations and reduced the price, but was later forced to sell part of the stake in form of convertible debentures to Ramanath Goenka due to financial difficulties. Later when The Free Press Journal collapsed in 1935 Sadanand lost the ownership of Indian Express after a long controversial court battle with Goenka, where blows were exchanged between some of the parties^{[citation needed]}.

Goenka’s court battle with Sadanand for ownership[link]

Suit No. C.S. no. 288 of 1936 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, AT MADRAS

PARTES: The Free Press of India (Madras) Ltd. Through its Directors 1. S. Sadanand 2. Mrs. Sagaram Sadanand 3. P. Vardarajulu Naidu. –Plaintiffs Vs. 1. Publicity (Madras) Ltd., represented by R. Goenka, Managing Director. 2. R. Goenka 3. K. Santanam 4. S.V.Swamy 5. T.S. Chockkalingam – Defendants.

Para - 3 (1933) The Free Press of India (Madras) Ltd., a private limited company incorporated and registered in February 1933. The Authorized Capital of the Company is Rs. 3 Lacks divided in 6000 shares of Rs. 50 each. Paid up Capital Rs. 136550. of 2731 fully paid up shares.

Para - 4 (1934) Objects of the Company: The Company was established mainly to acquire and carry on the newspaper known as ‘Indian Express’ previously thereto conducted by the Free Press of India Ltd. Bombay, and to start and conduct such other newspaper and Magazines or Journals as circumstances might dictate . Pursuant thereto the newly formed company purchased from the Free Press of India, the whole of the business, stock in trade, and assets of the Indian Express under Articles of Agreement dated 19 April 1934 for a consideration of Rs. 86,250/- for which fully paid up shares of a like value in the new company were later allotted.

Managing agents debenture issue[link]

First managing agent Messers Sadanand and Company with headquarters in Bombay, with Sadanand as the sole proprietor.

In or about end of 1934 the directors considered to associate a local individual in the managing agency and to raise by way of mortgage debentures a sum of Rs.50,000/- for meeting liabilities pertaining to the additional machinery and meeting certain overdue liabilities.

Accordingly another private limited company known as Publicity (Madras) Ltd. was formed with subscribed capital of Rs. 20000/- of which 51 percent was held by Ramanath Goenka and 49% by Mr. Sadanand. Ramnath Goenka should entirely fulfill the obligations devolving on the managing agents.

M/s. Sadanand & Co., should terminate the managing agency with the company Publicity (Madras) Ltd should be appointed Managing Agents & the new Managing Agents should underwrite the entire mortgage Debentures of Rs. 50,000 Rs. Fifty thousand within a specified date namely 15 January 1935.

Publicity (Madras) Ltd. were appointed managing agents from 08-01-1935. The first directors of the company were S. Sadanand, K. Santanam, and S.V. Swamy, & held office till 22.10.34. At the first Annual General Body Meeting for the year they were reelected & the three directors voluntarily retired and on 23.11.1935 S. Sadanand, Mrs. Sagaram Sadanand, and S. Bhushan were elected as directors and on 19.5.1936 they co-opted Messers. Ramnath Goenka, K. Santanam, T.S. Chokalingam and S.V. Swamy as Directors till the next general meeting.

Rs. 50,000/- was received & on the recommendation of Ramnath Goenka in current account at 6% with Messers. Chunilal Murliprasad bankers on or about 25.1.35.

Co-opted Ramnath Goenka director on 19 May 1936[link]

The first directors of the company were S. Sadanand, K. Santanan and S.V. Swamy and they held office till 22-10-1934 when at the first AGM they were again re-elected as director for the year 1934-35. At the end of the year, the three directors voluntarily retired and on 23-11-1935 S. Sadanand, Mrs. Sagaram Sadanand, and S.N. Bushan were elected directors. S.N. Bushan never took office and resigned on about 4 February 1936. When recording Mr. Bushan’s resignation not to fill the vacancy till the third annual general meeting. And under clause 11 co-opted on 19-05-1936 till the next general meeting, Ramnath Goenka, K. Santanan, T.S. Chokkalingam.

Ramnath Goenka entry & battle in the scene[link]

Ramnath Goenka started creating trouble and to oust S. Sadanand from his accredited position of importance and influence in the company and to make himself supreme in its administration.

The battle started with the next Annual General Meeting which was convened on 22 August 1936 and adjourned from time to time & finally held on 20 September 1936. After start of the meeting & with some arguments, a party consisting of Ramnath Goenka, K. Bhashyam, K. Santanam, T.S. Chokalingam, and S.V. Swamy left their seats, took their chairs to another corner of the room and also took away some papers produced and filed at the meeting on the 19th and the 20th.

Altercations & blows[link]

The suit filed in Madras High Court by S. Sadanand on 30 October C. S. No. 288 of 1936 leveling charges of various fraud committed by Ramnath Goenka and also that Ramnath Goenka at one time saying that he was a partner of Chunilal Murliprasad at another he was an agent and at other times he was totally unconnected and Ramnath Goenka also concealed from till very late stage that the office of Chunilal Murliprasad was situated at his residence.

There have been lot of altercations & blows and finally Final orders of the court passed on Monday the 3rd day of May 1937, the honorable Mr. Justice Gentle in the high court of Madras.

