Comeback kids

Dennis Hopper, “Blue Velvet” and “Hoosiers”

It was a rapid climb—and even faster fall—for Dennis Hopper. He directed one of the most successful independent films of all time, 1969’s “Easy Rider,” but followed it up with a pretentious existential failure: 1971’s “The Last Movie.” Besides a small role in 1979’s “Apocalypse Now,” Hopper seemed to wander aimlessly during 15 years of turbulent drug addiction, before returning to prominence with a pair of roles in 1986. As the oxygen-sucking Frank Booth in David Lynch’s trippy “Blue Velvet,” Hopper played pure evil to perfection (and stole the show in the process). And he earned an Oscar nomination for his role as an assistant high school basketball coach in “Hoosiers.”