Bo Hopkins, the sly actor known for portraying crooks and scoundrels in films such as The Wild Bunch, American Graffiti, Midnight Express, and White Lightning, died on Saturday. He was 84 years old when he died.

Hopkins died on May 9 at Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys after having a heart attack, according to his wife of 33 years, Sian.

Hopkins was a favourite of Sam Peckinpah, who cast him in three films, as Clarence “Crazy” Lee in The Wild Bunch (1969), a double-crossed bank robber in The Getaway (1972), and a weapons specialist in The Killer Elite (1973). (1975).

His performance as Joe Young, the head of the Pharaohs greaser gang, in George Lucas’ American Graffiti (1973), cemented his reputation as a great cinematic villain. Coaxing Curt (Richard Dreyfuss) to connect a hook and chain to a police car so that when it takes pursue, the back axle falls off was a highlight of his part.

As Hopkins stated in a 2012 interview with Shock Cinema magazine, “I go to car shows because American Graffiti is the national anthem of car shows.”

Added, “Graffiti got people out draggin’ and going up, and down streets cruisin’. It got people into cars doing that kind of stuff again. If I told you how many times people have come up to Candy [Clark], Paul [Le Mat] and me at these shows and told us that we’ve changed their lives, you wouldn’t believe it.”

The sandy-haired South Carolina native transitioned to the good side of the law as his career progressed, and executive producer Quentin Tarantino cast him as a decent man in Dusk to Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money (1999).

he said, “Tarantino told me that he loved my work and that he had this part.”

Continued, “Well, I got the script and said, ‘Sure, I’ll do this. This is great.’ Well, they didn’t tell me they were going to shoot in South Africa.”

[embedpost slug= “/oscar-presenters-include-anthony-hopkins-uma-thurman-and-others/”]