This suit coming on this day before this court for withdrawal in the presence of Mr. R. Rangachariar, Advocate for the Plaintiffs herein, of Mr. K. Venugopala Iyengar, Advocate for Defendants 1 herein, and of Mr. R. Soundara rajan, Advocate for Defendants 2 to 5 herein, and the said Advocates for the parties hereto represent to this court that the suit has been settled out of court, it is ordered as follows:-

1.That this suit do stand dismissed out of this court as settled.

C.S.No. 288 of 1936 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE,AT MADRAS

Finally a year later Goenka to buy the rest of the 26% stake from Sadanand, and the paper came under Goenka's control who took the already anti-establishment tone of the paper to greater heights.^{[citation needed]} Also at that time it had to face stiff competition from a well established The Hindu and the Mail besides other prominent newspapers. In late 1930s the circulation was no more than 2000^{[citation needed]}.

In 1939 it also bought out Andhra Prabha, another prominent Telugu Daily. Later the gained the name Three Musketeers for the three dailies^{[citation needed]}. In 1940 the whole premises were gutted by fire. The Hindu, its rival, helped considerably in re-launching the paper, by getting it printed temporarily at one of its Swadesimithran’s press and later offering its recently vacated premises at 2, Mount Road later to become the landmark Express Estates^{[citation needed]}. This relocation also helped the Express obtain better high speed printing machines, while some claimed the Goenka had deliberately set fire to escape financial embarrassment^{[citation needed]}.

In later years Goenka started the Mumbai edition with the landmark Express Towers as his office when the Morning Standard was bought by him in 1944. Two years later to become it became the Mumbai edition of The Indian Express. Later on editions were started in several cities like 1957 the Madurai edition, the 1965 Bangalore edition, and the 1968 Ahmedabad edition. The Financial Express was launched in 1961 from Mumbai, Kannada Prabha (Kannada Daily) from Bangalore in 1965 and a Bangalore edition of the Telugu Daily Andhra Prabha, and Gujarati dailies Lok Satta and Jansatta in 1952, from Ahmedabad and Baroda.

The Delhi edition started was when the Tej group's Indian News Chronicle was acquired in 1951, which from 1953 became the Delhi edition of Indian Express. In 1990 the group bought the Sterling group of magazines, and along with it the Gentleman magazine.

After Ramanath Goenka’s demise in 1991, two of the family members split the group into Indian Express Mumbai with all the North Indian editions, while the Southern editions were grouped as Express Madurai Ltd. with Chennai as headquarters.

Headquarters[link]

The Express Group has a Mumbai-headquartered division, which should not be confused with Express Publications Madurai, which brings out a South Indian chain of newspapers, including The New Indian Express and is very much a separate corporate entity from The Express Group.

Financial difficulties and turnaround[link]

The newspaper saw falling profits between the years 2000-2002 but did not change its policies and the nature of content it carried. The newspaper, however, appointed franchisees to run some of its loss making editions including the Jammu edition (the model was also adopted to launch the Chandigarh edition of The Financial Express - the business paper of the Express Group). Under the franchisee model, the editorial control of the edition was to be retained by the editorial staff appointed by the Express group. The franchise owner was given the control of with the business side, including circulation and generation of revenues. In return the franchise was expected to provide the operational expenses and a one-time fee to the Express group. The model looked good on paper. However, it led to dilution of the editorial standards as the franchisees sought greater say in the appointment of reporters and selection of content. The conflict between commercial interests and journalistic ethics reached a flashpoint in The Financial Express, Chandigarh edition, when the franchisee threatened to shut down the edition if he was not given the editorial control. The franchisee ultimately emerged as the winner,leading to the resignation of the Resident Editor of the edition. This was followed by fresh appointments to the Editorial team and the franchisee assuming the role of the Managing Editor.The Express Group, subsequently posted profits of Rs 45 crores in 2004. This financial turnaround has been used as a case study in India's highly regarded Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad.

Awards[link]

• Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards
• Ramnath Goenka India Press Photo Awards
• Screen Awards
• FE Women in Business Awards
• Intelligent Enterprise Awards
• Security Strategist Awards
• Uptime Champion Awards
• Express TravelWorld Awards
• Pharma Excellence Awards
• Healthcare Excellence Awards

Business Publications Division[link]

The group also runs the Business Publication Division ("BPD"). This division publishes and prints out of its headquarters at Nariman Point in Mumbai a series of B2B magazines such as Express Computer, Express TravelWorld (formerly called Travel and Tourism), Express Pharma (formerly Express Pharma Pulse), Express Hospitality (formerly Express Hotelier & Caterer), the IT-focused Network Magazine, CIO Decisions, Express Healthcare Management and the newly launched business magazine Express Channel Business.

BPD has also ventured into organising events and exhibitions such as Express World. BPD also conducts events on IT and organises exhibitions for other parties. In September 2006, BPD's Express TravelWorld organised the exhibition for Travel Agents Association of India 55th annual convention in Hyderabad.

The Screen Awards, initiated by Ananya Goenka, are focused on films in India. The awards attempt to position themselves as India's first awards that are given by the film fraternity to the film fraternity by way of a jury, as opposed to the other "popular" awards such as Filmfare and Zee Cine Awards.

