Dennis Hopper ‘too ill to attend divorce hearing’

Counter-culture icon, photographer and actor Dennis Hopper is too ill to be questioned by his wife's divorce lawyer, his doctor has told a court in the US. Hopper, who has prostate cancer, now weighs just over seven stone and cannot hold long conversations.

As reported previously on The First Post, Hopper filed for divorce from his fifth wife, Victoria Duffy in January, three months after his illness was made public. The two, married 14 years ago, have a six-year-old daughter, Galen.

The sudden request for a divorce, followed by a restraining order preventing Duffy from coming near the Easy Rider star, seemed bizarre behaviour even by Hopper's volatile standards. But it emerged a pre-nuptial contract means Duffy inherits nothing if the pair divorce – and she claims Hopper is under pressure from his adult children from a previous marriage to disinherit her, a claim hotly denied by Hopper.

On Tuesday, the actor filed an affidavit to an LA court claiming Duffy had "surreptitiously removed from my home very valuable personal property while I was extremely ill". Duffy says the items in question - pictures by Andy Warhol and Banksy – were her property to dispose of as she sees fit.

While the very public fight with Duffy continues, Hopper's private struggle with cancer seems to have taken a turn for the worse. Last month he spoke optimistically about successful chemotherapy, but now his doctor, David Argus, says facing questions from Duffy's lawyers could "actually threaten his ability to survive his current health crisis".

Argus has however given Hopper permission to make what looks likely to be his final public appearance on Friday, when he will attend the ceremony to accept his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Duffy told the New York Post that she has no plans to attend the ceremony – and in any case would legally be required to stand ten feet away from her husband if she did so. ·