Beatnik was a media stereotype of the 1950s and early 1960s that displayed the more superficial aspects of the Beat Generation literary movement of the 1950s and violent film images, along with a cartoonish depiction of the real-life people and the spiritual quest in Jack Kerouac's autobiographical fiction.

History[link]

Kerouac introduced the phrase "Beat Generation" in 1948, generalizing from his social circle to characterize the underground, anti-conformist youth gathering in New York at that time. The name came up in conversation with the novelist John Clellon Holmes who published an early Beat Generation novel, Go (1952), along with a manifesto in The New York Times Magazine: "This Is the Beat Generation"^[1] In 1954, Nolan Miller published his third novel, Why I Am So Beat (Putnam), detailing the weekend parties of four students.

The adjective "beat" was introduced to the group by Herbert Huncke, though Kerouac expanded the meaning of the term. "Beat" came from underworld slang—the world of hustlers, drug addicts and petty thieves, where Ginsberg and Kerouac sought inspiration. "Beat" was slang for "beaten down" or down-trodden, but to Kerouac and Ginsberg, it also had a spiritual connotation as in "beatitude". Other adjectives discussed by Holmes and Kerouac were "found" and "furtive." Kerouac felt he had identified (and was the embodiment of) a new trend analogous to the influential Lost Generation.^[2][3]

In "Aftermath: The Philosophy of the Beat Generation" Kerouac criticized what he saw as a distortion of his visionary, spiritual ideas:

The Beat Generation, that was a vision that we had, John Clellon Holmes and I, and Allen Ginsberg in an even wilder way, in the late Forties, of a generation of crazy, illuminated hipsters suddenly rising and roaming America, serious, bumming and hitchhiking everywhere, ragged, beatific, beautiful in an ugly graceful new way—a vision gleaned from the way we had heard the word "beat" spoken on street corners on Times Square and in the Village, in other cities in the downtown city night of postwar America—beat, meaning down and out but full of intense conviction. We'd even heard old 1910 Daddy Hipsters of the streets speak the word that way, with a melancholy sneer. It never meant juvenile delinquents, it meant characters of a special spirituality who didn't gang up but were solitary Bartlebies staring out the dead wall window of our civilization...^[4][5]

Kerouac explained what he meant by "beat" at a Brandeis Forum, "Is There A Beat Generation?", on November 8, 1958, at New York's Hunter College Playhouse. Panelists for the seminar were Kerouac, James A. Wechsler, Princeton anthropologist Ashley Montagu, and author Kingsley Amis. Wechsler, Montague and Amis all wore suits, while Kerouac was clad in black jeans, ankle boots and a checkered shirt. Reading from a prepared text, Kerouac reflected on his beat beginnings:

It is because I am Beat, that is, I believe in beatitude and that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son to it... Who knows, but that the universe is not one vast sea of compassion actually, the veritable holy honey, beneath all this show of personality and cruelty?^[6]

Kerouac's address was later published as "The Origins of the Beat Generation" (Playboy, June 1959). In that article Kerouac noted how his original beatific philosophy had been ignored amid maneuvers by several pundits, among them Herb Caen, the San Francisco newspaperman, to alter Kerouac's concept with jokes and jargon:

I went one afternoon to the church of my childhood and had a vision of what I must have really meant with "Beat"... the vision of the word Beat as being to mean beatific... People began to call themselves beatniks, beats, jazzniks, bopniks, bugniks and finally I was called the "avatar" of all this.

In light of what he considered beat to mean and what beatnik had come to mean, he once observed to a reporter, "I'm not a beatnik, I'm a Catholic", showing the reporter a painting of Pope Paul VI and saying, "You know who painted that? Me."^[7]

Stereotype[link]

In her memoir, Minor Characters, Joyce Johnson described how the stereotype was absorbed into American culture:

"Beat Generation" sold books, sold black turtleneck sweaters and bongos, berets and dark glasses, sold a way of life that seemed like dangerous fun—thus to be either condemned or imitated. Suburban couples could have beatnik parties on Saturday nights and drink too much and fondle each other’s wives.^[8]

Kerouac biographer Ann Charters noted that the term "Beat" was appropriated to become a Madison Avenue marketing tool:

The term caught on because it could mean anything. It could even be exploited in the affluent wake of the decade’s extraordinary technological inventions. Almost immediately, for example, advertisements by "hip" record companies in New York used the idea of the Beat Generation to sell their new long playing vinyl records.^[9]

Lee Streiff, an acquaintance of many members of the movement who went on to become one of its chroniclers, believed that the news media saddled the movement for the long term with a set of false images:

