text:
Dennis Hopper

Dennis Lee Hopper (May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010) was an American actor and film director. He is known for his roles as mentally disturbed outsiders and rebels. He earned prizes from the Cannes Film Festival and Venice International Film Festival as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. Hopper studied acting at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego and the Actors Studio in New York. Hopper also began a prolific and acclaimed photography career in the 1960s.

Hopper made his first television appearance in 1954, and soon after appeared in two of the films that made James Dean famous, Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and Giant (1956). He then acted in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), The Sons of Katie Elder (1965), Cool Hand Luke (1967), Hang 'Em High (1968) and True Grit (1969). Hopper made his directorial film debut with Easy Rider (1969), which he and co-star Peter Fonda wrote with Terry Southern. The film earned Hopper a Cannes Film Festival Award and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

He became frequently typecast as mentally disturbed outsiders in such films as Mad Dog Morgan (1976), The American Friend (1977), Apocalypse Now (1979), Rumble Fish (1983), and Blue Velvet (1986). He received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor nomination for his role in Hoosiers (1986). His later film roles included True Romance (1993), Speed (1994), Waterworld (1995) and Elegy (2009). He appeared posthumously in the long-delayed The Other Side of the Wind (2018), which had previously been filmed in the early 1970s.

Other directorial credits for Hopper include The Last Movie (1971), Out of the Blue (1980), Colors (1988), and The Hot Spot (1990). He received Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie nomination for his role in Paris Trout (1991). His other television roles include in the HBO film Doublecrossed (1991), 24 (2002), the NBC series E-Ring (2005–2006), and the Starz series Crash (2008–2009).

Early life and education
Hopper was born on May 17, 1936, in Dodge City, Kansas, to Marjorie Mae (née Davis; July 12, 1917 – January 12, 2007) and Jay Millard Hopper (June 23, 1916 – August 7, 1982). He had Scottish ancestors. Hopper had two younger brothers, Marvin and David.

After World War II, the family moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where the young Hopper attended Saturday art classes at the Kansas City Art Institute. When he was 13, Hopper and his family moved to San Diego, where his mother worked as a lifeguard instructor and his father was a post office manager, having previously served in the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency, in World War II in the China Burma India Theater. Hopper was voted most likely to succeed at Helix High School, where he was active in the drama club, speech and choir. It was there that he developed an interest in acting, studying at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, and the Actors Studio in New York City (he studied with Lee Strasberg for five years). Hopper struck up a friendship with actor Vincent Price, whose passion for art influenced Hopper's interest in art. He was especially fond of the plays of William Shakespeare.

1954–1966: Early roles
Hopper was reported to have had an uncredited role in Johnny Guitar in 1954, but he was quoted as saying he was not in Hollywood when the film was made. Hopper made his debut on film in two roles with James Dean (whom he admired immensely) in Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and Giant (1956). Dean's death in a car accident in September 1955 affected the young Hopper deeply and it was shortly afterward that he got into a confrontation with veteran director Henry Hathaway on the film From Hell to Texas (1958). Hopper reportedly forced Hathaway to shoot more than 80 takes of a scene over several days before he acquiesced to Hathaway's direction. After filming was finally completed, Hathaway allegedly told Hopper that his career in Hollywood was finished.

In his book Last Train to Memphis, American popular music historian Peter Guralnick says that in 1956, when Elvis Presley was making his first film in Hollywood, Hopper was roommates with fellow actor Nick Adams and the three became friends and socialized together. In 1959, Hopper moved to New York to study Method acting under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio. In 1961, Hopper played his first lead role in Night Tide, an atmospheric supernatural thriller involving a mermaid in an amusement park. In a December 1994 interview on the Charlie Rose Show, Hopper credited John Wayne with saving his career, as Hopper acknowledged that because of his insolent behavior, he could not find work in Hollywood for seven years. Hopper stated that, because of his marriage to Brooke Hayward, he was the son-in-law of actress Margaret Sullavan, a friend of John Wayne, and Wayne hired Hopper for a role in The Sons of Katie Elder (1965), also directed by Hathaway, which enabled Hopper to restart his film career.

Hopper debuted in an episode of the Richard Boone television series Medic in 1955, portraying a young epileptic. He appeared in the first episode of the popular TV series The Rifleman (1958–1963) as the troubled orphan protagonist Vernon Tippet who is exploited by his greedy uncle. The series starred Chuck Connors and the premiere episode "The Sharpshooter" was written by Sam Peckinpah. Hopper subsequently appeared in over 140 episodes of television shows such as Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Petticoat Junction, The Twilight Zone, The Barbara Stanwyck Show, The Defenders, The Investigators, The Legend of Jesse James, Entourage, The Big Valley, The Time Tunnel, and Combat!.

1967–1986: Breakthrough and acclaim
Hopper had a supporting role as the bet-taker, "Babalugats", in Cool Hand Luke (1967). In 1968, Hopper teamed with Peter Fonda, Terry Southern and Jack Nicholson to make Easy Rider, which premiered in July 1969. With the release of True Grit a month earlier, Hopper had starring roles in two major box-office films that summer. Hopper won wide acclaim as the director for his improvisational methods and innovative editing for Easy Rider. The production was plagued by creative differences and personal acrimony between Fonda and Hopper, the dissolution of Hopper's marriage to Brooke Hayward, his unwillingness to leave the editor's desk and his accelerating abuse of drugs and alcohol. Hopper said of Easy Rider: "The cocaine problem in the United States is really because of me. There was no cocaine before Easy Rider on the street. After Easy Rider, it was everywhere".

Besides showing drug use on film, it was one of the first films to portray the hippie lifestyle. Hopper became a role model for some male youths who rejected traditional jobs and traditional American culture, partly exemplified by Fonda's long sideburns and Hopper wearing shoulder-length hair and a long mustache. They were denied rooms in motels and proper service in restaurants as a result of their radical looks. Their long hair became a point of contention in various scenes during the film. Journalist Ann Hornaday wrote: "With its portrait of counterculture heroes raising their middle fingers to the uptight middle-class hypocrisies, Easy Rider became the cinematic symbol of the 1960s, a celluloid anthem to freedom, macho bravado and anti-establishment rebellion". Film critic Matthew Hays wrote "no other persona better signifies the lost idealism of the 1960s than that of Dennis Hopper".

Hopper was unable to capitalize on his Easy Rider success for several years. In 1970 he filmed The Last Movie, cowritten by Stewart Stern and photographed by László Kovács in Peru, and completed production in 1971. It won the prestigious CIDALC Award at that year's Venice Film Festival, but Universal Studios leaders expected a blockbuster like Easy Rider, and did not like the film or give it an enthusiastic release, while American film audiences found it confounding – as convoluted as an abstract painting. On viewing the first release print, fresh from the lab, in his screening room at Universal, MCA founder Jules C. Stein rose from his chair and said, "I just don't understand this younger generation." During the tumultuous editing process, Hopper ensconced himself at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House in Taos, New Mexico, which he had purchased in 1970, for almost an entire year. In between contesting Fonda's rights to the majority of the residual profits from Easy Rider, he married singer Michelle Phillips of The Mamas and the Papas on Halloween of 1970. The marriage lasted eight days.

Hopper acted in another John Wayne film, True Grit (1969), and during its production, he became well acquainted with Wayne. In both of the films with Wayne, Hopper's character is killed in the presence of Wayne's character, to whom he utters his dying words. On September 30, 1970, Hopper appeared on the second episode of season 2 of The Johnny Cash Show where he sang a duet with Cash entitled "Goin' Up Goin' Down". Cash said the song was written by Kris Kristofferson about Hopper. Hopper added that Kristofferson had written some songs for his Peruvian-shot movie The Last Movie, in which Kristofferson appeared in his debut role with Julie Adams. Hopper also recited Rudyard Kipling's famous poem If— during his appearance. Hopper was able to sustain his lifestyle and a measure of celebrity by acting in numerous low budget and European films throughout the 1970s as the archetypal "tormented maniac", including Mad Dog Morgan (1976), Tracks (1976), and The American Friend (1977). With Francis Ford Coppola's blockbuster Apocalypse Now (1979), Hopper returned to prominence as a hyper-manic Vietnam-era photojournalist. Stepping in for an overwhelmed director, Hopper won praise in 1980 for his directing and acting in Out of the Blue. Immediately thereafter, Hopper starred as an addled short-order cook "Cracker" in the Neil Young/Dean Stockwell low-budget collaboration Human Highway. Production was reportedly often delayed by his unreliable behavior. Peter Biskind states in the New Hollywood history Easy Riders, Raging Bulls that Hopper's cocaine intake had reached three grams a day by this time, complemented by 30 beers, and some marijuana and Cuba libres.

