By Todd Leopold, CNN
(CNN) -- There was Dennis Hopper before "Easy Rider," generally known as a clean-cut, if rebellious, character actor who had built a career of supporting roles in Westerns, youth-oriented films and TV shows.
There was Dennis Hopper after "Easy Rider," for years one of Hollywood's wild men, an actor with a penchant for alcohol, drugs and outlandish behavior, and later a go-to performer to play villains and commanding misfits.
And then there was "Easy Rider," the 1969 film that he directed and co-wrote, and in which he played a dissolute, countercultural biker named Billy. Thanks to the film, Hopper helped blaze a trail for the young, aggressive filmmakers who would take Hollywood by storm in the 1970s.
Hopper, the one-time Hollywood enfant terrible who portrayed such indelible characters as Billy, "Blue Velvet's" huffing villain Frank Booth and "Hoosiers' " forlorn Shooter Flatch, died of prostate cancer at his home in Venice, California Saturday morning, his wife said. He was 74.
