Katherine LaNasa has been a happily married woman for almost 14 years, but she will never forget her late ex-husband, especially after being haunted by his ghost.
The Pitt actress, 59, was married to Hollywood legend Dennis Hopper from 1989 to 1992, and after he died in 2010, she had several "upsetting" encounters with his ghost.
"I do believe in ghosts," she told W Magazine. "The ghost of Dennis Hopper would not leave me alone for a really long time."
She added: "He visited me first in ways that were scary. He came one time looking like when he was at the Academy Awards. He was in a wheelchair, and he fell down, and it was super upsetting."
© Ron Galella Collection via Getty ImagesKatherine claims she was haunted by Dennis Hopper's ghost
Haunted by her ex
Katherine believed Dennis haunted her because she was "the last wife that he'd been with that he wasn't currently divorcing."
"So, I think that level of intimacy when you're dying is maybe only something you can do with a partner," she said.
Describing her encounters with Dennis after his death, Katherine recalled: "He used to come over me in a sweat, and I told him he had to leave me alone, and then he did.
"And then I felt really weird about it. And then the day that I told someone how weird I felt about it, I walked home an odd way and ran into a gallery that had all of his photographs up.
"[There was] a photograph of him in the very back of the gallery with a fedora on, winking at the camera. So, I felt like he was letting me go."
Dennis appeared to Katherine one more time in a dream in which they were both at a cafeteria in Greece. "He told me that he was okay and that he wasn't in pain anymore, and he was good," she recalled. "And I never heard from him again."
© Getty ImagesKatherine and Dennis married when was 22, and he was 53
Marriage
Katherine met Dennis in Los Angeles in 1987, and the pair married two years later in 1989, when Katherine was 22, and Dennis was 53.
The pair welcomed a son together, Henry Lee Hopper, before their divorce in 1992.
After their split, Dennis married his fifth wife, actress Victoria Duffy, in 1996. They remained married until his death, but were in a bitter divorce battle, having separated about five months before he passed.
Katherine married Melrose Place star Grant Show on August 18, 2012, after first crossing paths while filming the HBO series Big Love in 2006. They are parents to one daughter, Eloise, who is 12.
© Getty ImagesDennis was blacklisted by Hollywood for around a decade
Hollywood hellraiser
Dennis had a promising start to his career in James Dean's 1955 cult classic, Rebel Without a Cause, and an Oscar nomination for the 1969 film, Easy Rider, which he co-wrote and starred in. But throughout the '70s and '80s, he developed a reputation as a bad boy with a penchant for drink and drugs, and his behaviour took a turn for the bizarre.
One such incident, when the actor was high on LSD, had him shooting a tree he believed to be a grizzly bear. At the start of the decade, he travelled to Peru for The Last Movie, leading the cast and crew in taking an excessive amount of drugs. Reportedly, these meetings included 'whipping parties' and orgies, prompting controversy from the public.
He was effectively blacklisted by Hollywood until 1986's Blue Velvet, marking a turning point in his career. He went on to star in Apocalypse Now, True Romance, Speed, and Waterworld.
He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on March 26, 2010, his last public appearance before his death two months later.
© Getty ImagesDennis Hopper died on May 29, 2010, at the age of 74
Death
At the age of 73, Dennis' manager, Sam Maydew, shared the news that he had been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer and that it had metastasized to his bones. Dennis died on Saturday, May 29, 2010, at the age of 74, surrounded by friends and family at his home in Venice, California.
"Dennis Hopper died this morning at 8:15 am from complications of metastasised prostate cancer. He died at home in Venice surrounded by family and friends," Sam said in a statement at the time.
© Ron Galella Collection via GettyKatherine was with Dennis in his final days
Final days
During an appearance at the End Well Conference on November 20, 2025, Katherine shared an insight into Dennis' final days while discussing how pop culture, from podcasts to TV, has helped people talk about dying with humor, honesty, and heart.
"Fifteen years ago when the hospice nurses were with my ex-husband – my son's dad – I spent a lot of time, months, with them when he was dying, and I learned so much from them: a compassionate detachment, and it was that steadiness and the compassion that I really tried to put into Dana," she explained, referring to her character, Nurse Dana Evans on The Pitt.
She added: "I realized with my ex-husband, when he was dying, that I was very able to be present and that I wasn't afraid, and I wanted to be there. I considered it an honor, and I learned so much about what it looks like when people are dying."