After staging a "suicide attempt" (really more of a daredevil act) in a coffin using 17 sticks of dynamite during an "art happening" at the Rice University Media Center (filmed by professor and documentary filmmaker Brian Huberman), and later disappearing into the Mexican desert during a particularly extravagant bender, Hopper entered a drug rehabilitation program in 1983.

Though Hopper gave critically acclaimed performances in Coppola's Rumble Fish (1983) and Sam Peckinpah's The Osterman Weekend (1983), it was not until he portrayed the gas-huffing, obscenity-screaming villain Frank Booth in David Lynch's Blue Velvet (1986) that his career truly revived. On reading the script Hopper said to Lynch: "You have to let me play Frank Booth. Because I am Frank Booth!" He won critical acclaim and several awards for this role, and in the same year received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role as an alcoholic assistant basketball coach in Hoosiers. Also in 1986, Hopper portrayed Lt. Enright in the comedy horror The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.

1987–2009: Later work and final roles
In 1987 he acted in the neo-noir thriller Black Widow alongside Debra Winger, the action comedy Straight to Hell, the adventure film Running Out of Luck starring Mick Jagger and the romantic comedy The Pick-up Artist starring Molly Ringwald and Robert Downey Jr. In 1988, he directed Colors, a critically acclaimed police procedural about gang violence in Los Angeles starring Sean Penn and Robert Duvall. Hopper plays an aging hippie prankster in the 1990 comedy Flashback, fleeing in a Furthur-like old bus to the tune of Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild". Hopper teamed with Nike in the early 1990s to make a series of television commercials. He appeared as a "crazed referee" in those ads. Hopper appeared on the final two episodes of the cult 1991 television show Fishing with John with host John Lurie. He was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for the 1991 HBO film Paris Trout. Shortly thereafter, he played drug smuggler and DEA informant Barry Seal in the HBO film Doublecrossed.

He starred as King Koopa in Super Mario Bros., a 1993 critical and commercial failure loosely based on the video game of the same name. In 1993, he played Clifford Worley in True Romance. He co-starred in the 1994 blockbuster Speed with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, and as magic-phobic H.P. Lovecraft in the TV movie Witch Hunt. In 1995, Hopper played a greedy TV self-help guru, Dr. Luther Waxling in Search and Destroy. The same year, he starred as Deacon, the one-eyed nemesis of Kevin Costner in Waterworld. And in 1996 he starred in the science fiction comedy Space Truckers directed by Stuart Gordon. Also in 1996 he appeared as art dealer Bruno Bischofberger in Basquiat. Hopper was originally cast as Christof in the 1998 Peter Weir film, The Truman Show, but left during the filming due to "creative differences"; he was replaced by Ed Harris. In 1999, he starred in The Prophet's Game (a dark thriller), directed by David Worth and also starring Stephanie Zimbalist, Robert Yocum, Sondra Locke, Joe Penny and Tracey Birdsall. In 2003, Hopper was in the running for the dual lead in the indie horror drama Firecracker, but was ousted at the last minute in favor of Mike Patton.

In 2005, Hopper played Paul Kaufman in George A. Romero's Land of the Dead. He portrayed villain Victor Drazen in the first season of the popular action drama 24. Hopper starred as a U.S. Army colonel in the 2005 television series E-Ring, a drama set at The Pentagon, but the series was canceled after 14 episodes aired. Hopper appeared in all 22 episodes that were filmed. He also played the part of record producer Ben Cendars in the Starz television series Crash, which lasted two seasons (26 episodes).

In 2008, Hopper starred in An American Carol. In 2008 he also played The Death in Wim Wenders' Palermo Shooting. His last major feature film appearance was in the 2008 film Elegy with Ben Kingsley, Penélope Cruz and Debbie Harry. For his last performance, he was the voice of Tony, the alpha-male of the Eastern wolf pack in the 2010 animated film Alpha and Omega. He died before the movie was released. This brought the directors to dedicate the film to his memory at the beginning of the movie credits. Hopper filmed scenes for The Other Side of the Wind in 1971, appearing as himself; after decades of legal, financial and technical delays, the film was finally released on Netflix in 2018.

Photography and art
Hopper had several artistic pursuits beyond film. He was a prolific photographer, painter, and sculptor.

Hopper's fascination with art began with painting lessons at the Nelson-Atkins Museum while still a child in Kansas City, Missouri. Early in his career, he painted and wrote poetry, though many of his works were destroyed in the 1961 Bel Air Fire, which burned hundreds of homes, including his and his wife's, on Stone Canyon Road in Bel Air. His painting style ranges from abstract impressionism to photorealism and often includes references to his cinematic work and to other artists.

Ostracized by the Hollywood film studios due to his reputation for being a "difficult" actor, Hopper turned to photography in 1961 with a camera bought for him by his first wife Brooke Hayward. During this period he created the cover art for the Ike & Tina Turner album River Deep – Mountain High (released in 1966). He became a prolific photographer, and noted writer Terry Southern profiled Hopper in Better Homes and Gardens as an up-and-coming photographer "to watch" in the mid-1960s. Hopper's early photography is known for portraits from the 1960s, and he began shooting portraits for Vogue and other magazines. His photographs of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 1963 March on Washington and the 1965 civil-rights march in Selma, Alabama, were published. His intimate and unguarded images of Andy Warhol, Jane Fonda, The Byrds, Paul Newman, Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, James Brown, Peter Fonda, Ed Ruscha, the Grateful Dead, Michael McClure, and Timothy Leary, among others, became the subject of gallery and museum shows and were collected in several books, including 1712 North Crescent Heights. The book, whose title refers to the house where he lived with Hayward in the Hollywood Hills in the 1960s, was edited by his daughter Marin Hopper. In 1960–67, before the making of Easy Rider, Hopper created 18,000 images that chronicled the remarkable artists, musicians, actors, places, happenings, demonstrations, and concerts of that period. Dennis Hopper: Photographs 1961–1967 was published in February 2011, by Taschen. German film director Wim Wenders said of Hopper that if "he'd only been a photographer, he'd be one of the great photographers of the twentieth century." In The New Yorker, Hopper, as photographer, was described as "a compelling, important, and weirdly omnipresent chronicler of his times."

Hopper began working as a painter and a poet as well as a collector of art in the 1960s as well, particularly Pop Art. Over his lifetime he amassed a formidable array of 20th- and 21st-century art, including many of Julian Schnabel's works (such as a shattered-plate portrait of Hopper); numerous works from his early cohorts, such as Ed Ruscha, Edward Kienholz, Roy Lichtenstein (Sinking Sun, 1964), and Warhol (Double Mona Lisa, 1963); and pieces by contemporary artists such as Damien Hirst and Robin Rhode. He was involved in L.A.'s Ferus and Virginia Dwan galleries in the 1960s, and he was a longtime friend and supporter to New York dealer Tony Shafrazi. One of the first art works Hopper owned was an early print of Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans bought for US$75. Hopper also once owned Warhol's Mao, which he shot one evening in a fit of paranoia, the two bullet holes possibly adding to the print's value. The print sold at Christie's, New York, for US$302,500 in January 2011.

During his lifetime, Hopper's own work as well as his collection was shown in monographic and group exhibitions around the world including the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg; MAK Vienna: Austrian Museum of Applied Arts/Contemporary Art, Vienna; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the Cinémathèque Française, Paris, and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne. In March 2010, it was announced that Hopper was on the "short list" for Jeffrey Deitch's inaugural show at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA). In April 2010, Deitch confirmed that Hopper's work, curated by Julian Schnabel, will indeed be the focus of his debut at MOCA. The title of the exhibition, Double Standard, was taken from Hopper's iconic 1961 photograph of the two Standard Oil signs seen through an automobile windshield at the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard, Melrose Avenue, and North Doheny Drive on historic Route 66 in Los Angeles. The image was reproduced on the invitation for Ed Ruscha's second solo exhibition at Ferus Gallery in 1964.

In 2011, Barricade Books published film historian Peter L. Winkler's biography, Dennis Hopper: The Wild Ride of a Hollywood Rebel. In 2013, Harper Collins published Hopper: A Journey into the American Dream, a biography by American writer Tom Folsom.

On the Gorillaz album Demon Days, Hopper narrates the song "Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head".

In the late 1980s, Hopper purchased a trio of nearly identical two-story, loft-style condominiums at 330 Indiana Avenue in Venice Beach, California – one made of concrete, one of plywood, and one of green roofing shingles – built by Frank Gehry and two artist friends of Hopper's, Chuck Arnoldi and Laddie John Dill, in 1981. In 1987, he commissioned an industrial-style main residence, with a corrugated metal exterior designed by Brian Murphy, as a place to display his artwork.

