10 Incredible Against-All-Odds Hollywood Comebacks

3. Dennis Hopper

Hopper was a wildman, even by the standards of the 1970s, a decade well-known for its excess. After directing the classic counterculture film Easy Rider, Hopper spent the next couple of years making the doomed The Last Movie. Well, if making means 'filming a bunch of random stuff and taking a lot of drugs' then, sure, that's what he was doing. The Downfall: The failure of the film and Hopper's own spiralling addictions caused his exile from Hollywood. According to the book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, Hopper at his most excessive was taking three grams of cocaine per day, accompanied by thirty bottles of beer, some marijuana and a couple of rum and cokes. The only people that would work with him were the likes of the similarly maverick Francis Ford Coppola and Wim Wenders. Hopper turned up in Apocalypse Now and The American Friend (as well as the bizarre Australian western Mad Dog Morgan) to remind people that he was, in fact, still alive. Barely, but alive. Many people were speculating when, not if, Hoper would end up a tragedy. What Brought Him Back: The Hopper comeback started in the early 1980s with increasing appearances in small films like O.C. And Stiggs, The Osterman Weekend and Rumble Fish. But it was his performance as the tormented Frank Booth in David Lynch's Blue Velvet that truly put Hopper back on the map. Did It Last?: Post-Blue Velvet, Hopper worked harder and more frequently than he ever had before, acting in as well as directing a number of films. Some of the choice cuts from Hopper's comeback include True Romance, Speed and Red Rock West.