a good man, a brave man, an artist

but not a good director

Hopper admittedly spent much of the 1970s under the influence, particularly when portraying a jacked-up photojournalist in Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now." According to George Hickenlooper — director of "Heart of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse," a documentary chronicling the making of the film — Hopper was in rough shape at the time. "Dennis recounted the story to me that Francis came to him and said, 'What can I do to help you play this role?' Dennis said, 'About an ounce of cocaine.' So he was being supplied by the film production drugs that he could use while he was shooting," Hickenlooper told The Independent.

While Hopper eventually embraced a life of sobriety, he revealed that at the peak of his partying he regularly consumed 28 beers and half a gallon of rum, chased with three grams of cocaine, on a daily basis. "It's not as hard as it sounds. If you mix the rum, like I used to, then you can drink it all day long, no problem," he told interviewer Piers Morgan in a Q&A for GQ. "I used to get thirsty, you got to have a beer or two if you get thirsty ..."

A great actor and a rebel. I wish he was still alive today.