Personal life
According to Rolling Stone magazine, Hopper was "one of Hollywood's most notorious drug addicts" for 20 years. He spent much of the 1970s and early 1980s living as an "outcast" in Taos, New Mexico, after the success of Easy Rider. Hopper was also "notorious for his troubled relationships with women", including Michelle Phillips, who divorced him after eight days of marriage. Hopper was married five times:
 * Brooke Hayward, married 1961 – divorced 1969, 1 child, daughter Marin Hopper (b. 1962);
 * Michelle Phillips, married October 31, 1970 – divorced November 8, 1970;
 * Daria Halprin, married 1972 – divorced 1976, 1 child, daughter Ruthanna Hopper (b. 1972);
 * Katherine LaNasa, married June 17, 1989 – divorced April 1992, 1 child, son Henry Hopper (b. 1990);
 * Victoria Duffy, married April 13, 1996 – separated January 12, 2010, 1 child, daughter Galen Grier Hopper (b. 2003).

Hopper has been widely reported to be the godfather of actress Amber Tamblyn; in a 2009 interview with Parade, Tamblyn explained that "godfather" was "just a loose term" for Hopper, Dean Stockwell and Neil Young, three famous friends of her father's, who were always around the house when she was growing up, and who were big influences on her life.

In 1994, Rip Torn filed a defamation lawsuit against Hopper over a story Hopper told on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Hopper claimed that Torn pulled a knife on him during pre-production of the film Easy Rider. According to Hopper, Torn was originally cast in the film but was replaced with Jack Nicholson after the incident. According to Torn's suit, it was actually Hopper who pulled the knife on him. A judge ruled in Torn's favor and Hopper was ordered to pay US$475,000 in damages. Hopper then appealed but the judge again ruled in Torn's favor and Hopper was required to pay another US$475,000 in punitive damages.

According to Newsmeat, Hopper donated US$2,000 to the Republican National Committee in 2004 and an equal amount in 2005. Hopper donated $600 to Irish political party Sinn Féin.

Hopper was honored with the rank of commander of France's National Order of Arts and Letters, at a ceremony in Paris.

Despite being a Republican, Hopper supported Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election. Hopper confirmed this in an election day appearance on the ABC daytime show The View. He said his reason for not voting Republican was the selection of Sarah Palin as the Republican vice presidential candidate.

Hopper was a longtime friend of actress Sally Kirkland, who admitted in a 2021 Reelz documentary that they had a one-night stand early on in their friendship.

Divorce from Victoria Duffy
On January 14, 2010, Hopper filed for divorce from his fifth wife Victoria Duffy. After citing her "outrageous conduct" and stating she was "insane", "inhuman" and "volatile", Hopper was granted a restraining order against her on February 11, 2010, and as a result, she was forbidden to come within 10 ft of him or contact him. On March 9, 2010, Duffy refused to move out of the Hopper home, despite the court's order that she do so by March 15.

On April 5, 2010, a court ruled that Duffy could continue living on Hopper's property, and that he must pay US$12,000 per month spousal and child support for their daughter Galen. Hopper did not attend the hearing. On May 12, 2010, a hearing was held before Judge Amy Pellman in downtown Los Angeles Superior Court. Though Hopper died two weeks later, Duffy insisted at the hearing that he was well enough to be deposed. The hearing also dealt with who would be the beneficiary on Hopper's life insurance policy, which listed his wife as a beneficiary. A very ill Hopper did not appear in court though his estranged wife did. Despite Duffy's bid to be named the sole beneficiary of Hopper's million-dollar policy, the judge ruled against her and limited her claim to one-quarter of the policy. The remaining US$750,000 was to go to his estate.

Illness and death
On September 28, 2009, Hopper, then 73, was reportedly taken by ambulance to an unidentified Manhattan hospital wearing an oxygen mask and "with numerous tubes visible". On October 2, he was discharged after receiving treatment for dehydration.

On October 29, 2009, Hopper's manager Sam Maydew reported that he had been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. In January 2010, it was reported that Hopper's cancer had metastasized to his bones.

On March 18, 2010, he was honored with the 2,403rd star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in front of Grauman's Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. Surrounded by family, fans, and friends—including Jack Nicholson, Viggo Mortensen, David Lynch, and Michael Madsen—he attended its addition to the sidewalk six days later.

By March 2010, Hopper reportedly weighed only 100 lb and was unable to carry on long conversations. According to papers filed in his divorce court case, Hopper was terminally ill and was unable to undergo chemotherapy to treat his prostate cancer.

Hopper died at his home in the coastal Venice district of Los Angeles, on May 29, 2010, at age 74. His funeral took place on June 3, 2010, at San Francisco de Asis Mission Church in Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico. His body was buried at the Jesus Nazareno Cemetery in Ranchos de Taos.

The film Alpha and Omega, which was among his last film roles, was dedicated to him, as was the 2011 film Restless, which starred his son Henry Hopper.

Filmography

 * Rebel Without a Cause (1955) as Goon
 * Giant (1956) as Jordan Benedict III
 * Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) as Billy Clanton
 * the rifleman (1959) first season first episode
 * Night Tide (1961) as Johnny Drake
 * The Sons of Katie Elder (1965) as Dave Hastings
 * Cool Hand Luke (1967) as Babalugats
 * Easy Rider (1969) as Billy – Also writer-director
 * True Grit (1969) as Moon
 * The Last Movie (1971) as Kansas – Also writer-director
 * Kid Blue (1973) as Bickford Warner
 * Mad Dog Morgan (1976) as Daniel Morgan
 * The American Friend (1977) as Tom Ripley
 * Apocalypse Now (1979) as The Photojournalist
 * Out of the Blue (1980) as Don – Also director
 * The Osterman Weekend (1983) as Richard Tremayne
 * Rumble Fish (1983) as Father
 * My Science Project (1985) as Bob Roberts
 * The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) as Lefty Enright
 * River's Edge (1986) as Feck
 * Blue Velvet (1986) as Frank Booth
 * Hoosiers (1986) as Shooter
 * Colors (1988) – Director only
 * Flashback (1990) as Huey Walker
 * Catchfire (1990) as Milo – Also director
 * The Indian Runner (1991) as Caesar
 * Super Mario Bros. (1993) as King Koopa
 * True Romance (1993) as Clifford Worley
 * Red Rock West (1993) as Lyle from Dallas
 * Speed (1994) as Howard Payne
 * Waterworld (1995) as Deacon
 * Carried Away (1996) as Joseph Svenden
 * Basquiat (1996) as Bruno Bischofberger
 * EDtv (1999) as Hank Pekurny
 * Land of the Dead (2005) as Kaufman
 * Elegy (2008) as George O'Hearn
 * Palermo Shooting (2008) as Frank
 * The Other Side of the Wind (2018) as Himself

Books

 * Dennis Hopper: Out of the Sixties, Twelvetrees Press (1986)
 * 1712 North Crescent Heights, Greybull Press (2001)
 * Dennis Hopper: A System of Moments, Hartje Cantz (2001)
 * Dennis Hopper: Photographs, 1961–1967, Taschen (2009)
 * Dennis Hopper: The Lost Album, Prestel Verlag (2014)
 * Dennis Hopper: Drugstore Camera, Damiani (2015)
 * Dennis Hopper: Colors, the Polaroids, Damiani (2016)
 * Dennis Hopper: In Dreams: Scenes from the Archives, Damiani (2019)
 * Dennis Hopper: Flashback (1990)

Exhibitions

 * Solo exhibition of assemblages, Primus-Stuart Gallery, Los Angeles (1963)
 * Los Angeles Now group exhibition, Robert Fraser Gallery, London (1966)
 * Bomb Drop, Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena (1968)
 * Dennis Hopper: Black and White Photographs, Fort Worth Museum of Art, Fort Worth (1970)
 * Dennis Hopper: Black and White Photographs, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (1971)
 * Dennis Hopper and Ed Ruscha, Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York (1992)
 * Dennis Hopper: A System of Moments, Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna (2001)
 * Dennis Hopper: Double Standard, Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles (2010)
 * The Lost Album, Gagosian, New York (2013)
 * The Lost Album, Royal Academy of Arts, London (2014)

Archive
The moving image collection of Dennis Hopper is held at the Academy Film Archive. The Dennis Hopper Trust Collection represents Hopper's directorial efforts.

title: Dennis Hopper


text:
Detroit Red Wings

The Detroit Red Wings (colloquially referred to as the Wings) are a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit. The Red Wings compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference, and are one of the Original Six teams of the league. Founded in 1926, the team was known as the Detroit Cougars until 1930. For the next two seasons, the team was named the Detroit Falcons, before changing their name to the Red Wings in 1932.

