ON THIS DAY 5 17 2023

This Day in History: May 17

Featured Event

1900




L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was first published, and it became a classic of children's literature; the 1939 film adaption is among the most beloved movies in American cinema.

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Dennis Hopper
American actor, director, and writer




Dennis Hopper, in full Dennis Lee Hopper, (born May 17, 1936, Dodge City, Kansas, U.S.—died May 29, 2010, Los Angeles, California), American film actor, director, and writer who rose to fame as a countercultural icon in the 1960s and later developed into a noted character actor.
When Hopper was a teenager, his family settled in San Diego, California, where he began performing at the Old Globe Theatre. He moved to Los Angeles following high school and, after signing with Warner Brothers, quickly secured his first significant film role in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), opposite Natalie Wood and James Dean. Despite tales of his temperamental on-set antics, Hopper was then cast in a string of films, including Giant (1956), also opposite Dean, and The Story of Mankind (1957). However, by 1958 his difficult behaviour had become a liability and Warner Brothers dropped him. He subsequently moved to New York City to study at the Actors Studio.


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