American actor Bo Hopkins, the fierce-eyed performer who became famous as thieves and villains in films such as “The Wild Bunch”, “Getaway!”, “American Graffiti”, “McKlusky, half man half hate” and “Midnight Escape,” died Saturday May 28 at Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys, Los Angeles region, at the age of 84.
The announcement of the disappearance was made by his second wife, Sian Eleanor Green, married in 1989, specifying to “The Hollywood Reporter” that her husband had been hospitalized after a heart attack on May 9th. With his creepy gab and his ability to flaunt a cruel face, Hopkins was a favorite of director Sam Peckinpah, who cast him in three films: as Clarence “Crazy” Lee in “The wild bunch ”(1969), as a double agent bank robber in“ Getaway ”(1972) and as a weapons expert in“ Killer elite ”(1975).
His role as Joe Young, the head of the greaser gang The Pharaohs in George Lucas’ American Graffiti (1973) has established him as a top-notch on-screen villain. The highlight of his role was convincing Curt (Richard Dreyfuss) to attach a hook and chain to a police car so that when it went in pursuit, the rear axle would fly away.
Hopkins heightened his criminal aura as a clandestine distiller alongside Burt Reynolds in Joseph Sargent’s “McKlusky, Half Man Half Hate” (1973) and as Tex, a mysterious man who marks the fate of Billy Hayes (Brad Davis) in Alan Parker’s “Midnight Escape” (1978). Two of Hopkins’ favorite outlaw engagements came in 1975, when he played Turner, an aspiring mobster who loved to dress up as a cowboy, in Robert Mulligan’s The Mediator (1974) and as the gangster Pretty Boy Floyd in the TV movie ” Kansas City Massacre ”. As a man of law, he played sheriffs in “Open Hunt” (1976), “Sweet Sixteen” (1983), “Mutant” (1984), “Weekend in Hell” (1989), “the executioner” (1989), “Final Showdown” (1990), “Fertilize the Blaspheming Bombshell” (1992), “Texas Payback” (1995) and “A Crack in the Floor” (2001).
Other films starring Hopkins include “The Bridge of Remagen” (1969), “Smugglers of the Roaring Twenties” (1970), “Monty Walsh, A Man Die Hard” (1970), “Mud, Sweat and Dust. shot “(1972),” The day of the locust “(1975),” The executioners of the West “(1975),” Tentacles “(1977),” American Graffiti 2 “(1979),” From sunset to dawn 2 – Texas, blood and money ”(1999), a film loved by Quentin Tarantino. On television the actor has also had recurring roles as the adulterous Matthew Blaisdel on the series “Dynasty” and as the renegade attorney John Cooper on the telefilm “The Rockford Agency”. He has guest starred in episodes of the telefilms “The Virginian”, “Gunsmoke”, “Bonanza”, “Charlie’s Angels” and “The Lady in Crime”. In 2020 Bo Hopkins appeared in his latest film, “American Elegy,” directed by Ron Howard, marking a reunion with his American Graffiti co-star. “It was a great thrill for him,” his wife told The Hollywood Reporter.