BPD brings out several special features throughout the year. Noted among them are few from the Hyderabad division headed by Biju Mathews (GM-BPD), which include the following:

• Centennial Titans
• Platinum League
• Golden League
• Silver League
• [Best of Andhra Pradesh]
• Andhra Pradesh - Celebrations
• Best Schools of Hyderabad
• Gourmet guide - Hyderabad
• Heritage Capital - Hyderabad
• [Best of India]

See also[link]

	Mumbai portal
	Journalism portal

• Indian Express Group
• Express Avenue
• List of newspapers in India by circulation
• List of newspapers in the world by circulation
• The New Indian Express

References[link]

External links[link]

• The Indian Express website

Dennis Hopper
Hopper at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival
Born	Dennis Lee Hopper (1936-05-17)May 17, 1936 Dodge City, Kansas
Died	May 29, 2010(2010-05-29) (aged 74) Venice, California
Cause of death	Prostate cancer
Resting place	Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico
Residence	Los Angeles, California
Nationality	American
Education	Helix High School
Alma mater	Actors' Studio
Occupation	Actor, director, artist
Years active	1954–2010
Notable work(s)	Easy Rider, Blue Velvet, Apocalypse Now, Hoosiers, Colors, Speed, Rumble Fish
Television	Crash
Spouse	Brooke Hayward (m.1961–1969; divorced) Michelle Phillips (m.1970; divorced) Daria Halprin (m.1972–1976; divorced) Katherine LaNasa (m.1989–1992; divorced) Victoria Duffy (m.1996–2010; divorced)
Children	3 daughters, 1 son
Family	Brothers: Marvin, David Cousin: William Hopper
Awards	Cannes Film Award, Boston Society of Film Critics Award, Los Angeles Film Critic Association Award, National Society of Film Critics Award, MTV Movie Award

Dennis Lee Hopper (May 17, 1936 - May 29, 2010) was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. As a young man, Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors' Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1954 and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and Giant (1956). During the next 10 years, Hopper appeared frequently on television in guest roles, and by the end of the 1960s had played supporting roles in several films.

He directed and starred in Easy Rider (1969), winning an award at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay as co-writer. Journalist Ann Hornaday wrote: "With its portrait of counterculture heroes raising their middle fingers to the uptight middle-class hypocrisies, Easy Rider became the cinematic symbol of the 1960s, a celluloid anthem to freedom, macho bravado and anti-establishment rebellion."^[1] Film critic Matthew Hays notes that "no other persona better signifies the lost idealism of the 1960s than that of Dennis Hopper."^[2]

He was unable to build on his success for several years, until a featured role in Apocalypse Now (1979) brought him attention. He subsequently appeared in Rumble Fish (1983) and The Osterman Weekend (1983), and received critical recognition for his work in Blue Velvet and Hoosiers, with the latter film garnering him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He directed Colors (1988) and played the villain in Speed (1994). He played another villain, King Koopa, in Super Mario Bros. (1993). Hopper also played heroes, such as John Canyon in Space Truckers. Hopper's later work included a leading role in the television series Crash. Hopper's last performance was filmed just before his death: The Last Film Festival, slated for a 2011 release. Hopper was also a prolific and acclaimed photographer, a profession he began in the 1960s.^[3]

Early life[link]

Hopper was born in Dodge City, Kansas, the son of Marjorie Mae (née Davis, July 12, 1917 - January 12, 2007)^[4][5] and Jay Millard Hopper^[6] (June 23, 1916 – August 7, 1982).^[4] Hopper had two brothers, Marvin and David.^[7]

After World War II, the family moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where the young Hopper attended Saturday art classes at the Kansas City Art Institute. At the age of 13, Hopper and his family moved to San Diego, where his mother worked as a lifeguard instructor and his father was a post office manager (Hopper has acknowledged, though, that his father was in the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency, in China with Mao Zedong).^[8] Hopper was voted most likely to succeed at Helix High School, where he was active in the drama club, speech and choir.^[9] It was there that he developed an interest in acting, studying at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, and the Actors' Studio in New York City (he studied with Lee Strasberg for five years). Hopper struck up a friendship with actor Vincent Price, whose passion for art influenced Hopper's interest in art. He was especially fond of the plays of William Shakespeare.

Film career[link]

Hopper was reported to have an uncredited role in Johnny Guitar in 1954 but he has stated that he was not even in Hollywood when this film was made.^[10] Hopper made his debut on film in two roles with James Dean (whom he admired immensely) in Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and Giant (1956). Dean's death in a 1955 car accident affected the young Hopper deeply and it was shortly afterwards that he got into a confrontation with veteran director Henry Hathaway on the film From Hell To Texas. Hopper refused directions for 80 takes over several days.

In his book Last Train to Memphis, American popular music historian Peter Guralnick says that in 1956, when Elvis Presley was making his first film in Hollywood, Hopper was roommates with fellow actor Nick Adams and the three became friends and socialized together. In 1959 Hopper moved to New York to study Method acting under Lee Strasberg at the Actor's Studio.^[11] In 1961, Hopper played his first lead role in Night Tide, an atmospheric supernatural thriller involving a mermaid in an abandoned amusement park.

