Dennis Hopper joins French Legion of Honour

Dennis Hopper today joined other luminaries from the world of entertainment including Lord Olivier, Clint Eastwood and, ahem, Celine Dion in the ranks of France's Légion d'honneur, the BBC reports.

Hopper, 72, was honoured with the rank of commandeur at a ceremony in Paris, which will until 19 January celebrate his life's work with an exhibition at the Cinematique Francaise. Among the attractions on offer are a film retrospective and the thesp's own snaps and paintings.

The movie highlights of Hopper's long career include 1969's Easy Rider, Apocalypse Now (1979) and Blue Velvet, which in 1986 set a new benchmark for screen psychopaths with the actor's splendidly OTT depiction of Frank Booth.

Along the way, Hopper has also popped up in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), True Grit (1969) and, proving he could always be relied on to provide a suitably deranged villain, the very silly Waterworld (1995).

The commandeur's next artistic outing comes later this week, when he graces the small screen as Los Angeles music producer Ben Cendars in the TV adapation of Crash. ®