Reporters are not generally well versed in artistic movements, or the history of literature or art. And most are certain that their readers, or viewers, are of limited intellectual ability and must have things explained simply, in any case. Thus, the reporters in the media tried to relate something that was new to already preexisting frameworks and images that were only vaguely appropriate in their efforts to explain and simplify. With a variety of oversimplified and conventional formulas at their disposal, they fell back on the nearest stereotypical approximation of what the phenomenon resembled, as they saw it. And even worse, they did not see it clearly and completely at that. They got a quotation here and a photograph there — and it was their job to wrap it up in a comprehensible package — and if it seemed to violate the prevailing mandatory conformist doctrine, they would also be obliged to give it a negative spin as well. And in this, they were aided and abetted by the Poetic Establishment of the day. Thus, what came out in the media: from newspapers, magazines, TV, and the movies, was a product of the stereotypes of the 30s and 40s — though garbled — of a cross between a 1920s Greenwich Village bohemian artist and a Bop musician, whose visual image was completed by mixing in Daliesque paintings, a beret, a Vandyck beard, a turtleneck sweater, a pair of sandals, and set of bongo drums. A few authentic elements were added to the collective image: poets reading their poems, for example, but even this was made unintelligible by making all of the poets speak in some kind of phony Bop idiom. The consequence is, that even though we may know now that these images do not accurately reflect the reality of the Beat movement, we still subconsciously look for them when we look back to the 50s. We have not even yet completely escaped the visual imagery that has been so insistently forced upon us.^[10]

Etymology[link]

The word "beatnik" was coined by Herb Caen in an article in the San Francisco Chronicle on April 2, 1958.^[11] Caen coined the term by adding the Russian suffix -nik after Sputnik I to the Beat Generation. Caen's column with the word came six months after the launch of Sputnik. Objecting to Caen's twist on the term, Allen Ginsberg wrote to the New York Times to deplore "the foul word beatnik," commenting, "If beatniks and not illuminated Beat poets overrun this country, they will have been created not by Kerouac but by industries of mass communication which continue to brainwash man."

Beat culture[link]

In the vernacular of the period, "Beat" indicated the culture, the attitude and the literature, while the common usage of "beatnik" was that of a stereotype found in lightweight cartoon drawings and twisted, sometimes violent, media characters. This distinction was clarified by Boston University professor Ray Carney, a leading authority on beat culture, in "The Beat Movement in Film," his notes for a 1995 Whitney Museum exhibition and screening:

Much of Beat culture represented a negative stance rather than a positive one. It was animated more by a vague feeling of cultural and emotional displacement, dissatisfaction, and yearning, than by a specific purpose or program. It would be a lot easier if we were only looking for movies with "beatniks" in them. San Francisco columnist Herb Caen coined the word (which by sarcastically punning on the recently launched Russian Sputnik was apparently intended to cast doubt on the beatnik's red-white-and-blue-blooded all-Americanness). And the mass media popularized the concept. Dobie Gillis, Life magazine, Charles Kuralt, and a host of other entertainers and journalists reduced Beatness to a set of superficial, silly externals which have stayed with us ever since: goatees, sunglasses, poetry readings, coffeehouses, slouches and "cool, man, cool" jargon. The only problem is there never were any beatniks in this sense (except, perhaps, for the media-influenced imitators who came along late in the history of the movement). Beat culture was a state of mind, not a matter of how you dressed or talked or where you lived. In fact, Beat culture was far from monolithic. It was many different, conflicting, shifting states of mind. The films and videos that have been selected for the screening list are an attempt to move beyond the cultural clichés and slogans, to look past the Central Casting costumes, props, and jargon the mass media equated with Beatness, in order to do justice to its spirit.^[12]

The news photo caption for this 1959 Venice, California event read: "Beatnik Beauties: Posing before a sample of beatnik art are contestants for the title of Miss Beatnik of 1959, which will be conferred Sept. 12 under sponsorship of the Venice Arts Committee. From left are Michi Monteef, Sammy McCord, Patti McCrory, Shaunna Lea and, in rear, Jan Vandaveer."^[13]

Since 1958, the terms Beat Generation and Beat have been used to describe the antimaterialistic literary movement that began with Kerouac in the 1940s, stretching on into the 1960s. The Beat philosophy of antimaterialism and soul searching influenced 1960s musicians such as Bob Dylan, the early Pink Floyd and The Beatles.

At the time that the terms were coined, there was a trend amongst young college students to adopt the stereotype, with men wearing goatees and berets, rolling their own cigarettes and playing bongos. Fashions for women included black leotards and wearing their hair long, straight and unadorned in a rebellion against the middle class culture of beauty salons. Marijuana use was associated with the subculture, and during the 1950s, Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception further influenced views on drugs.

By 1960, a small "beatnik" community in Newquay, Cornwall, England (including a young Wizz Jones) had attracted the attention and the abhorrence of their neighbours for growing their hair to a length past the shoulders, resulting in a television interview with Alan Whicker on BBC television's Tonight series.^[14]

The Beat philosophy was generally countercultural and antimaterialistic and it stressed the importance of bettering one's inner self over and above material possessions. Some Beat writers, such as Alan Watts, began to delve into Eastern religions such as Buddhism or Taoism. Politics tended to be liberal; with support for causes such as desegregation (although many of the figures associated with the original Beat movement, particularly Jack Kerouac, embraced libertarian/conservative ideas). An openness to African-American culture and arts was apparent in literature and music, notably jazz. While Caen and other writers implied a connection with communism, there was no obvious or direct connection between the beat philosophy (as expressed by the leading authors of this literary movement) and the philosophy of the communist movement, other than the antipathy that both philosophies shared towards capitalism.