In a December 1994 interview on the Charlie Rose Show, Hopper credited John Wayne with saving his career, as Hopper acknowledged that because of his insolent behavior, he could not find work in Hollywood for seven years. Hopper stated that because he was the son-in-law of actress Margaret Sullavan, a friend of John Wayne, Wayne hired Hopper for a role in The Sons of Katie Elder. This role enabled Hopper to begin making movies again.^[12]

Hopper had a supporting role as "Babalugats," the bet-taker in Cool Hand Luke (1967). Hopper acted in mainstream films including The Sons of Katie Elder (1965) and True Grit (1969). Both of these films starred John Wayne, and in both Hopper's character is killed in the presence of Wayne's character to whom he utters his dying words. During the production of True Grit, he became well acquainted with Wayne.

In 1968, Hopper teamed with Peter Fonda, Terry Southern and Jack Nicholson to make Easy Rider, which premiered in July 1969. With the release of True Grit a month earlier, Hopper had starring roles in two major box office films that summer. Hopper won wide acclaim as the director for his improvisational methods and innovative editing for Easy Rider^{[citation needed]}. The production was plagued by creative differences and personal acrimony between Fonda and Hopper, the dissolution of Hopper's marriage to Hayward, his unwillingness to leave the editor's desk and his accelerating abuse of drugs and alcohol.^{[citation needed]}

In 1971, Hopper released The Last Movie. Expecting an accessible follow-up to Easy Rider, audiences were treated to artistic flourishes (like the inclusion of "scene missing" card shots) and a hazily existentialist plot that dabbled in non-linearity and the absurd. After finishing first at the Venice Film Festival, the film was dismissed by audiences and critics alike during its first domestic engagement in New York City. During the tumultuous editing process, Hopper ensconced himself at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House in Taos, New Mexico, which he had purchased in 1970,^[13] for almost an entire year. In between contesting Fonda's rights to the majority of the residual profits from Easy Rider, he married Michelle Phillips in October 1970.

Hopper was able to sustain his lifestyle and a measure of celebrity by acting in numerous low budget and European films throughout the 1970s as the archetypical "tormented maniac", including Mad Dog Morgan (1976), Tracks (1976), and The American Friend (1977). With Francis Ford Coppola's blockbuster Apocalypse Now (1979), Hopper returned to prominence as a hyper-manic Vietnam-era photojournalist. Stepping in for an overwhelmed director, Hopper won praise in 1980 for his directing and acting in Out of the Blue. Immediately thereafter, Hopper starred as an addled short-order cook "Cracker" in the Neil Young/Dean Stockwell low-budget collaboration Human Highway. Production was reportedly often delayed by his unreliable behavior. Peter Biskind states in the New Hollywood history Easy Riders, Raging Bulls that Hopper's cocaine intake had reached three grams a day by this time period, complemented by an additional 30 beers, marijuana, and Cuba libres.

After staging a "suicide attempt" (really more of a daredevil act) in a coffin using 17 sticks of dynamite during an "art happening" at the Rice University Media Center (filmed by professor and documentary filmmaker Brian Huberman),^[14] and later disappearing into the Mexican desert during a particularly extravagant bender, Hopper entered a drug rehabilitation program in 1983.

Though Hopper gave critically acclaimed performances in Rumble Fish (1983) and The Osterman Weekend (1983), it was not until he portrayed the gas-huffing, obscenity-screaming iconic villain Frank Booth in David Lynch's Blue Velvet (1986) that his career truly revived. After reading the script, Hopper contacted Lynch and told him "You have to let me play Frank Booth. Because I am Frank Booth!"^[15] Hopper won critical acclaim and several awards for this role and the same year received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role as an alcoholic basketball lover in Hoosiers.

In 1988, Hopper directed the critically acclaimed Colors. He was nominated for an Emmy Award^[16] for the 1991 HBO films Paris Trout and Doublecrossed (in which he played real life drug smuggler and DEA informant Barry Seal). The same year he starred as King Koopa in Super Mario Bros., a 1993 critical and commercial failure loosely based on the video game of the same name.^[10] In 1993, he played Clifford Worley in True Romance. He co-starred in the 1994 blockbuster Speed with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, and as magic-phobic H. P. Lovecraft in the TV movie Witch Hunt.

In 1995, Hopper played a greedy TV self help guru, Dr. Luther Waxling in Search and Destroy. The same year, he starred as Deacon, the one-eyed nemesis of Kevin Costner in Waterworld. In 2003, Hopper was in the running for the dual lead in the indie horror drama Firecracker, but was ousted at the last minute in favor of Mike Patton. In 2005, Hopper played Paul Kaufman in George A. Romero's Land of the Dead. In 2008, Hopper starred in An American Carol. In 2008 he also played The Death in Wim Wenders' Palermo Shooting. His last major feature film appearance was in the 2008 film Elegy with Sir Ben Kingsley, Penélope Cruz and Debbie Harry. For his last performance, he was the voice of Tony, the alpha-male of the Eastern wolf pack inside the 2010 3D computer animated film Alpha and Omega. He died before the movie was released. This brought the directors to dedicate the film to his memory. This is the first part of the movie credits.

Television work[link]

Hopper debuted in an episode of the Richard Boone television series Medic in 1955, portraying a young epileptic.

He appeared as an arrogant young gunfighter, the Utah Kid, in the 1956 episode "Quicksand" of the first hour-long television western television series, ABC's Cheyenne, starring Clint Walker. In the story line, the Kid gave Cheyenne Bodie no choice but to kill him in a gunfight.