The Red Wings have won the most Stanley Cup championships of any NHL franchise based in the United States (11), and are third overall amongst active teams in total Stanley Cup championships, behind the Montreal Canadiens (24) and Toronto Maple Leafs (13). The Wings played their home games at Joe Louis Arena from 1979 until 2017, after playing for 52 years at Olympia Stadium. They moved into Little Caesars Arena beginning with the 2017–18 season. The Red Wings are one of the most popular and successful franchises in the NHL; fans and sports commentators refer to the Detroit area as "Hockeytown", which has been a registered trademark owned by the franchise since 1996.

Between the 1931–32 and 1965–66 seasons, the Red Wings missed the playoffs only four times. They struggled between the 1966–67 and 1982–83 seasons, only making the playoffs twice in that stretch. However, thereafter, from 1983–84 to 2015–16, they made the playoffs 30 times in 32 seasons, including 25-straight from 1990–91 to 2015–16 (not including the cancelled 2004–05 season); in 2006, this became the longest active streak of postseason appearances in all of North American professional sports and finished tied for the third-longest streak in NHL history. Since 1983–84, the Red Wings have tallied six regular season first-place finishes and have won the Stanley Cup four times (1997, 1998, 2002, and 2008).

Early years (1926–1949)
Following the 1926 Stanley Cup playoffs, during which the Western Hockey League (WHL) was widely reported to be on the verge of folding, the NHL held a meeting on April 17 to consider applications for expansion franchises, at which it was reported that five different groups sought a team for Detroit. During a subsequent meeting on May 15, the league approved a franchise to the Townsend-Seyburn group of Detroit and named Charles A. Hughes as governor. WHL owners Frank and Lester Patrick made a deal to sell the league's players to the NHL and cease league operations. The new Detroit franchise purchased the players of the WHL's Victoria Cougars, who had won the Stanley Cup in 1925 and had made the Finals the previous winter, to play for the team. The new Detroit franchise also adopted the Cougars' nickname in honor of the folded franchise.

Since no arena in Detroit was ready at the time, the Cougars played their first season at the Border Cities Arena in Windsor, Ontario. For the 1927–28 season, the Cougars moved into the new Detroit Olympia, which would be their home rink until December 15, 1979. This was also the first season behind the bench for Jack Adams, who would be the face of the franchise for the next 36 years as either coach or general manager.

The Cougars made the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time in 1929, with Carson Cooper leading the team in scoring. The Cougars were outscored 7–2 in the two-game series with the Toronto Maple Leafs. In 1930, the Cougars were renamed the Falcons, but their woes continued, as they usually finished near the bottom of the standings, even though they made the playoffs again in 1932.

In 1932, the NHL let grain merchant James E. Norris, who had made two previous unsuccessful bids to buy an NHL team, purchase the Falcons. Norris' first act was to rename the team; earlier in the century, Norris had been a member of the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association (MAAA), a multi-sport club whose winged-wheel emblem derived from its cycling roots, and whose hockey team won the first Stanley Cup in 1893. Norris decided that a red version of the MAAA "Winged Wheelers" logo would be perfect for a team playing in the "Motor City", and on October 5, 1932, the club was renamed the Detroit Red Wings. Norris also placed coach Jack Adams on a one-year probation for the 1932–33 NHL season. Adams managed to pass his probationary period by leading the Red Wings to their first-ever playoff series victory, over the Montreal Maroons. The team then lost in the semi-finals to the New York Rangers.

In 1934, the Red Wings made the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time, with John Sorrell scoring 21 goals over 47 games and Larry Aurie leading the team in scoring. However, the Chicago Black Hawks defeated the Red Wings in the Finals, winning the best-of-five series in four games to claim their first title. Two seasons later, the Red Wings won their first Stanley Cup in 1936, defeating Toronto in four games. Detroit repeated as Stanley Cup champions in 1937, winning over the Rangers in the full five games. In 1938, the Montreal Canadiens and the Red Wings became the first NHL teams to play in Europe, playing in Paris and London. The Wings played nine games against the Canadiens and went 3–5–1. They did not play in Europe again until the pre-season and start of the 2009–10 NHL season, in Sweden, against the St. Louis Blues.

The Red Wings made the Stanley Cup Finals in three consecutive years during the early 1940s. In 1941, they were swept by the Boston Bruins, and in 1942, they lost a seven-game series to Toronto after winning the first three games. However, in 1943, with Mud Bruneteau and Syd Howe scoring 23 and 20 goals, respectively, Detroit won their third Stanley Cup by sweeping the Bruins. Through the rest of the decade, the team made the playoffs every year, and reached the Finals three more times.

In 1946, one of the greatest players in hockey history came into the NHL with the Red Wings. Gordie Howe, a right winger from Floral, Saskatchewan, only scored seven goals and 15 assists in his first season, and would not reach his prime for a few more years. It was also the last season as head coach for Adams, who stepped down after the season to concentrate on his duties as general manager and was succeeded by minor league coach Tommy Ivan. By his second season, Howe was paired with Sid Abel and Ted Lindsay to form what would become one of the great lines in NHL history: the "Production Line". Lindsay's 33 goals propelled the Red Wings to the Stanley Cup Finals, where they were swept by the Maple Leafs. Detroit reached the Finals again the following season, only to be swept again by Toronto.

Gordie Howe era (1950–1966)
During the 1950 Stanley Cup semi-finals, Leo Reise Jr. scored the winning goal in overtime, which prevented the Maple Leafs from winning four straight championships. In the Finals, the Red Wings defeated the New York Rangers in seven games. In Game 7, Pete Babando scored the game winner in double overtime. After the game, Lindsay skated around the Olympia ice with the Stanley Cup.

After being upset by the Montreal Canadiens in the 1951 semi-finals, Detroit won its fifth Stanley Cup in 1952, sweeping both the Maple Leafs and the Canadiens, with the Production Line of Howe, Abel and Lindsay joined by second-year goaltender Terry Sawchuk. Detroit became the first team in 17 years to go undefeated in the playoffs. They also scored 24 playoff goals, compared to Toronto and Montreal's combined total of 5. Abel left the Red Wings for Chicago during the off-season, and his spot on the roster was replaced by Alex Delvecchio. In December 1952, James E. Norris died. He was succeeded as team president by his daughter, Marguerite, which made her the first woman to head an NHL franchise.

Following another playoff upset in 1953 at the hands of the Bruins, the Red Wings won back-to-back Stanley Cups, beating the rival powerhouse Montreal Canadiens. Both of the Stanley Cup Finals played between the two teams were decided in seven games. The seventh game during the 1954 Stanley Cup Finals was won with one of the oddest cup winning goals ever, when the 5'7" left winger Tony Leswick, known more for his relentless checking than scoring prowess, shot a puck towards the Montreal goal from the middle of the ice. Habs defenseman Doug Harvey tried to gain control of the wobbly puck with his glove but instead redirected it past Montreal goalie Gerry McNeil. The repeat of the series the season after was closely contested, as all seven games were won by the home team, with Detroit taking the seventh game. Montreal was sorely lacking its all-star Maurice Richard, who was suspended after hitting a linesman during the regular season, and the Red Wings' stars carried their team, as Lindsay scored four goals in a single game and Howe scored 20 points during the playoffs, 12 of which during the Finals, all new records in the league.

The 1954–55 season ended a run of seven straight regular season titles, an NHL record. During the 1955 off-season, Marguerite Norris lost an intra-family power struggle, and was forced to turn over the Red Wings to her younger brother Bruce. Detroit and Montreal once again met, in the 1956 Stanley Cup Finals, but this time the Canadiens won the Stanley Cup, their first of five in a row. In 1957, Lindsay, who had scored 30 goals and led the league in assists with 55, teamed up with Harvey to help start the National Hockey League Players' Association (NHLPA). As a result, he and goaltender Glenn Hall were promptly traded to Chicago.

In 1959, the Red Wings missed the playoffs for the first time in 21 years. However, within a couple of years, the franchise was able to rejuvenate itself. The Red Wings made the Finals in four of the next six years between 1961 and 1966. However, they came away empty-handed.

"Dead Wings" era (1967–1982)
Only a year after making the Finals, the Red Wings finished a distant fifth, 24 points out of the playoffs. It was the beginning of a slump that they would not emerge from in almost 20 years. This period is derisively known as the "Dead Wings" era.

One factor in the Red Wings' decline was the end of the old development system. Another factor was Ned Harkness, who was hired as coach in 1970 and was promoted to general manager midway through the season. A successful college hockey coach, Harkness tried to force his two-way style of play on a veteran Red Wings team resistant to change. They chafed under his rule in which he demanded short hair and no smoking, and put other rules in place regarding drinking and phone calls. Harkness was forced to resign in 1974, ending the period colloquially referred to as "Darkness with Harkness".