Beatniks in theater, films and animation[link]

Possibly the first movie portrayal of the beat society was in the 1949 film D.O.A, directed by Rudolph Maté. In the film the main character goes to a loud San Francisco bar, where one woman shouts to the musicians: “Cool! Cool! Really cool!” One of the characters says, “Man, am I really hip” and another replies, “You’re from nowhere, nowhere!”. Lone dancers are seen moving to the beat. Some are dressed with accessories and have hairstyles that you would expect to see in much later films. You can see the crossing of the usual 1940s dress with the beatnik clothing styles particularly in one male who has a beatnik hat, long hair, a mustache and goatee, but is still wearing a dress suit. The bartender refers to a patron as “Jive Crazy” and talks of the music driving its followers crazy. He then tells one man to “Calm down Jack!” and the man replies, “Oh don’t bother me, man. I’m being enlightened!”

Stanley Donen brought the theme to the film musical in Funny Face (1957) with one Audrey Hepburn production number revamped into a Gap commercial in 2006. In yet another Madison Avenue manipulation, one of Jerry Yulsman's photographs of Kerouac was altered for use in a Gap print ad by airbrushing Joyce Johnson right out of the picture.

Another film involving beatnik culture is Roger Corman's 1959 black comedy "A Bucket of Blood," written by Charles B. Griffith. In the film, a coffee house busboy longs for acceptance by the beatnik patrons, so he develops a style of sculpture using dead animals and people. An influential character in the film is the beatnik poet, who convinces the group to accept the busboy as a significant artist.

Indicating his acceptance into the group, an adoring female fan surreptitiously gives the artist a vial of heroin, inferring that drug use was an accepted, and perhaps required, part of beatnik culture.

The film's soundtrack is cool, horn-based jazz. There is also a performance by a singer with an acoustic guitar. Interestingly, rock & roll music is absent, despite its popularity and counter-cultural aspect. One possibility is that the upbeat feel of rock & roll music was at odds with the detached, low-key, nihilistic attitude of the beat society.

The character Maynard G. Krebs, played on TV by Bob Denver in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959–63), solidified the stereotype of the indolent non-conformist beatnik, which contrasted with the aggressively rebellious Beat-related images presented by popular film actors of the early and mid-1950s, notably Marlon Brando and James Dean.

The subculture surfaced on Broadway as musical comedy in The Nervous Set (1959) by Neurotica editor Jay Landesman and Theodore J. Flicker with music by Tommy Wolf and lyrics by Fran Landesman; this was the source of two jazz standards, "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most" and "The Ballad of the Sad Young Men" (recorded by Gil Evans, Anita O'Day, Roberta Flack, Petula Clark, Rod McKuen, Shirley Bassey and others). The show opened with the song, "Man, We're Beat".

The Beat Generation (1959) made an association of the movement with crime and violence, as did The Beatniks (1960). The notion of violence or other criminality possibly arose because hardcore outlaws and criminals were popularly portrayed as using many of the same jive terms in their speech, and this distortion could also be seen in popular TV shows with regard to hippies a few years later.

The film The Rebel (US: Call Me Genius), 1961) featuring British comedian Tony Hancock's tells of a London office clerk who moves to Paris to pursue his vocation as an artist of the Beat Generation; the film satirizes pseudointellectuals.

Two for the Seesaw was a successful Broadway play by William Gibson and was made into a 1962 film which portrayed the fated romance between a small town square (Jerry) and Greenwich Village beatnik chick (Gittel). Jerry is perplexed by what he perceives as Gittel’s chaotic and promiscuous lifestyle and goes back to his wife in hicksville.

The Looney Tunes cartoon character Cool Cat is often portrayed as a beatnik, as is the banty rooster in the 1963 Foghorn Leghorn short Banty Raids. Similarly, the Beany and Cecil cartoon series also had a beatnik character, Go Man Van Gogh (aka "The Wildman"), who often lives in the jungle and paints various pictures and backgrounds to fool his enemies, first appearing in the episode, "The Wildman of Wildsville." Hanna Barbera's series Top Cat features Spook, a beatnik cat; and their series Scooby Doo, features a beatnik character Shaggy. In the animated series The Simpsons, the parents of character Ned Flanders are beatniks who have him placed in a mental institution as a child after they have trouble disciplining his bad behavior (Complains his mother: "We've tried nothin', and we're all out of ideas!").

In the animated television series, Doug, Doug's older sister, Judy Funnie, is characterized as a beatnik.

Two beatniks (played by Ric Ocasek and Pia Zadora) painted furiously and played bongos in John Waters' 1988 Hairspray.

Beat coffeehouses are depicted in So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993), Take Her, She's Mine (1964), The Flower Drum Song (1961), The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) and episode six, "Babylon", of Mad Men.

Beatnik books[link]

Alan Bisbort's survey, Beatniks: A Guide to an American Subculture, was published by Greenwood Press in 2009 as part of the Greenwood Press Guides to Subcultures and Countercultures series. The book includes a timeline, a glossary and biographical sketches. Others in the Greenwood series: Punks, Hippies, Goths and Flappers.^[15]

Tales of Beatnik Glory: Volumes I and II, by Ed Sanders, is, as its name suggests, a collection of short stories, and a definitive introduction to the beatnik scene as lived by its participants.^[16] The author, who went on to found the Fugs, lived in the beatnik epicenter of Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Among the humor books, Beat, Beat, Beat was a 1959 Signet paperback of cartoons by Phi Beta Kappa Princeton graduate William F. Brown, who looked down on the movement from his position in the TV department of the Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn advertising agency.^[17]

Suzuki Beane (1961), by Sandra Scoppettone with Louise Fitzhugh illustrations, was a Bleecker Street beatnik spoof of Kay Thompson's Eloise series (1956–59).