He subsequently appeared in over 140 episodes of television shows such as Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Petticoat Junction, The Twilight Zone, The Barbara Stanwyck Show, The Defenders, The Investigators, The Legend of Jesse James, Entourage, The Big Valley, The Time Tunnel, The Rifleman in which he appeared in the premier episode as a sharpshooter ^[17] and Combat!.

Hopper teamed with Nike in the early 1990s to make a series of television commercials. He appeared as a "crazed referee" in those ads. He portrayed villain Victor Drazen in the first season of the popular drama 24 on the Fox television network.

Hopper starred as a U.S. Army colonel in the NBC 2005 television series E-Ring, a drama set at The Pentagon, but the series was cancelled after 14 episodes aired in the USA. Hopper appeared in all 22 episodes that were filmed. He also played the part of record producer Ben Cendars in the Starz television series Crash.

Photography and art[link]

Hopper in June 2008.

Hopper was a prolific photographer, painter, and sculptor.^[18] His photography is known for portraits from the 1960s. His painting style ranges from abstract impressionism to photorealism and often includes references to his cinematic work and to other artists.^[3][19]

Ostracized by the Hollywood film studios due to his reputation for being a "difficult" actor, Hopper eventually turned to photography in the 1960s with a camera bought for him by his first wife, Brooke Hayward. During this period he created the cover art for the Ike & Tina Turner single River Deep – Mountain High (released in 1966).^[20] Dennis Hopper: Photographs 1961-1967 was published in February, 2011, by Taschen.^[21]

Hopper became a prolific photographer, and noted writer Terry Southern profiled Hopper in Better Homes and Gardens magazine as an up and coming photographer "to watch" in the mid 1960s.

He began working as a painter and a poet as well as a collector of art in the 1960s as well, particularly Pop Art. One of the first art works Hopper owned was an early print of Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans bought for $75. Hopper also once owned Andy Warhol's Mao which he shot one evening in a fit of paranoia, the 2 bullet holes possibly adding to the print's value. The print sold at Christie's, New York, for $302,500 in January 2011.^[22]

In March 2010, it was announced that Hopper was on the "short list" for Jeffrey Deitch's inaugural show at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA).^[23]

In April 2010, Deitch confirmed that Hopper's work, curated by Julian Schnabel, will indeed be the focus of his debut at MOCA.^[24]

In May 2010 it was announced that Hopper will be the subject of an upcoming biography by American writer Tom Folsom, Hopper: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream.^[25] The subtitle is a direct reference to the Hunter S. Thompson book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.^[26]

On the Gorillaz album Demon Days, Hopper narrates the song "Fire Coming out of the Monkey's Head."^[27]

Personal life[link]

Hopper with Jack Nicholson at the 62nd Academy Awards in 1990.

According to Rolling Stone magazine, he was "one of Hollywood's most notorious drug addicts" for 20 years. He spent much of the 1970s and early 1980s living as "an outcast" in a small town after the success of Easy Rider. Hopper was also "notorious for his troubled relationships with women," including Michelle Phillips, who divorced him after less than two weeks of marriage.^[28] Hopper was married five times in total — he was in the process of divorcing Victoria Duffy, his wife of 14 years, at the time of his death — and was survived by:

• Brooke Hayward (born 1937), daughter of Leland Hayward and Margaret Sullavan; married 1961 – divorced 1969, 1 child, daughter Marin Hopper (born on June 26, 1962)
• Michelle Phillips (born 1944); married 31 October 1970 – divorced 8 November 1970
• Daria Halprin (born 1948); married 1972 – divorced 1976, 1 child, daughter Ruthanna Hopper (born circa 1974)
• Katherine LaNasa (born 1966); married June 17, 1989 – divorced April 1992, 1 child, son Henry Lee Hopper (born on September 11, 1990)
• Victoria Duffy (born 1968); married April 13, 1996 – separated January 12, 2010,^[29] 1 child, daughter Galen Grier Hopper (born on March 26, 2003)

Hopper has two granddaughters, Violet Goldstone and Ella Brill.^[30]

In 1999, actor Rip Torn filed a defamation lawsuit against Hopper over a story Hopper told on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Hopper claimed that Torn pulled a knife on him during pre-production of the film Easy Rider. According to Hopper, Torn was originally cast in the film but was replaced with Jack Nicholson after the incident. According to Torn's suit, it was actually Hopper who pulled the knife on him. A judge ruled in Torn's favor and Hopper was ordered to pay $475,000 in damages. Hopper then appealed but the judge again ruled in Torn's favor and Hopper was required to pay another $475,000 in punitive damages.^[31]

According to Newsmeat, Hopper donated $2,000 to the Republican National Committee in 2004 and an equal amount in 2005.^[32]

Hopper has been honored with the rank of commander of France's National Order of Arts and Letters, at a ceremony in Paris.^[33]

Hopper supported Barack Obama in the 2008 US Presidential election.^[34] Hopper confirmed this in an election day appearance on the ABC daytime show The View. He said his reason for not voting Republican was the selection of Sarah Palin as the Republican vice presidential candidate.^[35]

Divorce from Victoria Duffy[link]

