Actor Dennis Hopper, the Hollywood elder statesman who appeared in such classic movies as Easy Rider and Apocalypse Now, has died.

A Reuters report says the 74-year-old performer died Saturday at his home in Venice, Calif. He had been suffering from prostate cancer.

Hopper appeared extremely frail and bone-thin in recent months.

The celebrated actor, Oscar-nominated filmmaker and noted visual artist rose to fame in mid-century Hollywood as a co-star and friend to rebel icon James Dean.

For decades Hopper's career was erratic due to his unpredictable and defiant behaviour, struggles with substance abuse and reputation as a hellion. However, he eventually settled down and earned a raft of kudos for both his film work as well as for his photos, paintings and sculptures.

His prolific movie credits ranged from early successes such as Rebel Without a Cause and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral to the 1960s classics Cool Hand Luke and Easy Rider (which Hopper starred in, directed and won wide acclaim for co-writing), to later hits like Apocalypse Now, Rumble Fish, Blue Velvet and Hoosiers.

Early interest in art, acting

Hopper was born May 17, 1936 in Dodge City, Kan. After the Second World War his family moved to Kansas City, Mo., where he took art classes at the Kansas City Art Institute.Actor Dennis Hopper, pictured here in March in Los Angeles as he was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, was also a major collector of art. (Damian Dovarganes/Associated Press)

When Hopper was 13, his family moved to San Diego and it was there he began his pursuit of acting, apprenticing with a local theatre. By the late 1950s, he was studying at the famed Actors Studio in New York.

Hopper made his on-screen debut portraying an epileptic in an episode of the Richard Boone television series Medic. That same year, he was cast in the 1955 movie Rebel Without a Cause. Its star, James Dean, would become one of his closest friends and the two were reunited on set in the movie Giant.

After Dean's shocking death in a car accident in September 1955, many noted that Hopper began taking on his friend's defiant attitude, even refusing direction while at work as an actor.

On the set of From Hell to Texas, Hopper famously began improvising scenes, causing as many as 80 takes and making enemies with the crew. After that incident and the erratic behaviour that followed it, he was largely blacklisted from prominent Hollywood projects and relegated to B-movies.

During this period, he took roles in a raft of television shows, including The Twilight Zone and Bonanza. Gradually, he worked his way back into Hollywood's good graces, including nabbing roles in two John Wayne movies, The Sons of Katie Elder and True Grit.

Hopper's major comeback was 1969's Easy Rider, which also featured Jack Nicholson, Terry Southern and Peter Fonda.

The story of two motorcyclists in search of freedom as they ramble through the southern U.S., the movie was released at the peak of the hippie movement. Capturing the zeitgeist of the time and resonating both with audiences and critics, it landed Hopper a host of honours, including best first film at the Cannes Film Festival and an original screenplay Oscar nomination (which he shared with Fonda and Southern).

His notoriety grew during the 1970s as he balanced roles in movies like Apocalypse Now with three short-lived marriages (to Brooke Howard, Michelle Phillips and Daria Halprin) and an ongoing battle with drugs.U.S. actor and director Dennis Hopper, pictured here in 2008, filed for divorce in January from his fifth wife, Victoria Duffy, as his illness progressed. (Christophe Ena/Associated Press)

Hopper entered a drug rehabilitation program in the early 1980s, after which he began another prolific period of creativity, as an actor (in acclaimed movies like Hoosiers and Blue Velvet), a filmmaker (for 1988's Colours ) and a visual artist.

More recent credits include villainous turns in the 1994 hit Speed, 1995's Waterworld, the first season of TV anti-terrorism thriller 24 and a role in the TV adaptation of the Oscar-winning movie Crash.

Pop art champion

Throughout his film career, Hopper was also an active artist, visual arts champion and collector.

His own oeuvre — which spanned abstract expressionism, black-and-white photo portraiture and massive canvases inspired by Los Angeles billboards — was exhibited in museums and galleries around the globe.Dennis Hopper, striking a pose in 1971, was also an abstract painter and a photographer. (File/Associated Press)

Hopper cultivated friendships with such seminal artists as Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, David Hockney and Ed Ruscha.

Often describing himself as "an art bum," he amassed one of the world's most enviable collections of contemporary American art, started when he began buying works by artist friends living and working in California and by artists he admired.

In some cases, he purchased paintings at an artist's early — even first — show. He reportedly picked up one of Warhol's first paintings of Campbell's Soup cans for just $75 US.

He lost the Warhol, and other works from his early collection, in a costly divorce from his fourth wife, Katherine La Nasa, in 1992.

Late-life controversy

Hopper revealed in October 2009 that he had been battling prostate cancer for about seven years. He returned to the headlines just three months later when he filed for divorce from his fifth wife, Victoria Duffy. The couple was together for nearly two decades and were raising a young daughter together, Galen.

At the time, the actor said he wanted to focus on his health.

"I wish Victoria the best, but only want to spend these difficult days surrounded by my children and close friends," said the actor in a statement released on Jan. 18, 2010. He was starting another round of chemotherapy.

Hopper is survived by his three adult children, Marin, Ruthanna and Henry, young daughter Galen, and a granddaughter, Violet.