In 1955, at just 19 years old, Dennis Hopper made his film debut in a little movie you may have heard of called “Rebel Without A Cause.” Credited only as “Goon,” a vaguely threatening leather-jacket-clad ruffian teen, it was there that Hopper would meet James Dean.
According to Mark Rozzo’s book, “Everybody Thought We Were Crazy: Dennis Hopper, Brooke Hayward, and 1960s Los Angeles,” (via Vanity Fair) Dean’s performance skills presented the biggest threat yet to Hopper’s swaggering confidence as a budding actor. “I didn’t think there was anyone to top me,” he said. “Watching Dean act was like watching someone pull miracles out of the air.”
Hopper became obsessed with trying to figure out how Dean was doing it. But, Dean was a movie star, and a few years older than Hopper, so it wasn’t like he could just walk up and ask about his process. Plus, Hopper’s newfound insecurity wouldn’t allow things to be that simple either; it seemed like he wasn’t even on Dean’s radar, which surely escalated Hopper’s ire, so he proceeded like … well, like a vaguely threatening ruffian teen.