In the 1960s, the comic book Justice League of America's sidekick Snapper Carr was also portrayed as a stereotypical beatnik, down to his lingo and clothes. The DC Comics character Jonny Double is also portrayed as a beatnik.

Museums[link]

In San Francisco, Jerry and Estelle Cimino operate their Beat Museum, which began in 2003 in Monterey, California and moved to San Francisco in 2006.^[18]

Ed "Big Daddy" Roth used fiberglass to build his Beatnik Bandit in 1960. Today, this car is in the National Automobile Museum in Reno, Nevada.^[19]

See also[link]

• Beat generation
• Cool
• Hippie
• Hipster (1940s subculture)
• Moody Street Irregulars
• Yves Saint-Laurent (designer)

References[link]

Sources[link]

• Charters, Ann (ed.). The Portable Beat Reader. Penguin Books. New York. 1992. ISBN 0-670-83885-3 (hc); ISBN 0-14-015102-8 (pbk)
• Nash, Catherine. "The Beat Generation and American Culture." (PDF file)
• Phillips, Lisa (ed). Beat Culture and the New America: 1950-1965. New York: Whitney Museum of Art and Paris: Flammarion, 1995.

External links[link]

Look up beatnik in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• The Beat Museum
• Kerouac.net
• John Sinclair, “The Last Beatnik Warrior Poet”
• Philament: "Beat Etymologies"
• This is the Beat Generation
• Beatniks on film and TV

Look up know-it-all in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

A know-it-all or know-all is a person who believes that he/she has an accurate comprehension of a topic and/or situation when in reality, his/her comprehension is inaccurate and limited. This belief may or may not be outwardly expressed.^[1][2]

The German word Besserwisser is also used in some languages, literally meaning "better knowing [person]".

See also[link]

• Polymath
• Smart Alec
• Whiz kid

References[link]

This vocabulary-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's notability guideline for music. Please help to establish notability by adding reliable, secondary sources about the topic. If notability cannot be established, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted. (September 2011)

Lucy Rose Parton (Born 1989) is an English singer/songwriter from Warwickshire. She contributed vocals on the Bombay Bicycle Club albums Flaws and A Different Kind of Fix.

Lucy Rose never played her material for anyone until she left home after completing her A-levels. At eighteen, she moved to London; but instead of taking her place at University College London to study Geography, she began experimenting and performing with other musicians. It was at this time when she met Jack Steadman, the frontman of Bombay Bicycle Club. After becoming friends Steadman asked if she would like to perform vocals on a song he had written and was recording. The acoustic album Flaws came out with Steadman on lead vocals, and Rose performing backing vocals most notably on the titular track 'Flaws', as well as others on the album.^[1] She also performs some backing vocal duties on Bombay Bicycle Club's new album, 'A Different Kind of Fix'.

Lucy Rose often plays with a band, guitar player Björn Ågren, drummer Sam Nadel, bassist Joe Steer from Broadcast 2000 and multi-instrumentalist Alex Eichenberger. She has three singles out; 'Middle of the Bed' ^[2], 'Red Face' and 'Scar' ^[3] which features backing vocals from Jack Steadman of Bombay Bicycle Club.

Vogue magazine has stated that she is "one of indie music's breakout stars for 2012"^[4].

Her song Don't You Worry appears on the TV show Skins on the 2nd episode of the 6th season.^[5]

Album[link]

In 2012, she started recording her debut album, with producer Charlie Hugall at her parents' house in Warwickshire.

On May 12th 2012, she was signed to the record label Columbia Records UK.^[6]

Touring[link]

Lucy Rose began touring the UK, the United States and Canada with Bombay Bicycle Club, and Noah And The Whale in February and March 2012.^[7]

References[link]

Donald "Don" Draper is a fictional character and the protagonist of AMC's television series Mad Men. He is portrayed by 2008 Golden Globe winner Jon Hamm. Until the third season finale, Draper was Creative Director of Manhattan advertising firm Sterling Cooper. He became a founding partner at a new firm, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, after he and his superiors abandoned their old agency in advance of an unwanted acquisition.

Draper's character is partially based on Draper Daniels, the creative head of the Leo Burnett advertising agency in Chicago in the 1950s who created the Marlboro Man campaign.^[1] However, some of the advertising techniques and the professional accomplishments of Don Draper are based on those of Rosser Reeves, who rose to chairman of the Ted Bates agency.

In 2009, the fictional Draper was named the most influential man in the world by Ask Men, ahead of real-life figures.^[2]

Character biography[link]

This section describes a work or element of fiction in a primarily in-universe style. Please help rewrite it to explain the fiction more clearly and provide non-fictional perspective. (April 2012)

Most of the characters in the series know little, if anything, of Draper’s history and true identity; Harry Crane remarks in the third episode of the series, "Draper? Who knows anything about that guy? No one’s ever lifted that rock. He could be Batman for all we know." Clues are given through flashbacks, confessions, and clandestine visits to figures from his past.^[3]

As the series unfolds, it is gradually revealed that the name "Don Draper" is an alias, and that the character's given name is Richard "Dick" Whitman.^[4] Dick Whitman was born in Illinois to a 22-year-old prostitute, who died giving birth to him. Dick was subsequently taken in by his biological father Archibald "Archie" Whitman and stepmother Abigail.