On January 14, 2010, he filed for divorce from his fifth wife, Victoria Duffy.^[36] After citing her "outrageous conduct" and stating Duffy was "insane", "inhuman" and "volatile", Hopper was granted a restraining order against her on February 11, 2010, and as a result, she was forbidden to come within 10 feet (3.0 m) of him or contact him.^[37] On March 9, 2010, Duffy refused to move out of the Hopper home, despite the court's order that she do so by March 15.^[38]

On March 23, 2010, Hopper filed papers in court alleging Duffy had absconded with $1.5 million of his art, refused his requests to return it, and then had "left town".^[39]

On April 5, 2010, a court ruled that Duffy could continue living on Hopper's property, and that he must pay $12,000 per month spousal and child support for their daughter Galen. Hopper did not attend the hearing.^[40] On May 12, 2010, a hearing was held before Judge Amy Pellman in downtown Los Angeles Superior Court. Though Hopper died two weeks later, Duffy insisted at the hearing that he was well enough to be deposed.^[41] The hearing also addressed who to designate on Hopper's life insurance policy; it currently lists his wife as a beneficiary.^[42] A very ill Hopper did not appear in court though his estranged wife did – case BD518046. Despite Duffy's bid to be named the sole designee of Hopper's million-dollar life insurance policy, the judge ruled against her and limited her claim to one-quarter of the policy. The remaining $750,000 was designated to go to his estate.^[43]

On November 14, 2010, it was revealed that (despite Duffy's earlier assertion in her court papers of February 2010 that Hopper was mentally incompetent, and that his children had rewritten his estate plan in order to leave Duffy and her daughter, Hopper's youngest child Galen, destitute) Galen would be receiving the proceeds of 40% of his estate.^[44]

Illness and death[link]

On September 28, 2009, Hopper, then 73, was reportedly brought into an unidentified Manhattan hospital by an ambulance wearing an oxygen mask and “with numerous tubes visible.”^[45] On October 2, he was discharged, after receiving treatment for dehydration.^[46]

Hopper at his Hollywood Walk of Fame Star ceremony, March 2010

On October 29, Hopper's manager reported that Hopper had been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer.^[47] In January 2010, it was reported that Hopper's cancer had metastasized to his bones.^[48]

On March 18, 2010, he was honored with the 2,403rd star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in front of Grauman's Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard.^[49] Surrounded by friends including Jack Nicholson, Viggo Mortensen, David Lynch, Michael Madsen, family and fans, he attended its addition to the sidewalk six days later.^[50]

As of March 23, 2010, Hopper reportedly weighed only 100 pounds (45 kg) and was unable to carry on long conversations.^[51] According to papers filed in his divorce court case, Hopper was terminally ill and was unable to undergo chemotherapy to treat his prostate cancer.^{[52] [53]}

Hopper died at his home in the coastal Los Angeles district of Venice on the morning of May 29, 2010 at the age of 74, due to complications from prostate cancer.^[54]

Hopper's funeral took place on June 3, 2010 at San Francisco de Asis Mission Church in Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico.^[55] He was buried in Jesus Nazareno Cemetery, Ranchos de Taos.^[56]

The film Alpha and Omega, which was his last movie role, was dedicated to him.

Bibliography[link]

• "Dennis Hopper, Riding High," Playboy (Chicago), Dec. 1969
• Interview with G. O'Brien and M. Netter, in Inter/View (New York), Feb. 1972
• Interview in Cahiers du Cinema (Paris), July–August 1980
• "How Far to the Last Movie?," Monthly Film Bulleting (London) Oct. 1982
• "Citizen Hopper," interview with C. Hodenfield, in Film Comment (New York) Nov/Dec. 1986
• Interview with B. Kelly, in American Film (Los Angeles) March 1988
• Interview with David Denicolo, in Interview (New York), Feb. 1990
• "Sean Penn," interview with Julian Schnabel and Dennis Hopper, Interview (New York) Sept. 1991
• "Gary Oldman," in Interview (New York), Jan. 1992

Filmography[link]

Awards[link]

Academy Awards

• (1970) Nominated – Best Original Screenplay / Easy Rider (shared with Peter Fonda and Terry Southern)
• (1987) Nominated – Best Supporting Actor / Hoosiers

Golden Globe Awards

• (1987) Nominated – Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture / Hoosiers
• (1987) Nominated – Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture / Blue Velvet

Primetime Emmy Awards

• (1991) Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor - Miniseries or a Movie / Paris Trout

Cannes Film Festival Awards

• (1969) Won – Best First Work Award / Easy Rider
• (1969) Nominated – Palme d'Or / Easy Rider
• (1980) Nominated – Palme d'Or / Out of the Blue

Directors Guild of America Award

• (1970) Nominated - Outstanding Directing - Feature Film / Easy Rider

Independent Spirit Awards

• (1987) Nominated - Best Male Lead / Blue Velvet

Boston Society of Film Critics Awards

• (1987) Won - Best Supporting Actor / Blue Velvet

Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards

• (1987) Won - Best Supporting Actor / Blue Velvet & Hoosiers

MTV Movie Awards

• (1995) Won - Best Villain / Speed

National Society of Film Critics Awards

• (1970) Won - Special Award ("For the director, co-writer and co-star") / Easy Rider
• (1987) Won - Best Supporting Actor / Blue Velvet

