D&G

Let's catch up on two recent celebrity deaths.

First, Dennis Hopper. It had been reported he was ill, so it wasn't a shock. I actually saw him last year. It's said there are no second acts in America, but he had a second and a third act.

In the mid-50s, he was on the verge of a big career, set to be the next James Dean. But that fell apart, possibly due to how hard he was to work with.

So he played small parts, and did TV and theatre, but then, in 1969, directed and starred in the countercultural hit of the era, Easy Rider. I'd say the film hasn't dated well, except I don't think it was any good to begin with. But Hollywood thought they saw the future and it looked a lot like Dennis Hopper. His next work, The Last Movie was a self-indulgent flop, and as quickly as it began, the Dennis Hopper era was over.

His career fell apart and his spent a lot of the 70s getting high, though I'm not sure which caused the other. But somehow, against all odds, he started appearing in major films, cleaned up, and spent the last 25 years or so being one of Hollywood's most sought-after character actors.

His big reintroduction was in Apocalypse Now (1979) but he really hit his stride in the mid-80s, appearing in both Hoosiers and Blue Velvet in 1986. He got an Oscar nomination for the former, but a lot of people thought it was because the Academy didn't have the guts to recognize his career-best work as Frank Booth in the latter.

He was back, and a whole generation who didn't know from Easy Rider enjoyed him in films like True Romance, Speed and Waterworld. It might not have been the path he'd have chosen, but then, like a Hollywood movie, his career had a happy ending. The plot could have easily had him die not long after his first big return.

   

I have less to say about the sad death of Gary Coleman. He was best known, of course, for playing Arnold Jackson on Diff'rent Strokes. America couldn't get enough of the funny-faced little kid. But then he grew up--well, he got older--and adult munchkins aren't quite so funny.

But to me, Gary Coleman will always be Barth Gimble's adopted son on America 2 Night. He was a smart little kid who took after his dad, and even hosted a talk show within the show--his sidekick, Jerry Hubbard to his Barth, was also played quite well by a very young Corey Feldman (the Corey who's fallen on hard times but is still alive).