At age ten, Dick watched his father die when a horse was spooked by an electrical storm and kicked him in the face. Subsequently, Abigail, Dick and his half brother Adam moved to Pennsylvania (described by Draper as "coal country") and were raised by Abigail and a man referred to as "Uncle Mac", whom he later described to Betty has having been "nice to me".

His relationship with his family was apparently contentious—he revealed to his wife Betty that Archibald "beat the hell out of him" on a regular basis, and he "fantasized" about the day he could murder him. Abigail, meanwhile, made no effort to conceal Dick's past from him and referred to him as a "whore child". (When informed by his half brother Adam of Abigail's death from stomach cancer, he coldly replies, "Good.") He also appeared to be close to Adam, who was 11 years younger than he. However, when Adam seeks Don out years later in New York City, Don rebuffs his attempt and walks away. He later discovers that Adam hanged himself.

Although Don celebrates his birthday on June 1^[5], at the time of his birthday party in 1966 (Season 5: "A Little Kiss"), he says, "I turned 40 six months ago," which means that Dick Whitman was probably born in December 1925 or January 1926. Pete discovers from his friend Russ in the State Department that the real Don Draper would be 49 years old. (Season 1: "Nixon vs. Kennedy") The presidential election was held on November 8, 1960, making the real Don Draper's birth year 1911— making him fourteen or fifteen years older than Dick Whitman. On business trip to Baltimore in March 1963, Don tells Shelly, a TWA stewardess, that today is his birthday yet showing his driver's license will not help prove it (Season 3: "Out of Town").

Korean War[link]

Dick never finished high school, and in his early 20s he "ran away" to enlist in the U.S. Army and was sent to fight in the Korean War. ^[6] He was put under the command of a Lieutenant Donald F. Draper, an engineer^[3] who was in charge of building a field hospital with only Whitman to assist him.

During an enemy artillery attack, Lt. Draper was killed by a gasoline explosion accidentally caused by Whitman, charring his body beyond recognition. Seeing this, Whitman removed Lt. Draper's dog tags, switching them with his own. He later awakens in a hospital, presumed to be Draper, and is awarded the Purple Heart. He is then sent home with Lt. Draper's coffin (now believed to be Whitman's) to offer the Army's regrets to Whitman's survivors. He avoids meeting the Whitmans at the train station, but is spotted by Adam. Whitman makes his escape and begins his life as Don Draper.

Life as "Don Draper"[link]

Draper is working as a used car salesman when Anna M. Draper, the widow of the real Draper, tracks him down. The two become close friends, though their contact is limited after Draper meets and marries Betty Hofstadt. After securing a legal divorce, he continues to support Anna financially. In the later part of Season 2, Don visits her during a trip to California for a few weeks to help clear his head. Anna dies of cancer in Season 4, and Don is devastated, calling her "the only person in the world who really knew me".

Not many details have been provided as to how Don Draper became the creative director at Sterling Cooper. Draper moved to New York City where he worked as a fur salesman and attended City College at night. It was at this job that he met his future wife, Betty, a model who did a photo shoot for the company. Roger Sterling claims that he "discovered" Draper in this job, and brought him to work at Sterling Cooper. In actuality, Sterling met Draper when he wanted to purchase a fur for his mistress Joan Harris. After selling him the fur, Draper repeatedly lobbied Sterling for a job; Sterling declined Draper's repeated bids, but accepted his offer to share drinks. Sterling became very drunk, and the next day, Don reported to work at Sterling Cooper, explaining to an astonished Roger that he offered him a job the night before. Don and Betty marry in May, 1953, and eventually move into a house at 42 Bullet Park Road, Ossining in Westchester County, New York.

Draper eventually became Creative Director, and then a junior partner, at Sterling Cooper. He is considered a great asset to the company as he has considerable talent for understanding the desires of others, and for effectively pitching and selling ideas. Because of this, he has occasionally been courted by other advertising firms. Although his true character remains mysterious and heavily guarded, almost everyone at the firm respects his talent. Among these is account executive Pete Campbell, who seems to view Draper as both a mentor and a hindrance to his advancement within the firm. When Campbell purposely takes a package addressed to Draper from his late, estranged brother Adam, Campbell discovers Draper’s true identity, subsequently attempting to blackmail Draper with this information. However, when Campbell confronts Draper in his office with what he's discovered, Don walks directly to senior partner Bert Cooper's office, with Campbell following behind incredulously. Once in Cooper's office, Campbell reveals Don's true identity to Cooper, who shrugs off the news, much to Campbell's astonishment. However, Cooper later uses the same information to compel Don to sign a three-year employment contract.