During the expansion season of 1967–68, the Red Wings acquired longtime star left-winger Frank Mahovlich from the defending Cup champions in Toronto. Mahovlich would go on a line with Howe and Delvecchio, and in 1968–69, he scored a career-high 49 goals and had two All-Star seasons in Detroit. However, Mahovlich was traded to Montreal in 1971, while Howe announced his retirement the same year. Throughout the decade, the Red Wings were hampered due to a number of factors.

On December 27, 1979, during the 1979–80 season, the Red Wings officially began playing at the Joe Louis Arena after leaving the Olympia, where they had played since 1927. In 1982, after 50 years of family ownership, Bruce Norris sold the Red Wings to Mike Ilitch, founder of the pizza chain Little Caesars.

Steve Yzerman era (1983–2006)
In 1983, the Red Wings drafted Steve Yzerman, a center from the Peterborough Petes, with their first-round pick. He led the team in scoring in his rookie year. That season, with John Ogrodnick, Ivan Boldirev, Ron Duguay, and Brad Park, Detroit made the playoffs for the first time in six years, with Park ended up winning the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy. He was later asked to coach the Red Wings after they fired Harry Neale 35 games into the 1985–86 season,  however, he was fired on June 3, 1986, after they finished last place with a 17–57–6 record for only 40 points, the worst record in the league. This was the same year that the Red Wings added enforcer Bob Probert, one of the most familiar faces of the team during the 1980s and 1990s.

In the 1986–87 season, with Yzerman, now the captain following the departure of Danny Gare, joined by Petr Klima, Adam Oates, Gerard Gallant, defenseman Darren Veitch, and new head coach Jacques Demers, the Red Wings won a playoff series for only the second time in the modern era. They made it all the way to the conference finals against the powerful Edmonton Oilers, but lost to the eventual Stanley Cup champions in five games. In 1988, they won their first division title in 23 years. They did so, however, in a relatively weak division, as no other team in the Norris finished above .500. As was the case in the previous season, they made it to the conference finals only to lose again to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Oilers in five games.

In 1989, Yzerman scored a career-best 65 goals, but Detroit was upset in the first round by the Chicago Blackhawks. The following season, Yzerman scored 62 goals, but the team missed the playoffs.

After the season, Demers was fired and was replaced by Bryan Murray as the new head coach. Murray was unable to get them back over .500, but they returned to the playoffs. Yzerman was joined by Sergei Fedorov, who would be an award-winner and frequent all-star for the team during the 1990s. In 1991, the team signed free agent Ray Sheppard, who would score a career-best 52 goals three years later. In 1993, the Red Wings acquired top defenseman Paul Coffey. Also joining the Red Wings around this time were draft picks Vladimir Konstantinov, Nicklas Lidstrom, Vyacheslav Kozlov, Darren McCarty, and Chris Osgood.

The Russian Five and back-to-back Stanley Cups (1994–1998)
In 1993, former Montreal Canadiens coach Scotty Bowman was hired as the new head coach. In his second season, the lockout-shortened 1994–95 NHL season, Bowman guided Detroit to its first Finals appearance in 29 years, only to be swept by the New Jersey Devils.

During the 1995–96 season, the Red Wings won a then NHL record 62 games. However, after defeating the St. Louis Blues in seven games, they would fall in the Western Conference finals to the eventual Stanley Cup champions, the Colorado Avalanche.

The following season, the Red Wings acquired Brendan Shanahan and Larry Murphy. In the playoffs, they would defeat the St. Louis Blues, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and the Avalanche in the first three rounds. In the Finals, the Red Wings swept the Philadelphia Flyers. It was their first Stanley Cup since 1955, breaking the longest drought (42 years long) in the league at that time. Mike Vernon was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy.

Misfortune befell the Red Wings six days after their championship; defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov, one of the members of the "Russian Five", suffered a brain injury in a limousine accident, and his career came to an abrupt end. As a result, the team dedicated the 1997–98 season to him. The Red Wings won the Stanley Cup in four games, this time over the Washington Capitals, and Konstantinov was brought onto the ice in his wheelchair so he could touch it.

Superstar acquisitions and more success (1999–2006)
The following season, the Red Wings appeared to be poised to win a third consecutive Stanley Cup when they acquired three-time Norris Trophy winner Chris Chelios from his hometown Chicago Blackhawks in March 1999. Also acquired at the trade deadline were defenseman Ulf Samuelsson, winger Wendel Clark, and goaltender Bill Ranford. Despite high aspirations, however, Detroit would end up losing in the Western Conference semi-finals to Colorado in six games. In 2000, the Red Wings would finish second in the Central Division. Just like the previous season, however, they would lose to the Avalanche in the Western Conference semi-finals.

In 2001, Detroit, the NHL's second-best team in the regular season, were upset in the playoffs by the Los Angeles Kings. During the ensuing off-season, the team acquired goaltender Dominik Hasek (the defending Vezina Trophy winner) and forwards Luc Robitaille and Brett Hull. Russian prospect Pavel Datsyuk also joined the team. Strengthened by the additions, the Red Wings posted the league's best record in the 2001–02 regular season and defeated Colorado in seven games in the Western Conference finals after beating the Vancouver Canucks and St. Louis Blues in rounds one and two. The Red Wings then went on to capture another Stanley Cup, in five games, over the Carolina Hurricanes, with Nicklas Lidstrom winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs' MVP. Bowman and Hasek both retired after the season.

The off-season saw the Red Wings promote associate coach Dave Lewis to the head coach position after Bowman's retirement. In the market for a new starting goaltender after Hasek's retirement, they signed Curtis Joseph from the Toronto Maple Leafs to a three-year, $24 million deal. Also new to the lineup was highly touted Swedish prospect Henrik Zetterberg. The Red Wings finished the season second in the Western Conference, which pitted them in the 2003 playoffs against the seventh-seeded Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. The Mighty Ducks shocked the hockey world when they swept the Red Wings in four games en route to a Finals appearance.

In the off-season, long time Red Wing Fedorov signed with the Mighty Ducks as a free agent. Additionally, Hasek opted to come out of retirement and join the Red Wings for the 2003–04 season. Joseph, despite being one of the highest-paid players in the NHL, spent part of the season in the minor leagues. Hasek himself would be sidelined with a groin injury. Notwithstanding, the Red Wings would finish atop of the Central Division and the NHL standings. The Red Wings eliminated the Nashville Predators in six games in the first round of the 2004 playoffs, which led to a second round match-up with the Calgary Flames. The teams split the first four games, and headed to Detroit for a pivotal Game 5, which the Red Wings lost 1–0. They were then eliminated two nights later in Calgary by the same score in overtime. The Red Wings did not play in the 2004–05 season due to the lockout, which cancelled the entire NHL season.

On July 15, 2005, Mike Babcock, former head coach in Anaheim, became the new head coach for the Red Wings. On November 21, 2005, defenseman Jiri Fischer went into cardiac arrest and collapsed on the bench during a game against the Nashville Predators. The game was cancelled because of his injury and was made up on January 23, 2006. This was the first time in NHL history a game had been postponed due to an injury. While the game was played for the full 60 minutes, the Predators were allowed to maintain their 1–0 lead from the original game and won 3–2. The Red Wings won the Presidents' Trophy with a 58–16–8 record, earning them 124 points and secured home ice advantage for the entire playoffs. They opened the 2006 playoffs against the Edmonton Oilers with a 3–2 overtime victory at Joe Louis Arena, but the Oilers won four of the next five games to take the series.

Continuing the shakeup of the Red Wings roster, the off-season saw the departure of Brendan Shanahan, the return of Dominik Hasek and the retirement of Steve Yzerman. Yzerman retired with the distinction of having been the longest-serving team captain in NHL history.

The "Euro-Twins" era (2006–2017)
The Red Wings opened the 2006–07 season with Nicklas Lidstrom as the new captain. The team retired Yzerman's jersey number 19 on January 2, 2007. The Red Wings finished first in the Western Conference and tied for first in the NHL with the Buffalo Sabres, but the Sabres were awarded the Presidents' Trophy because they had more wins. Detroit advanced to the third round of the 2007 playoffs after defeating Calgary and the San Jose Sharks both in six games, coming back to win three-straight after the Sharks had a 2–1 series lead. The Red Wings would then lose to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Anaheim Ducks in the Western Conference finals in six games.

To start the 2007–08 campaign, Zetterberg recorded at least a point in each of Detroit's first 17 games, setting a club record. The Wings cruised to the playoffs, where they faced the Nashville Predators. After goaltender Dominik Hasek played poorly in Games 3 and 4 of the series, both losses, head coach Mike Babcock replaced him with Chris Osgood. Osgood never left the net for the remainder of the playoffs, as the Red Wings came back in that series on their way to winning their 11th Stanley Cup. The final victory came in Game 6 on June 4, 2008, against the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3–2. This was the Red Wings' fourth Stanley Cup in 11 years. Zetterberg scored the winning goal in the decisive game, and was also named the winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the playoffs. It was the first time a team captained by a non-North American player (Lidstrom) won the Stanley Cup.

