R.I.P. Dennis Hopper

I was surprised to hear that he was 74; he seemed younger than that to me, and definitely a bit on the young side to go. I wouldn't say he was consistently one of our best actors, but he was consistently one of our most interesting - he was among the most memorable and compelling things about good movies like Hoosiers and Speed, but even in bad ones like Waterworld he was worth watching. There aren't too many among Hollywood's younger generation willing to embrace eccentricity the way he was - Johnny Depp is the only one who comes readily to mind. It saddens me to know that in the future there will be no more great, surprising Dennis Hopper performances to be discovered.