Peggy Olson begins her career at Sterling Cooper as Draper's secretary, but with his support becomes a copywriter. He carefully but firmly nurtures her talent as she learns the process, although in the first season he makes sure she continues with her secretarial duties until promoting her in the episode "The Wheel". The relationship between Peggy and Don gradually evolves into one of mutual dependency and understanding. In Season 2, Don visits Peggy in the hospital after she gives birth and encourages her to move forward and forget it ever happened, assuring her that the incident will be kept a secret and won't affect her standing at the firm. Peggy bails Don out of police custody after a drunk-driving accident and allows his female companion to recuperate at her apartment. Don generally does not show her any favoritism, and aggressively shuts down her request for a pay raise (which she argues she should be given under emerging "equal pay for equal work" statutes), which leads her to seriously consider taking a job at another agency. However, he does treat her with as much respect as any of the male copywriters and often seems to rely on her talent. At the end of Season 3, when Don is planning on launching a new firm, he wants her to come with him. She initially refuses due to his presumptuous manner, but he eventually comes to her apartment and convinces her to join him, saying that if she didn't he would spend the rest of his life trying to hire her. In Season 4, Peggy is given more demanding assignments and greater responsibility as a copywriter at Don's new firm, and they develop a greater level of trust and comfort with each other both professionally and personally. In the season 4 episode "The Suitcase" we see Don go through a drunken breakdown after receiving word to call California, which he took to mean his confidant Anna Draper, who he knew was suffering from cancer at the time, had died. By the end of the episode's emotional journey he has confided in Peggy more about his past (his military service in Korea, having his father die in front of him) than anyone else at the agency to date.

Betty Draper was unaware of Don's past until she discovered a collection of photographs and other documents from his previous life which Don kept in a locked drawer in his desk. When Betty confronts Don and demands to know the truth, Don breaks down and reveals to her the secret of his true identity. Their marriage suffers another setback when Betty realizes, in the wake of John F. Kennedy's assassination, that she does not love or trust Don. She relocates to Nevada to file for divorce shortly thereafter. After being kicked out of the Draper family residence, Don moves into a Manhattan apartment near Waverly Place and Sixth Avenue.

In December 1963, Don convinces Bert Cooper, Roger Sterling, and Lane Pryce, along with Peggy, Pete, Joan and Harry Crane, to leave Sterling Cooper rather than take their chances when they learn that their parent company is being purchased by rival firm McCann Erickson. They form the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce agency, working out of a hotel suite before moving to the Time-Life Building.^[7]

Both in and out of the office, Don's life is an entanglement of boozing and sex with a large group of women he has met in business and social settings, including at least two secretaries (Allison and Megan), a stewardess (Shelly), an unemployed friend of a friend (Bethany), a teacher (Suzanne Farrell), a client (Rachel Menken), an artist (Midge Daniels), a waitress (Doris), a prostitute (Candace), a business consultant (Dr. Faye Miller), a hedonist (Joy), and the wife of the lead performer in the Utz campaign (Bobbie Barrett).^[8]

Personality[link]

Despite his outward cynicism and arrogance, Draper is portrayed as following a strict code of personal ethics, insisting on honesty, forthrightness and chivalry in his subordinates (if not always himself). He is extremely protective of people less confident than he; he warns Pete Campbell, in the first episode ("Smoke Gets in Your Eyes"), about his rude remarks to and about Peggy Olson, whom Campbell has just met. During the episode "Six Month Leave", Draper admonishes several subordinates for mocking Freddy Rumsen's episode of urinary incontinence, a symptom of his alcoholism. In a fourth season episode Draper briefly scolds Ken Cosgrove in front of other employees for mocking a client with a severe stuttering problem. Finally, in one scene (season 2, episode 1) he is seen in an elevator as another man goes on about his sexual adventures ('soaked panties') even as an older lady enters and is clearly made uncomfortable. In protest, Don tells him to take his hat off in respect for the lady, and when the man refuses, Don reaches over to the man, removes it himself and hands it to him.

Draper also adheres to a more strict code of business ethics than many of his colleagues. A second season arc has Draper upset about being told to drop the small local Mohawk Airlines client in favor of a chance at American Airlines. He questions the unwise risk of giving up an existing client for the chance of getting a bigger one, and also challenges the aggressive greed, asking his colleague, Roger Sterling, "What kind of company do we wanna be?" (Sterling replies nonchalantly "The kind where everyone has a summer home"). In Season 3, he is hesitant to sign a wealthy client eager to pour his fortune into promoting jai alai, a sport the client thinks will replace baseball as "America's game", Don knowing the client is about to squander his considerable fortune on a doomed enterprise.

He also becomes a confidante to Art Director Sal Romano, a closeted homosexual, whom Don sees in a compromising position in a Baltimore hotel during a fire evacuation. Although Don continues to keep the secret, he nonetheless expresses his distaste for Sal's sexual orientation; he supports Romano's firing in Season 3 because the son of a prominent client is irate about Sal's refusal to accept his sexual advances in the film editing room.

While Don is not color-blind in matters of race, he recognises the changes sweeping the country and acknowledges the potential of what he calls "the Negro market." In the first episode of the series he is seen asking a black American waiter about his cigarette preferences. In "My Old Kentucky Home" (Season 3, Episode 3), Don attends a festive Kentucky Derby party hosted by Roger Sterling, where he watches as Sterling serenades his young wife in blackface minstrel makeup. He and Pete Campbell seem to be the only guests who disapprove of or are uncomfortable with the spectacle, although Laura Smith is seen nervously laughing.