Writers Guild of America Award

• (1970) Nominated - Best Drama Written Directly for the Screen / Easy Rider (shared with Peter Fonda and Terry Southern)

References[link]

Further reading[link]

Books

• Biskind, Peter. Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood, Simon and Schuster (1999)
• Hoberman, J. Dennis Hopper: From Method to Madness, Walker Art Center (1988)
• Hopper, Dennis. Dennis Hopper: Out of the Sixties, Twelvetrees Press (1986)
• Krull, Craig. “Photographing the LA Art Scene: 1955-1975”, Craig Krull Gallery (1996)
• Rodriguez, Elean. Dennis Hopper: A Madness to his Method, St. Martin's Press (1988)
• Dennis Hopper: Photographs 1961-1967, Taschen (2011)
• Winkler, Peter L. "Dennis Hopper: The Wild Ride of a Hollywood Rebel," Barricade Books (2011)

Articles

• Macklin, F. A., "Easy Rider: The Initiation of Dennis Hopper," in Film Heritage (Dayton, Ohio), Fall 1969
• Burke, Tom, "Dennis Hopper Saves the Movies," in Esquire (New York), Dec. 1970
• Burns, Dan E., "Dennis Hopper's The Last Movie: Beginning of the End,", in Literature/Film Quarterly, 1979
• Algar, N., "Hopper at Birmingham," in Sight and Sound (London), Summer 1982
• Herring, H. D., "Out of the Dream and into the Nightmare: Dennis Hopper's Apocalyptic Vision of America," in Journal of Popular Film (Washington, D.C.), Winter 1983
• Scharres, B., "From Out of the Blue: The Return of Dennis Hopper," in Journal of the University Film and Video Assoc. (Carbondale, IL), Spring 1983
• Current Biography 1987, New York, 1987
• Martin, A., "Dennis Hopper: Out of the Blue and into the Black," in Cinema Papers (Melbourne), July 1987
• Weber, Bruce, "A Wild Man is Mellowing, Albeit Not on Screen," in New York Times, Sept. 8, 1994

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Dennis Hopper at the Internet Movie Database
• Dennis Hopper at the TCM Movie Database
• Dennis Hopper at AllRovi
• Dennis Hopper Exhibition History
• Dennis Hopper: Life & Times - slideshow by Life magazine
• Media related to Dennis Hopper at Wikimedia Commons

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2012)

Jack Nitzsche
Photo by Brian Ashley White
Background information
Birth name	Bernard Alfred Nitzsche
Born	(1937-04-22)April 22, 1937 Chicago, Illinois
Died	August 25, 2000(2000-08-25) (aged 63) Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Genres	Rock, jazz, classical
Occupations	Composer, orchestrator, arranger, session musician, record producer
Instruments	Saxophone, piano
Years active	1955–2000
Associated acts	The Nooney Rickett 4, Sonny Bono, Phil Spector, The Wrecking Crew, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, The Rolling Stones, Willy DeVille

Bernard Alfred "Jack" Nitzsche (22 April 1937 – 25 August 2000) was an arranger, producer, songwriter, and film score composer. He first came to prominence in the late 1950s as the right-hand-man of producer Phil Spector, and went on to work with the Rolling Stones, Neil Young and others. He also worked extensively in film scores, winning a song of the year Oscar in 1983 for co-writing "Up Where We Belong" (from An Officer and a Gentleman.)

Biography[link]

Born in Chicago, Illinois and raised on a farm in Newaygo, Michigan, Nitzsche moved to Los Angeles, California in 1955 with ambitions of becoming a jazz saxophonist. He found work copying musical scores, where he met Sonny Bono, with whom he wrote the song "Needles and Pins" for Jackie DeShannon, later covered by Cher, The Searchers, The Ramones, Crack the Sky and Willy DeVille and Tom Petty with Stevie Nicks (Pack up the Plantation). His own instrumental composition "The Lonely Surfer" became a minor hit, as did a big-band swing arrangement of Link Wray's "Rumble".

He eventually became arranger and conductor for producer Phil Spector, and orchestrated the ambitious Wall of Sound for the song "River Deep, Mountain High" by Ike and Tina Turner. Besides Spector, he worked closely with West Coast session musicians such as Leon Russell, Roy Caton, Glen Campbell, Carol Kaye, and Hal Blaine in a group known as The Wrecking Crew. They created backing music for numerous sixties pop recordings by various artists such as The Beach Boys and The Monkees. Nitzsche also arranged the title song of Doris Day's Move Over, Darling that was a successful single on the pop charts of the time.^[1]

Nitzsche also was the producer and arranger for two of Bob Lind's albums: Don't Be Concerned and Photographs of Feeling; a compilation disc entitled Elusive Butterfly: The Complete 1966 Jack Nitzsche Sessions, issued in 2007, contains the material on these two albums.

While organizing the music for The T.A.M.I. Show television special in 1964, he met The Rolling Stones, and went on to contribute the keyboard textures to their albums The Rolling Stones, Now! (or The Rolling Stones No. 2 in the UK), Out of Our Heads, Aftermath and Between the Buttons, as well as the hit singles "Paint It Black" and "Let's Spend the Night Together" and the choral arrangements for "You Can't Always Get What You Want". In 1968, Nitzsche introduced the band to slide guitarist Ry Cooder, a seminal influence on the band's 1969-1973 style.

