Photo: Frank Worth
We choose to remember Dennis Hopper (1936 to 2010) when he was a young New York style actor going to the same auditions as James Dean and Marlon Brando. This photo was taken in 1955 (before he did “Rebel Without a Cause”) while Dennis was at Musso & Frank on Hollywood Boulevard, waiting for his pasta. To our surprise, “Easy Rider” star Dennis was a Reagan-inspired Republican until he voted for Obama in the last election.
Well, HERE’S a surprise. On Thursday, Dennis Hopper was seen shopping at his neighborhood medical marijuana clinic in Venice, Cal. And he looks darn good for a man supposedly on his deathbed who has been described as “heavily medicated and bedridden!” Since he filed for divorce from his wife Victoria, wild stories have been circulating about what’s going on at his home. Dennis, his two adult children Dennis and Marin, and his wife Victoria and young daughter Galen all live together at Dennis’s compound in Venice. Daughter Marin who managed her father’s personal appearances in the past, is being painted as a troublemaker who is engineering the divorce to keep Victoria from getting the bulk of Dennis’ estate, instead of his older children. Apparently people on Victoria’s side and Marin’s side have been releasing gossip, including saying that Dennis is totally out of it and “has no idea what’s going on.”
We confess we are perplexed by Dennis Hopper’s decision to DIVORCE his wife Victoria, considering he’s in the late stages of cancer. They’ve been married almost fourteen years – that’s Dennis’s longest marriage out of five – and they have a 6 year old daughter, Galen. Friends of Dennis say it’s obviously about the money – that he wants her cut out of the will. People on Victoria’s side say that Dennis is incapacitated mentally from the drugs he’s taking and making bad decisions. Two of Dennis’s adult kids have been living with him and Victoria at his compound in Venice, California, and he has another daughter he hasn’t spoken to in years. Why would a dying man go to the trouble to divorce the wife he’d been getting along with until now? We’re confused. Any lawyers out there with opinions on this?