It is also shown throughout different episodes that Don regrets how he treats his family. In the season three episode where Betty gives birth to their third child, he has a conversation with another man in the waiting room who says that he's going to be a better man for his wife and child. It is clear that Don feels exactly the same way.

On another family front, Don tends to dislike his father-in-law Eugene, but agrees to take the man into his home when he becomes unable to live on his own. On several occasions he shows more patience and understanding toward Eugene than does Betty.

Draper and women[link]

This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. No cleanup reason has been specified. Please help improve this section if you can; the talk page may contain suggestions. (October 2010)

Draper met his ex-wife Betty Draper (née Hofstadt) in her modeling days, surprising Betty by buying her the fur she wore on a photo shoot where he was in attendance; this gesture appears to be the start of their relationship. Betty and Don marry when she is in her early twenties, and she gave birth to their first child Sally soon after. A few years later, she gave birth to their first son, Bobby. In Season 3, Betty gave birth to a second son named Eugene after her recently-deceased father, with whom Don shared a mutually antagonistic relationship.

Don cheats on Betty repeatedly throughout seasons one and two. In season one, Draper is involved with Midge, a pot-smoking beatnik and illustrator who works out of her small, dingy apartment. Midge's beatnik lifestyle and friends do not appeal to Don, but she offers him an escape from his high-pressure job. Don receives a bonus check of $2,500 from Sterling Cooper and asks her to vacation with him to Paris. However, Don changes his mind after realizing Midge is in love with a fellow beatnik, and instead stuffs the check into her blouse; he tells her to go buy a car with it and leaves. Don doesn't see her again until season four, when Midge pretends to run into Don, hoping to sell him a painting in order to help fund her heroin addiction. He agrees to visit her apartment, but after learning of her true intentions he purchases a painting and leaves.

Also during season one, Don pursues Rachel Menken. She is Jewish and the daughter of Abraham Menken, the elderly founder of upscale Menken's department store. Rachel, 28, is educated, sophisticated, and a savvy businesswoman, assisting her father in running the family business. Despite bickering with her during initial business meetings, Draper becomes close with her and eventually begins an affair with her. She ends their affair on November 8, 1960, the night the 1960 Presidential election results are being tabulated. She leaves on a cruise for Europe and suddenly marries a Jewish man sometime before the beginning of season 2.

In season two, Draper turns to an older woman, Bobbie Barrett. She is the wife of Jimmy Barrett, an insult comic loosely based on Rat Packer Joey Bishop, filming a commercial for one of Sterling Cooper's clients, Utz Potato Chips. They continue their affair, taking a trip to the beach at "Stony Brook" on Long Island, but their plans are interrupted by a car accident followed by his arrest for drunken driving. Unable to post bond with the cash on his person, Don reaches out to Peggy, who travels from Brooklyn to Long Island by car in the middle of the night, posts Don's bail, and later boards Bobbie until her injuries from the accident heal. Bobbie and Don continue their affair until the episode "Maidenform", when Bobbie lets slip that Draper's previous mistresses have been talking about his sexual prowess. Don, who values his privacy highly, is aghast that his extramarital escapades are being gossiped about, and immediately ends the affair. Don must continue his professional relationship with Bobbie and Jimmy, and the four of them (including Betty) meet at the Stork Club for a night out. At the end of the evening, Jimmy reveals to Betty that their spouses have had an affair; A horrifed Betty confronts Don, but he repeatedly denies the accusations, which infuriates her.

Eventually, Betty appears willing to put the suspicion behind her, but when she coincidentally sees the commercial Jimmy made for Utz air on television, her anger is reignited. She calls her husband at work and tells him not to come home, whereafter Don moves into a hotel room and frequently sleeps in his office. Betty's father Eugene has another stroke, necessitating a visit from Betty, and to keep up appearances, the two of them pretend to be a happily married couple while staying at her father's home. In his growing senility, Eugene openly expresses his disdain for Don, saying, "He's got no people. You can't trust a man like that." After witnessing the rapid decline of her father, Betty seduces Don in the middle of the night, leading Don to believe that she has now forgiven him. When they arrive home, however, Betty tells a confused Don not to move back in. Betty later discovers that she is pregnant.

Don impulsively decides to join Campbell on a business trip to Los Angeles. In California, Don meets a mysterious European viscount with a 21-year-old daughter named Joy. Despite telling Campbell that the trip is strictly business, Don joins Joy and her "jet set" family of self-described nomads at their lavish vacation home in Palm Springs. He sleeps with her the same night. Joy is topless in the pool one night, attempting to seduce Don again, despite being surrounded by other relatives and even small children, around their large pool. He later leaves her to visit Anna.

In season three, Don had an affair lasting several months with his daughter Sally's schoolteacher Suzanne Farrell. Their relationship builds slowly over several accidental meetings and conversations laden with innuendo. They finally consummate their relationship in September 1963. Don ends the affair with Suzanne on October 30, 1963. Thinking Betty and his children are out of town, he plans a weekend get-away with Suzanne. With Suzanne waiting out in the car, and intending only to go into the house for a suitcase, Don is stunned to find Betty at home. Betty reveals she has found the key to the locked drawer in Don's desk in which he keeps a box of photographs and other evidence of his past life, as well as several hundred dollars in emergency escape funds, and has discovered he has been lying to her. Don never returns to the car where Suzanne awaits him, apparently for hours, before giving up and returning home. He calls her the next day to break things off, even though they have not been discovered, in an attempt to save his marriage.