Some of Nitzsche's most enduring rock productions were conducted in collaboration with Neil Young, beginning with his production and arrangement of Buffalo Springfield's "Expecting To Fly", considered by many critics to be a touchstone of the psychedelic era. In 1968, he produced Young's eponymously titled solo debut with David Briggs. Even as the singer's style veered from the baroque to rootsy hard rock, Young continued to work with Nitzsche on some of his most commercially successful solo recordings, most notably Harvest. Nitzsche played electric piano with Crazy Horse throughout 1970 (a representative performance can be heard on the Live at the Fillmore East album) and went on to produce their sans-Young debut album a year later.

While prolific and hard working throughout the 1970s, he began to suffer from depression and problems connected with substance abuse. After he castigated Young in a drunken 1974 interview, the two men became estranged for several years and would only collaborate sporadically thereafter; later that year, he was dropped from Reprise Records' roster after recording a scathing song criticizing executive Mo Ostin. This culminated in his arrest for a violent assault on longtime girlfriend Carrie Snodgress, formerly Young's companion, in 1979.

In 1979, he produced Graham Parker's album Squeezing Out Sparks. Nitzsche produced three Willy DeVille albums beginning in the late 1970s: Cabretta (1977), Return to Magenta (1978), and Coup de Grâce (1981). Nitzsche said that DeVille was the best singer he had ever worked with.^[2]

In the 1970s he began to concentrate more on film music rather than pop music, and became one of the most prolific film orchestrators in Hollywood in the period, winning an Academy Award for Best Song for co-writing with Buffy Sainte-Marie "Up Where We Belong" from 1982's An Officer and a Gentleman. (Nitzsche had already worked with Sainte-Marie on She Used to Wanna Be a Ballerina in the early 1970s.) Nitzsche had also worked on film scores throughout his career, such as his contributions to the Monkees movie Head, the theme music from Village of the Giants (recycling an earlier single, "The Last Race"), and the distinctive soundtracks for Performance, The Exorcist, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Hardcore (1979), The Razor's Edge (1984), and Starman (also 1984).

At the start of the next decade, he scored Revenge (1990). On Revenge he worked with Joanna St. Claire, who wrote, recorded and produced the original song "Are You Ready" for the film's soundtrack.^[3] Nitzsche called St. Claire "one of the most phenomenal singers I have heard or had the pleasure to work with”, and “a great, innovative songwriter”.^[4]

His intensive output declined somewhat during the rest of the decade. In the mid-1990s, a clearly inebriated Nitzsche was seen in an episode of the reality show COPS, being arrested in Hollywood after brandishing a gun at some youths who had stolen his hat. In attempting to explain himself to the arresting officers he is heard exclaiming that he was an Academy Award winner. In 1997, he expressed interest in producing a comeback album for Link Wray, although this never materialized due to their mutually declining health.

His first wife was blue-eyed soul singer Gracia Ann May; they divorced in 1974. In 1983, he married Canadian/First Nations folk singer/songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie. In the 1990s, he was frequently seen once more in the company of Snodgress.

Nitzsche suffered a stroke in 1998 that effectively ended his career. He died in Hollywood's Queen of Angels Hospital in 2000 of cardiac arrest brought on by a recurring bronchial infection.^[5] The R.E.M. instrumental b-side "2JN" was written by guitarist Peter Buck the week Nitzsche died, and the title uses his initials in tribute.^[6]

Discography[link]

• 1963: The Lonely Surfer
• 1964: Dance To The Hits Of The Beatles
• 1966: Chopin '66
• 1972 : St. Giles Cripplegate
• 1978 : OSR Blue Collar
• 1980 : Promises "Promises" - Capitol Unreleased in U.S.
• 1984 : OSR The Razor's Edge
• 1991 : OSR The Indian Runner with David Lindley

Filmography[link]

• Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962)
• Village of the Giants (1965)
• Performance (1970)
• Greaser's Palace (1972)
• Sticks and Bones (1973)
• The Exorcist (1973)
• Moment to Moment (1975)
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
• Heroes (1977)
• Blue Collar (1978)
• Hardcore (1979)
• When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder? (1979)
• Cruising (1980)
• Heart Beat (1980)
• Cutter and Bone a.k.a. Cutter's Way (1981)
• Personal Best (1982)
• Cannery Row (1982)
• An Officer and a Gentleman (1982)
• Without a Trace (1983)
• Breathless (1983)
• Windy City (1984)
• The Razor's Edge (1984)
• Starman (1984)
• The Jewel of the Nile (1985)
• Stripper (1986)
• 9½ Weeks (1986)
• Stand by Me (1986)
• The Whoopee Boys (1986)
• Streets of Gold (1986)
• The Seventh Sign (1988)
• Next of Kin (1989)
• Revenge (1990)
• The Last of the Finest (1990)
• The Hot Spot (1990)
• Mermaids (1990)
• The Indian Runner (1991)
• Blue Sky (1994)
• The Crossing Guard (1995)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Jack Nitzsche at Allmusic
• Jack Nitzsche at the Internet Movie Database
• The Sorcerer's Apprentice, a fan site
• Jack Nitzsche discography
• Nitzsche discography at Spectropop