Actor Dennis Hopper died in his California home yesterday at the age of 74. Though he’ll always be remembered among cinema freaks for well-praised American films like Easy Rider (awesome) and Blue Velvet (ugh), basketball fans will always recall first his turn in Hoosiers.
The so-cheesy-it’s-good movie about a small-town Indiana high school basketball team making the state championship through wholesome values and team spirit represented a bit of a career turnover for Hopper, who starred in Hoosiers alongside Blue Velvet, River’s Edge and Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (oh yes, he did) in his bumper year of 1986; Hoosiers won him an Oscar nomination at the Academy Awards in ’87.
R.I.P. Dennis Hopper, and also Wilbur “Shooter” Flatch. See below the break for the awesomely 80s official trailer and a clip from the American Film Institute interview with Hopper about Hoosiers.
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