TRIBUTE: Dennis Hopper on TCM Tuesday night

Dennis Hopper is remembered tonight on Turner Classic Movies with a five-film salute covering the earlier years of his half-century acting career. No Apocalypse Now or Blue Velvet here, no Speed or Colors, but a good selection of youthful supporting roles, lead turns and the directing debut of the Hollywood iconoclast who died May 29.

Two 1960s John Wayne westerns kick things off on TCM Tuesday night -- The Sons of Katie Elder (8 p.m. ET) and True Grit (10:15 p.m. ET) -- before we get to the best known titles of Hopper's youth.

Hopper was still a teen in 1955's Rebel Without a Cause (12:30 a.m. ET), one of James Dean's three '50s Hollywood vehicles (there's still debate over any friendship between Dean and Hopper), while 1969's Easy Rider (2:30 a.m. ET) was his true breakthrough -- a landmark of independent cinema and the hippie counterculture that Hopper also directed for producer-star Peter Fonda.

How weird is it that True Grit and Easy Rider arrived the same year? (Which explains 1969 in a nutshell.)

Wrapping up TCM's Hopper salute in the wee hours is a DVR-worthy sleeper, 1961's Night Tide (4:15 a.m. ET), the hallucinatory tale of a sailor and a mermaid, written and directed by drive-in movie master Curtis Harrington.

(The running order isn't ideal, but since TCM airs films uncut, it can't start the R-rated Easy Rider in prime time.)

By the way, Rebel repeats next Monday night, June 14 at 1:45 a.m. ET.

And if you miss Night Tide, it's available for free streaming or download at the Internet Archive.