. . . he was one of my favorite public art figures, an expandable character - should have been dead long ago if you take into consideration all of his personal self-abuse. I loved his eye and in particular his own photography, the stuff he did for himself - I didn't manage to get to his Melbourne showing at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image recently.
I guess I'll have to wait for his obituary to find out what took him out and include some links?
Monday 31 - update: "The Times of London" obituary expands on his 1970s spiral into excess - It was nearly a decade before Hopper directed again (this is post 'the last movie') and his acting career went into a decline. For much of the 1970s he turned his back on Hollywood, retreating to New Mexico where drink and drugs took over. For five years he claimed his daily intake was 20 to 30 beers, more than 2 liters of rum and 3g of cocaine. The Times quotes him saying "I should have been dead 10 times over. It's a miracle I'm still around."
He died from prostate cancer, unfortunately canceling his planned recent trip downunder to be at his Melbourne show opening.
No comments:
Post a Comment