The South Carolina-born actor made indelible impressions in such films as The Wild Bunch and American Graffiti.
The C&I crew would like to offer condolences and warm wishes to the family, friends and fans of Bo Hopkins, the impressively prolific and prodigiously versatile character actor who passed away Saturday morning at age 80 in Van Nuys, California. His death was announced on the actor’s official website.
Hopkins, a native of Greenville, South Carolina, arguably is best known for his brief but key roles in two classic films: Sam Peckinaph’s The Wild Bunch (1969), in which he played Clarence “Crazy" Lee, an outlaw who offered unforgettably defiant final words — “Well, how’d ya like to kiss my sister’s black cat’s ass?” — when gunned down during an ill-fated bank robbery; and George Lucas’ semi-autobiographical American Graffiti (1973), which cast him as Joe “Little Joe” Young, the leader of a street gang who intimated a straight-arrow, college-bound teen (Richard Dreyfuss) into sabotaging a police patrol car.
Chief among Hopkins’ many other film and TV credits are the westerns Macho Callahan (1970), Monte Walsh (1970), The Culpepper Cattle Co. (1972), The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (1973), Posse (1975), The Last Ride of the Dalton Gang (1979), Gone to Texas (1986), Louis L’Amour’s Down the Long Hills (1986), The Ballad of Little Jo (1993), and South of Heaven, West of Hell (2000).
He also appeared in two other movies directed by Peckinpah — The Getaway (1972) and The Killer Elite (1975) — as well as White Lightning (1973), The Nickel Ride (1974), The Day of the Locust (1975), Midnight Express (1978), The Newton Boys (1998), and From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money (1999). His TV credits include guest starring parts in The Andy Griffith Show, Gunsmoke, The Virginian, The Guns of Will Sonnett, The Wild Wild West, and Nichols; continuing roles in the series Doc Elliot, The Rockford Files and Dynasty; and a co-starring gig opposite Johnny Cash in Thaddeus Rose and Eddie, a 1978 TV-movie scripted by William D. Witliff (Lonesome Dove) about two reckless Texas buddies that was praised by People Magazine for having “a Last Picture Show authenticity.”
Hopkins made his final screen appearance in 2020 as Papaw Vance in the Netflix movie Hillbilly Elegy directed by his former American Graffiti co-star Ron Howard.
Here is an interview with Bo Hopkins conducted at the 2019 Portland Roadster Show.