On July 2, 2008, the Red Wings announced the signing of Marian Hossa. On January 1, 2009, the Red Wings played the Chicago Blackhawks in the second NHL Winter Classic at Chicago's Wrigley Field, defeating them 6–4. Although they finished second in the conference to the San Jose Sharks, the Wings became the first team in NHL history to top 100 points in nine straight seasons. In the playoffs, the Red Wings swept the Columbus Blue Jackets, then defeated the eighth-seeded Anaheim Ducks in a hard-fought seven-game series. They took on the vastly improved Chicago Blackhawks in the conference finals, winning in five games. The Red Wings would face the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Finals for a second consecutive year, but this series would feature a different outcome as the Penguins defeated the Red Wings in seven games. The Red Wings became only the second NHL team to lose the Stanley Cup at home in Game 7.

The Red Wings began the 2009–10 NHL season in Stockholm, losing both games to the St. Louis Blues 4–3 and 5–3, respectively. They were plagued by injuries throughout the season and lost the second most man games to injury, with only the last place Edmonton Oilers losing more. The beginning of the season was a struggle for the Red Wings, with key players out of the lineup, including Zetterberg, Tomas Holmstrom, Johan Franzen, Valtteri Filppula and Niklas Kronwall. After the Olympic break, Detroit posted a record of 13–3–2 and earned 28 points, the most by any team in the NHL. This run helped them secure the fifth playoff seed in the Western Conference. This, however, was the first time the Red Wings did not have home ice advantage in a playoff series in ten seasons. Detroit won their first-round playoff series over the Phoenix Coyotes in seven games. In the second round, they would be defeated by the San Jose Sharks in five games.

A healthier Red Wings team finished the 2010–11 NHL season with a 47–25–10 record and 104 points to win the Central Division title. They once again faced the Phoenix Coyotes in the first round of the playoffs, this time sweeping them 4–0. The Red Wings then went on to face the Sharks in round two. After losing the first three games of the series, the Red Wings won three consecutive games to force a Game 7, becoming just the eighth team in NHL history to accomplish the feat. The Red Wings lost Game 7 to the Sharks by a score of 3–2 and were eliminated.

During the 2011 off-season, Red Wings defenseman Brian Rafalski retired. Detroit soon signed free agent defenseman Ian White to take his place. Long-time Red Wings Chris Osgood and Kris Draper also announced their retirement from hockey, with both soon taking positions within the club. Detroit signed goaltender Ty Conklin for his second stint with the team. Tragedy struck the organization and the rest of the NHL with the 2011 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash, which killed former Red Wings assistant coach Brad McCrimmon and defenseman Ruslan Salei, who had joined the KHL team during the summer. Stefan Liv, a former Red Wings goaltending prospect, was also among the fatalities. The Red Wings then added a patch to the left arm of their uniforms with the trio's initials.

During the season, the Red Wings won an NHL-record 23 consecutive home games. The Red Wings also made the NHL playoffs, extending their streak of 21-straight playoff appearances, as the fifth seed. They were defeated in five games by their opening round opponent, the Nashville Predators. On May 31, 2012, Nicklas Lidstrom retired.

Zetterberg was named successor to Lidstrom as team captain. On July 1, 2012, the first day of the NHL free agency period, the Red Wings signed Swiss forward Damien Brunner to a one-year, entry-level contract; forward Jordin Tootoo to a three-year, $5.7 million contract; and goaltender Jonas Gustavsson to a two-year, $3 million deal.

The team won their final four games of the 2012–13 season to earn the seventh seed of the playoffs. The Red Wings' 3–0 victory over the Dallas Stars on April 27, 2013, preserved their streak of 22 consecutive playoff appearances. As the seventh seed in the 2013 playoffs, the Red Wings faced the second-seeded Anaheim Ducks. They survived a fierce battle that included four overtime games, winning the series 4–3 after a 3–2 Game 7 victory in Anaheim. The next round pitted the Red Wings against the top-seeded Chicago Blackhawks. Despite jumping out to a 3–1 series lead, the Red Wings would ultimately lose to the eventual Stanley Cup champions in seven games.

On July 5, 2013, the Red Wings signed long time Ottawa Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson to a one-year contract and long time Florida Panther Stephen Weiss to a five-year contract. In the 2013–14 season, the Red Wings moved to the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference as part of the NHL's realignment. The move to the Eastern Conference allowed them to play a majority of their games against teams in the Eastern Time Zone. On April 9, 2014, the Red Wings clinched their 23rd consecutive playoff appearance. They would be eliminated in the first round by the Boston Bruins.

On April 9, 2015, the Red Wings clinched their 24th consecutive playoff appearance, thus extending their streak. The team was eliminated in the first round by the Tampa Bay Lightning. Petr Mrazek had earned the starting goaltender role from Jimmy Howard, and Kronwall was suspended for Game 7 as Tampa Bay erased a 3–2 deficit to win the series. Mike Babcock, concluding the final year of his contract, left the Red Wings to become the new head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Jeff Blashill, head coach of the Red Wings' top minor league affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins, was named his successor on June 9.

On April 9, 2016, despite the Red Wings losing 3–2 to the New York Rangers, the Ottawa Senators defeated the Boston Bruins 6–1 as the Red Wings narrowly made the playoffs and extended their streak to a 25th season. They would lose in the first round to the Lightning again, this time in five games.

During the off-season, Datsyuk decided to return to Russia. On February 10, 2017, club owner Mike Ilitch died. The Red Wings' playoff streak ended after 25 seasons in the 2016–17 season. The Red Wings won their last game at Joe Louis Arena 4–1 on April 9, 2017, against the New Jersey Devils.

The opening of Little Caesars Arena and rebuilding (2017–present)
The Red Wings played their first regular season game at Little Caesars Arena on October 5, 2017, winning 4–2 over the Minnesota Wild. The Red Wings finished the 2017–18 season with a 30–39–13 record. They missed the playoffs for the second season in a row, marking the first time since the early 1980s the team missed the playoffs in consecutive years. The Red Wings finished the 2018–19 season with a 32–40–10 record, missing the playoffs for a third consecutive season.

On April 19, 2019, the Red Wings announced that Steve Yzerman rejoined the team as general manager and executive vice president. On February 21, 2020, the Red Wings became the first team to be eliminated from playoff contention before the trade deadline since the 2003–04 Pittsburgh Penguins. On March 10, 2020, the Red Wings clinched the worst overall record in NHL for the first time since the 1985–86 season. On March 12, the 2019–20 season was suspended by the NHL due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On May 26, 2020, the NHL announced that the rest of the season was over for the seven teams that did not qualify for the 24-team Stanley Cup playoffs, which included the Red Wings. With a record of 17–49–5, this was the first time since the 1985–86 season that the Red Wings finished with fewer than 20 wins. The Red Wings also became the second team since the 2004–05 NHL lockout, and the subsequent start of the salary cap era, to finish with a sub-.300 points percentage, along with the 2016–17 Colorado Avalanche. Their .275 points percentage was the worst for an NHL team since the 1999–2000 Atlanta Thrashers.

Dylan Larkin was named the Red Wings captain on January 13, 2021, who succeeded Henrik Zetterberg following his retirement in 2018. On April 26, the Red Wings were eliminated from playoff contention for the fifth consecutive season. They would ultimately finish with a 19–27–10 record. The Red Wings finished the 2021–22 season at 32–40–10. They missed the playoff for the sixth consecutive season. On April 30, 2022, Jeff Blashill was fired as head coach. They then hired Derek Lalonde as their head coach on June 30, 2022. During 2022–23 season, the Red Wings would re-sign Dylan Larkin to an eight-year contract extension. The Red Wings finished the season at 35–37–10. They missed the playoffs for the seventh consecutive season. The Red Wings finished the 2023–24 season with a 41–32–9 record. However, they were eliminated from playoff contention for the eighth consecutive season via tiebreaker on April 16, 2024, after the Washington Capitals' 2–1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers.

Logo and uniforms
The Red Wings' jerseys (traditionally known in hockey as "sweaters") have been more or less the same since the 1930s – a white or red base with red or white piping. The only significant changes have been the replacement of the word Detroit with the "winged wheel" logo in 1932, and vertical arch lettering for the players' names and block letters in 1983. The Red Wings wear the vertical arched letters in the regular season and playoffs, but use straight serifed nameplates during the preseason.