Don's womanizing hits its peak during season four, which takes place in 1964-1965. At the beginning of season four in 1964, Don hires a prostitute to slap him around during sex. Roger's wife Jane Sterling also sets Don up with a young, beautiful friend named Bethany, thinking Don hasn't been on a date since his marriage ended. During one weekend of heavy drinking, Don goes to bed with one woman, blacks out, wakes up with a different woman in his bed, and has no idea what has happened. He continues to see the prostitute and pay her and even sets Lane up with her hooker friend one night in his apartment.

During a visit to San Pedro, California to visit Anna, he attempts to seduce Anna's 18-year-old niece, whom Don has known since she was a child. She refuses Don and instead tells him that Anna is dying of cancer.

When Don goes home drunk after an office Christmas party, and he forgets the keys to his apartment and has Allison, his secretary, bring them over. He quickly seduces her that night on his couch. This later creates tension in their professional relationship when Don acts as if nothing happened. Confused and heartbroken over the affair, Allison decides she can no longer work for Don or the agency, she asks Don to write a letter of recommendation for her to another potential job. But when his insensitivity offends her, Allison becomes greatly upset. She throws a brass cigarette dispenser at Don and calls him "a bad person" before quitting her job and storming off in tears. Don is visibly shaken by the encounter, and Allison is replaced with an older secretary by Joan, who hints that she's aware of Don having seduced her. Don later tries to write a letter of apology to Allison but gives up on it. Allison is replaced by Ida Blankenship, Bert Cooper's former secretary who later dies sitting up at her desk, shocking Don and the staff.

During season four, Don becomes friendly with Dr. Faye Miller, a consumer psychologist he frequently works with. At the beginning of 1965, before she dates Don, she informs him, "you'll be married by the end of the year." After fending off his gentlemanly advances on several occasions she begins a romantic relationship with him. During an existential crisis, Don somewhat reveals his checkered past; she sympathizes with him and offers emotional support. Faye however warns Don that she is "not good with kids and is inexperienced around them." At the end of that same episode, Sally runs down the hall at SCDP after a tantrum, and trips and falls badly. Instead of running into her father's arms, she falls naturally into Don's new secretary, Megan's arms. Megan Calvet previously worked as the lobby receptionist but became Don's secretary after Blankenship's sudden death.

Don is no longer seeing prostitutes and seems to have settled down with Faye. Although Don seems to be in love with the classy and intelligent Faye, Megan seduces him in his office one night, telling him not to worry, she won't make a scene like Allison did. When Faye's consulting firm can no longer work with SCDP, she is excited because she and Don can be "out in the open" now with their relationship during episode 12.

During the season four finale "Tomorrowland," Faye believes their relationship is stronger than ever. However, Don's ex-wife, Betty Francis, suddenly fires Carla, the children's nanny since birth, and Don has to scramble to find a full-time nanny for his three kids during their visit to California (to sign the "sold" papers for Don's house in San Pedro, which he bought for Anna in the 1950s). Don remembers how Sally fell into her arms several months previously, and decides to take Megan with him so she can take the three kids to Disneyland, and watch them at the hotel pool. When he goes to Anna's house one last time, Anna's niece says Anna left him her diamond solitaire engagement ring (the one given to her by the real Don Draper upon their engagement). Don looks at the ring and is very touched by Anna's gift to him. He sleeps with Megan during the California trip and decides to propose with Anna's engagement ring, telling Megan that the ring is very special to him and that he "finally feels like himself" with her. Megan accepts and Don returns to New York to let the partners and Joan know about his very sudden engagement. He telephones Faye and breaks off their relationship by informing her of his new engagement. Don also informs his ex-wife Betty, as she is packing up the last moving box from their one-time marital home, that he is engaged.

Draper and vehicles[link]

Don worked as a used-car salesman at the time Anna Draper found him, and on at least one occasion enjoyed the company of motorcyclists and hot rod enthusiasts while he was visiting Anna in Southern California. At the outset of the series, Don drives a 1959 Oldsmobile, then a 1960 Buick Invicta convertible. Later, Don wrecks an unassuming and utilitarian 1961 Dodge Polara, after which he is goaded by Roger Sterling into purchasing an ice blue & white 1962 Cadillac Coupe de Ville. Sterling tells him that the Cadillac was a sign that Don had "arrived". By the start of Season 5 it had been replaced with a 1965 Coupe de Ville in silver with red leather interior.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Don Draper at AMCtv.com
• "The Secret of Don Draper's Sex Appeal" by Natasha Vargas-Cooper - Daily Beast - July 22, 2010
• Don Draper Suit & Clothes Style in Mad Menprovides details about Don's outfits - Gentleman's Gazette

v t e Mad Men Creator Matthew Weiner Characters Don Draper • Betty Draper • Peggy Olson • Pete Campbell • Joan Holloway • Roger Sterling • Lane Pryce Episodes Season 1 • Season 2 • Season 3 • Season 4 • Season 5 Related articles Awards and nominations Category

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