14 DAY TRIAL // At the beginning of the year, after being hospitalized with flu-like symptoms, actor Dennis Hopper confirmed to the media that he’d been battling prostate cancer for many years. At the time, his condition was described as “critical,” but the following months brought what looked like an improvement, which was apparent from his subsequent public appearances as well. On Saturday morning, Hopper passed away, People magazine has confirmed.
The actor, who has often said that he should have not allowed his demons to take over his life and instead create a more meaningful and larger body of work, grabbed many headlines in these past months, as he filed for divorce from his wife of 14 years as buzz about how critical his condition was beginning to pick up. Nasty allegations came from both sides as the divorce proceedings got uglier – and, as per reports, Hopper’s condition worsened, as we also informed you on several past occasions.
“Dennis Hopper, whose pot-addled Billy in Easy Rider and psychopathic Frank Booth in Blue Velvet helped put the icon in iconoclastic, has died after a decade-long battle with prostate cancer. He was 74. The legendary actor died about 9 a.m. Saturday surrounded by family in his Los Angeles home. Taken ill with flu-like symptoms last September, Hopper later said he was suffering with prostate cancer. Family members told People that the disease had spread to other organs in his system,” People writes.
“As far as children were concerned, the 1961-69 marriage to Hayward produced a daughter, Marin, now 47; with wife Daria Halprin (1972-76) he had a daughter Ruthanna, 35; and with Katherine LaNasa (1989-92), a son, Henry, 19. Fighting convention to the very end, only last January, amid bitter claims about her out-of-control spending, a direly sick Hopper filed for divorce from his fifth wife, Victoria Duffy, whom he wed in 1996. The couple also had a daughter, Galen, born in 2003 and to whom Hopper was said to be devoted,” the mag further says.
Sadly, TMZ says, the divorce and the legal feuding over financial matters will continue even after Hopper’s death. Because he passed before the divorce from his wife was finalized, Victoria’s attorney is already moving to secure a larger share of the late actor’s estate. A probate hearing is to take place soon.