The Hockey News voted the Red Wings' "winged wheel" logo the second best in the league in 2008. The Red Wings, like all NHL teams, updated their jerseys to the new Rbk Edge standard for the 2007–08 NHL season. The Red Wings kept their design as close to original as possible, the exceptions being: On the road (white) jersey, there was more red on the sleeves as the color panel began closer to the shoulder, and the letters of the captain and alternate captains were moved to the right shoulder.

When Adidas became the uniform outfitter starting with the 2017–18 season, the Red Wings kept the same basic look.

The Red Wings have rarely used any alternate logos or uniforms since the trend became popular in the 1990s, the sole exceptions were select games of the 1991–92 season commemorating the league's 75th anniversary, and for a commemorative game on January 27, 1994, at Chicago Stadium. Those jerseys were based on the uniforms worn by the team (then the Detroit Cougars) in 1927–28. The throwbacks are primarily white with five red horizontal stripes on the body, the broadest middle stripe bearing "Detroit" in bold letters, and three red stripes on the sleeves. This jersey served as the basis for the uniforms worn by Wayne Gretzky's team of NHLPA All-Stars, nicknamed the "99ers", for their exhibition tour in Europe during the 1994–95 NHL lockout.

The Red Wings wore alternative "retro" jerseys for the 2009 NHL Winter Classic in Chicago. The jerseys were based on the uniforms worn by the Detroit Cougars during their inaugural season of 1926–27. These jerseys were white, with a single bold red stripe on the sleeves and chest, and a uniquely styled white Old English D centered on the chest stripe. These jerseys were also worn for their final 2009 regular season home game, again against the Chicago Blackhawks. The Red Wings again used an alternate jersey mimicking throwback jerseys for the 2014 NHL Winter Classic against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Michigan Stadium.

The Red Wings wore a specially designed one-time-only jersey for their Stadium Series game in Denver against the Colorado Avalanche on February 27, 2016. The majority of this jersey was the traditional red, decorated with a thick diagonal white stripe running from the player's right shoulder across the front towards the left hip. The bottom of each sleeve featured a thick white stripe from wrist to elbow. The crest on the front of the jersey was a stylized red D. The words "Red Wings" were printed in all capital letters on the left side of the collar, and the phrase "EST. 1926" was printed inside the back of the collar. These jerseys featured the current Red Wings logo on the left shoulder cap. The names and numbers were printed larger than traditional NHL jerseys to increase visibility and player identification for fans watching the game at Coors Field, a stadium traditionally used for Major League Baseball.

The Red Wings unveiled a uniform patch on September 27, 2016, to honor Gordie Howe, who died on June 10, 2016. The patch was a depiction of Howe's jersey number 9 and was worn by the team above the logo on the front of the jersey on the left side of the chest for all 82 regular season games during the 2016–17 season.

The Red Wings wore a specially designed one-time-only jersey for the Centennial Classic in Toronto against the Toronto Maple Leafs on January 1, 2017. It was a white jersey that had four stripes on the arms. Three of the stripes were red, while the fourth was silver. On the silver stripes were the years the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup. The logo and numbers were outlined in silver.

For the 2020–21 season, the Red Wings would wear special "Reverse Retro" alternate jerseys designed by Adidas. The uniform featured a white base and white sleeves inspired by the Red Wings' road uniforms of the Original Six era. Silver stripes replaced red stripes in commemoration of the team's 11 Stanley Cup championships and the 2017 Centennial Classic. A second "Reverse Retro" uniform was unveiled in the 2022–23 season, using the 1991–92 throwback uniform based on the original Cougars' uniforms but with a red base and black stripes.

The Red Wings' logo received significant media attention in August 2017 when it was discovered that a white supremacist group used a modified version of it, in which the wheel's spokes consisted of the occult SS symbol Black Sun; it was the aegis of their shields during the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. As a result, the Red Wings condemned the group for the usage of the logo and threatened legal action.

On February 29, 2024, the Red Wings announced their first ever jersey patch advertisement with Priority, a local waste management company.

Fan traditions

The "Legend of the Octopus" is a sports tradition during Detroit Red Wings playoff games, in which an octopus is thrown onto the ice surface for good luck. During the playoffs, Joe Louis Arena was generally adorned with a giant octopus with red eyes, nicknamed "Al" after former head ice manager Al Sobotka.

The 1952 playoffs featured the start of the octopus throw. The owner of a local fish market, Peter Cusimano, threw one from the stands onto the ice. The eight legs are symbolic of the eight wins it took to win the Stanley Cup at the time. The Red Wings went on to sweep both of their opponents that year en route to a Stanley Cup championship. The NHL has, at various times, tried to eliminate this tradition but it continues to this day.

Sobotka was responsible for removing the thrown creatures from the ice. When the Red Wings played at Joe Louis Arena, he was known for swinging the tossed octopuses above his head when walking off the ice. On April 19, 2008, the NHL sent a memo to the Red Wings that forbade this; they said that violating the mandate would result in a $10,000 fine. Instead, it was to up to the linesmen to remove the octopuses. In an email to the Detroit Free Press, NHL spokesman Frank Brown justified the ban because matter flew off the octopus and got on the ice when Sobotka swung it above his head. This ban was later loosened to allow for the octopus twirling to take place at the Zamboni entrance.

Typically during the last minute or two of games that the Red Wings are winning, especially around the end of the season and during the playoffs, fans are known to start singing along to Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'." The song is played over the PA system and continues until it is muted while the crowd sings the words "Born and raised in South Detroit," then the song resumes over the speakers in the arena.

Broadcasters
The Red Wings' flagship radio stations are Detroit sister stations WXYT-AM 1270 and WXYT-FM 97.1. Games are carried on both stations unless there is a conflict with Detroit Tigers baseball. There are several affiliate stations throughout Michigan and Southwestern Ontario.

The Red Wings' exclusive local television rights are held by Bally Sports Detroit.

Announcers:

 * Ken Daniels: Television play by play announcer.
 * Mickey Redmond: Television color commentator (home games and select away games).
 * Chris Osgood: Television color commentator (select away games that Redmond does not attend) and studio analyst (when not doing color commentating).
 * Larry Murphy: Studio analyst and television color commentator (select away games that Redmond and Osgood do not attend).
 * John Keating: Television pre-game and post-game host
 * Trevor Thompson: TV pre-game and post-game host and reporter.
 * Brooke Fletcher: Sideline reporter.
 * Ken Kal: Radio play by play announcer.
 * Paul Woods: Radio analyst.
 * Daniella Bruce: Alternate radio analyst.
 * Jeff Riger: Primary radio intermission and post-game host.

Honored broadcasters
Four members of the Red Wings organization have received the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award:
 * Budd Lynch: TV and radio play by play and color – 1949–1975 (awarded 1985)
 * Bruce Martyn: Radio play by play – 1964–1995 (awarded 1991)
 * Mickey Redmond: TV color commentary – 1979–1981, 1986–present (awarded 2011)
 * Dave Strader: TV play by play – 1985–1996 (awarded 2017)

Lynch called the first locally televised game at Olympia for the original WWJ-TV in 1949. He remained with the organization for 63 years, serving as director of publicity from 1975 to 1982, and was the public address announcer from 1982 until his death in 2012. From 2008 to 2012, a second PA announcer was added to work alongside him, first John Fossen, then Erich Freiny. Freiny took over as the sole PA announcer following Lynch's death.

Season-by-season record
''This is a partial list of the last five seasons completed by the Detroit Red Wings. For the full season-by-season history, see List of Detroit Red Wings seasons''.

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime losses, ROW = Regulation + OT wins, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against

Hall of Fame
The Detroit Red Wings acknowledge an affiliation with many inductees to the Hockey Hall of Fame, including 68 former players and 12 builders of the sport. The 12 individuals recognized as builders by the Hall of Fame include former Red Wings executives, general managers, head coaches, and owners. In addition to players and builders, several broadcasters have been awarded the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award from the Hockey Hall of Fame. Budd Lynch, a radio play-by-play announcer, was the first Red Wings broadcaster to be awarded the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award. Lynch also served as Detroit's public address announcer from 1985 until his death in 2012. In addition to Lynch, Bruce Martyn, Mickey Redmond, and Dave Strader have also won the award.

