1930s–1940s

Hopper began his acting career as a teenager. He made his first stage appearance at the Pasadena Community Playhouse, in She Loves Me Not.^[6] He worked in summer stock in Ogunquit, Maine.^[7][8] He appeared on Broadway in Order Please (1934) and as a member of the ensemble in Katharine Cornell's production of Romeo and Juliet (1934–35).^[9][10]

In 1936, Hopper won a contract at Paramount Pictures.^[6][11] He was credited in movies as Wolfe Hopper and DeWolf Hopper. In 1936, he appeared in The King Steps Out, and in 1937 he was in Public Wedding, Over the Goal, The Footloose Heiress and in 1938, Mystery House.^[4]

Hopper's film roles included Stagecoach (1939), The Return of Dr. X (1939), Over the Goal (1939), Knute Rockne, All American (1940), The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942).^[4]

Hopper became an actor because his mother expected it of him.^[8]: 57 "When I worked at Warner Bros.," Hopper said, "I was so scared I stuttered all the time."^[12]

Military service and postwar career

Hopper served with the United States Navy during World War II, as a volunteer with the Office of Strategic Services^[7][13] and as a member of the newly created Underwater Demolition Team. He received a Bronze Star and several other medals during operations in the Pacific.^[14]

For eight years after the war, Hopper became involved in business and sold cars in Hollywood.^[14] He combined car sales and acting when opportunities came up during the advent of television.^[15]

"I didn't even think about acting much until a friend, director Bill Wellman, asked me to do a part in The High and the Mighty," Hopper recalled.^[12]

1950s

In 1953, director William Wellman persuaded Hopper to resume his movie career with his 1954 film, The High and the Mighty,^[16] opposite Jan Sterling. Before filming began, Hopper challenged Wellman because he suspected his mother had arranged the offer. "When it appeared Wellman was serious, I asked him if he knew whose son I was. He ignored me," Hopper recalled. "I was so lousy, so nervous, I didn't even know where the camera was. But somehow Billy got me through. Afterward, I thanked him. He said, 'Thank me, my foot. After this, you're going to be in every picture I make.' I didn't believe him."^[8]: 60 Hopper subsequently appeared in two of Wellman's films, Track of the Cat (1954) and Good-bye, My Lady (1956).^[4]

Hopper was cast to star opposite Claire Trevor in the live television drama "No Sad Songs for Me",^[8]: 61 broadcast April 14, 1955, on NBC's Lux Video Theatre.^[17] He had such stage fright, he initially cancelled: "I swore I'd never act again as long as I lived", Hopper recalled. "Then I thought, what the heck, they can't shoot me, and walked on the set. Something happened then. It was as if someone had surgically removed the nerves."^[8]: 61

At last comfortable on screen, Hopper played the stern and emotionally distant father of Natalie Wood in the James Dean classic Rebel Without a Cause (1955), and the absentee father in The Bad Seed (1956). He starred in the science-fiction films 20 Million Miles to Earth and The Deadly Mantis, released in 1957.^[4]

In 1956 Hopper guest-starred again on television during the first season of the Western series Gunsmoke, portraying an outlaw initially supported by townsfolk in an episode titled "Robin Hood".^[18] He returned that year as murdering outlaw “Tasker” in S1E38’s “Unknown Grave”. The following year he played a supporting role in the pilot episode of the television series The Restless Gun, which was broadcast as an episode of Schlitz Playhouse of Stars. Some of Hopper's other television guest appearances include The Joseph Cotten Show, Fury, Studio 57, and The Millionaire.

Film

Television