Players • Sid Abel

• Daniel Alfredsson

• Al Arbour

• Marty Barry

• Andy Bathgate

• Leo Boivin

• John Bucyk

• Chris Chelios

• Dino Ciccarelli

• Paul Coffey

• Charlie Conacher

• Roy Conacher

• Alec Connell

• Pavel Datsyuk

• Alex Delvecchio

• Marcel Dionne

• Bernie Federko

• Sergei Fedorov

• Viacheslav Fetisov

• Frank Foyston

• Frank Fredrickson

• Bill Gadsby

• Eddie Giacomin

• Ebbie Goodfellow

• Glenn Hall

• Doug Harvey

• Dominik Hasek

• George Hay

• Hap Holmes

• Marian Hossa

• Gordie Howe

• Mark Howe

• Syd Howe

• Brett Hull

• Duke Keats

• Red Kelly

• Brian Kilrea

• Igor Larionov

• Herbie Lewis

• Nicklas Lidstrom

• Ted Lindsay

• Harry Lumley

• Frank Mahovlich

• Mike Modano

• Larry Murphy

• Vaclav Nedomansky

• Reg Noble

• Adam Oates

• Brad Park

• Bud Poile

• Marcel Pronovost

• Bill Quackenbush

• Luc Robitaille

• Borje Salming

• Terry Sawchuk

• Earl Siebert

• Brendan Shanahan

• Darryl Sittler

• Jack Stewart

• Tiny Thompson

• Norm Ullman

• Rogie Vachon

• Mike Vernon

• Carl Voss

• Jack Walker

• Harry Watson

• Cooney Weiland

• Steve Yzerman

Builders • Jack Adams

• Keith Allen

• Scotty Bowman

• Murray Costello

• Jim Devellano

• Ken Holland

• Mike Ilitch

• Tommy Ivan

• Bruce Norris

• James D. Norris

• James E. Norris

• John Ziegler Jr.

Retired numbers
The Red Wings have retired eight numbers. The first number the Red Wings retired was No. 9 in 1972 in honor of Gordie Howe, who played right wing for the team from 1946 to 1971. Howe won both the Art Ross Trophy and the Hart Memorial Trophy six times each and won the Stanley Cup as a Red Wing four times. In 2007, the Red Wings retired Steve Yzerman's No. 19. During Yzerman's career, he won the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, the Conn Smythe Trophy, the Frank J. Selke Trophy, the Lester Patrick Trophy, and the Ted Lindsay Award. Yzerman served as Detroit's captain for 19 seasons, an NHL record, and won the Stanley Cup three times as a player with the Red Wings. The most recent retired number is Red Kelly's No. 4, which was retired on February 1, 2019. During Kelly's 13-year career with the Red Wings, he won four Stanley Cups, the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy three times, and the James Norris Memorial Trophy once.

The Red Wings have also made the number 6 of Larry Aurie and the number 16 of Vladimir Konstantinov no longer available for issue. However, the numbers are not considered to be officially retired. Although Aurie's number was retired in 1938 by James E. Norris, current team owners do not consider the number to be retired. Konstantinov's number has not been issued to any player since he was permanently disabled in a vehicle accident after the 1997 Stanley Cup Finals. Number 99 is also unavailable as it was retired by the league in honor of Wayne Gretzky.

Team captains
All the players who have served as team captain with the Detroit franchise.

 * Art Duncan, 1926–1927
 * Reg Noble, 1927–1930
 * George Hay, 1930–1931
 * Carson Cooper, 1931–1932
 * Larry Aurie, 1932–1933
 * Herbie Lewis, 1933–1934
 * Ebbie Goodfellow, 1934–1935, 1938–1941
 * Doug Young, 1935–1938
 * Ebbie Goodfellow and Syd Howe, 1941–1942
 * Sid Abel, 1942–1943
 * Mud Bruneteau and Flash Hollett, 1943–1944
 * Flash Hollett, 1944–1945
 * Flash Hollett and Sid Abel, 1945–1946
 * Sid Abel, 1946–1952
 * Ted Lindsay, 1952–1956
 * Red Kelly, 1956–1958
 * Gordie Howe, 1958–1962
 * Alex Delvecchio, 1962–1973
 * Alex Delvecchio, Nick Libett, Red Berenson, Gary Bergman, Ted Harris, Mickey Redmond, and Larry Johnston, 1973–1974
 * Marcel Dionne, 1974–1975
 * Danny Grant and Terry Harper, 1975–1976
 * Danny Grant and Dennis Polonich, 1976–1977
 * Dan Maloney and Dennis Hextall, 1977–1978
 * Dennis Hextall, Nick Libett, and Paul Woods, 1978–1979
 * Dale McCourt, 1979–1980
 * Errol Thompson and Reed Larson, 1980–1981
 * Reed Larson, 1981–1982
 * Danny Gare, 1982–1986
 * Steve Yzerman, 1986–2006
 * Nicklas Lidstrom, 2006–2012
 * Henrik Zetterberg, 2013–2018
 * Dylan Larkin, 2021–present

First-round draft picks

 * 1963: Peter Mahovlich (2nd overall)
 * 1964: Claude Gauthier (1st overall)
 * 1965: George Forgie (3rd overall)
 * 1966: Steve Atkinson (6th overall)
 * 1967: Ron Barkwell (9th overall)
 * 1968: Steve Andrascik (11th overall)
 * 1969: Jim Rutherford (10th overall)
 * 1970: Serge Lajeunesse (12th overall)
 * 1971: Marcel Dionne (2nd overall)
 * 1973: Terry Richardson (11th overall)
 * 1974: Bill Lochead (9th overall)
 * 1975: Rick Lapointe (5th overall)
 * 1976: Fred Williams (4th overall)
 * 1977: Dale McCourt (1st overall)
 * 1978: Willie Huber (9th overall)
 * 1979: Mike Foligno (3rd overall)
 * 1980: Mike Blaisdell (11th overall)
 * 1982: Murray Craven (17th overall)
 * 1983: Steve Yzerman (4th overall)
 * 1984: Shawn Burr (7th overall)
 * 1985: Brent Fedyk (8th overall)
 * 1986: Joe Murphy (1st overall)
 * 1987: Yves Racine (11th overall)
 * 1988: Kory Kocur (17th overall)
 * 1989: Mike Sillinger (11th overall)
 * 1990: Keith Primeau (3rd overall)
 * 1991: Martin Lapointe (10th overall)
 * 1992: Curtis Bowen (22nd overall)
 * 1993: Anders Eriksson (22nd overall)
 * 1994: Yan Golubovsky (23rd overall)
 * 1995: Maxim Kuznetsov (26th overall)
 * 1996: Jesse Wallin (26th overall)
 * 1998: Jiri Fischer (25th overall)
 * 2000: Niklas Kronwall (29th overall)
 * 2005: Jakub Kindl (19th overall)
 * 2007: Brendan Smith (27th overall)
 * 2008: Thomas McCollum (30th overall)
 * 2010: Riley Sheahan (21st overall)
 * 2013: Anthony Mantha (20th overall)
 * 2014: Dylan Larkin (15th overall)
 * 2015: Evgeny Svechnikov (19th overall)
 * 2016: Dennis Cholowski (20th overall)
 * 2017: Michael Rasmussen (9th overall)
 * 2018: Filip Zadina (6th overall)
 * 2018: Joe Veleno (30th overall)
 * 2019: Moritz Seider (6th overall)
 * 2020: Lucas Raymond (4th overall)
 * 2021: Simon Edvinsson (6th overall)
 * 2021: Sebastian Cossa (15th overall)
 * 2022: Marco Kasper (8th overall)
 * 2023: Nate Danielson (9th overall)
 * 2023: Axel Sandin Pellikka (17th overall)
 * 2024: Michael Brandsegg-Nygard (15th overall)

All-time leading scorers
These players rank in the top ten in franchise history in scoring as of the end of the 2022–23 season. Figures are updated after each completed NHL season. Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; P/G = Points per game
 * – current Red Wings player

All-time leading goaltenders
These players rank in the top ten in franchise history for wins as of the end of the 2018−19 season. Figures are updated after each completed NHL season. There is a four-way tie for ninth place in postseason wins, resulting in 12 players listed in that table. Note: GP = Games played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; OT = Overtime losses; SO = Shutouts; GAA = Goals against average; * = current Red Wings player
 * – current Red Wings player

Franchise individual records

 * Most goals in a season: 65, Steve Yzerman (1988–89)
 * Most assists in a season: 90, Steve Yzerman (1988–89)
 * Most points in a season: 155, Steve Yzerman (1988–89)
 * Most penalty minutes in a season: 398, Bob Probert (1987–88)
 * Most points in a season, defenseman: 80, Nicklas Lidstrom (2005–06)
 * Most points in a season, rookie: 87, Steve Yzerman (1983–84)
 * Most wins in a season: 44, Terry Sawchuk (1950–51 and 1951–52)
 * Most shutouts in a season: 12, Terry Sawchuk (1951–52, 1953–54, and 1954–55) and Glenn Hall (1955–56)
 * Most shutouts in postseason: 6, Dominik Hasek (2002)
 * Longest home win streak in NHL history: 23 games (November 5, 2011, to February 19, 2012)
 * Most wins in a season in NHL history: 62 (1995–96)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Detroit Red Wings